Many people are convinced they have a healthy diet. Some go as far as thinking if they eat a lettuce leaf, a slice of tomato and a slice of cucumber, they have had enough ‘greens’ for the meal, or even the day. Or choose a boxed granola instead or cornflakes, with low-fat milk and Splenda in their coffee

Well, let’s step away from misinformation and get down to the truth of a healthy diet, in 10 very simple steps:

Eat unprocessed food. This means food as it came out of the ground, preferably organic so you don’t ingest pesticides and incomplete fertilizers that can upset your digestive system
Check for food sensitivites - wheat, sugar or dairy products can cause ongoing problems. There are good alternative grains and flour such as spelt and stone-ground organic flour and xylitol or stevia. Dairy products are not an essential part of your diet. Calcium is found in green leafy vegetables
Drink 8 glasses of pure water a day – not bottled or bore-hole water and preferably distilled rather than filtered
Limit your intake of stimulants such as coffee, tea and alcohol. 1 each per day is more than enough
At all costs do not drink sodas or fizzy drinks
Never touch HFCS, or fructose as it is advertised
Do not eat margarine, no matter what the marketers tell you about ‘the truth of healthy fat’
Don’t eat supermarket vegetable oils – they have been damaged through the heating and bleaching processes and will cause inflammation
Eat good animal protein such as fish and free-range wild game, poultry and eggs
Supplement wisely

This is ‘A Healthy Diet’. If you keep to these simple principles, your health will improve and you will lose unhealthy weight.

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Why Destroy Healthy Organs

In January 2008 the Journal of the American Medical Association argued the case for surgery as the newest breakthrough in treating Type 2 diabetes. This makes no sense at all and merely encourages the quick-fix practice people have come to expect in medicine, without eradicating the cause of the problem. One shudders to think what might happen if this principle were applied when someone got a headache.

So why do surgeons recommend gastric surgery? No doubt its because dieting doesn’t work and people are desperate. Gastric surgery results in a 20% weight loss while ‘dieting’ produced only a 2% weight loss.

Gastric bypass surgery characterizes the first time in medical history that doctors are removing healthy tissue, with 200,000 surgeries performed in 2006, and rising. This is a 1,500% increase in the previous 8 years.

Meantime, there is considerable risk of dying during this type of surgery, a great shock is experienced by the body in these circumstances and increased neurological problems arise after five years. This treatment poses a huge health risk on all counts and cannot be recommended as a ‘breakthrough’ in treating an easily reversed condition such as Type 2 diabetes.

What is not well known, because doctors are not nutritionists, is the report in 1998 on findings that insulin resistance (the real cause of the problem) could be reversed in four days with the right diet. Surely this has to be the route to take; for the immediate benefit of reversing diabetes and the health of the patient in the long-term

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HRT drug Prempro-Cancer Law Suit

Jury Returns Verdict in Prempro-Cancer Case


Mary Claire Dale, Associated Press Writer, writing from Philadelphia on October 26th, 2009, says a Philadelphia jury returned a sealed punitive-damages verdict on Monday against drug maker Wyeth Pharmaceuticals after finding a link between a woman's breast cancer and the hormone-replacement drug she took. Connie Baron’s case is one of a handful of Prempro lawsuits to go to trial out of several thousand filed across the country. About 1,500 are pending in Philadelphia.


At Wyeth's request, the amount of Barton's punitive award was sealed pending the verdict in a second Prempro case underway in the same courthouse. The jury had awarded Barton $3.75 million in compensatory damages on Friday and found the company wilfully hid evidence of a cancer link, prompting the deliberations Monday on punitive damages.


"They knew back in the 1970s that these drugs had the potential to cause breast cancer, so they didn't have the studies done," said Esther Berezofsky, one of Barton's lawyers. "When bad study results came out, Wyeth consistently downplayed the results, tried to discredit the results, tried to neutralize the critics."


Sales of the drug have plummeted since 2002 when a large federal health study, the Women's Health Initiative, was stopped when researchers saw more breast cancers in those on Prempro.
Read the full story on http://abcnews.go.com/Business/WireStory?id=8920959&page=1

Image Source=www.phawker.com http://www.phawker.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/breast_cancer.jpg

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Nourishing Traditions

Nourishing Traditions
The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

By Sally Fallon, with Mary Enig, Ph.D

A truly fantastic book – I really need two copies – one for my desk as I refer to it daily for sound and common-sense health information, and another in my kitchen. Meals out of this book cannot be beaten for delicious and healthy nourishment

A well-researched and thought-provoking guide to ‘real’ and traditional food sends out a startling message – Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital and essential factors in the diet. Necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and supply of optimum energy levels.

Sally Fallon dispels this and other myths of the current low-fat fad in a practical, entertaining guide. She brings a can-do diet that is both nutritious and delicious. Don’t be without this book if you want to bring nutrition into your home

Some topics include: health benefits of traditional fats and oils (including butter and coconut oil); the very real dangers of vegetarianism; problems with modern soy and foods derived from it; proper preparation of whole grain products and appropriate diets for babies and children

Image source
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200705/r145577_509896.jpg

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Omega-3 fish oil urged for heart patients

In May, 2007, BBC news reported the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) believes this is an effective way to cut the risk of further heart attacks. This ‘news’ has been common knowledge for some years in enlightened health circles and the market place is full of fish oil in various forms to tempt the public

What is interesting, though, is a comment in this 2007 article stating ‘research has found that one specific omega-3 supplement, ‘name’, cut the risk of sudden death by up to 45%. (Ed’s emphasis)

It went on to say that ‘name’ is currently the ‘only omega-3 supplement with a licence for post-heart attack treatment’. This may be so, but what it is also saying, is that a natural food, which is not patentable, has found its way into main stream medicine, and in order for it to be able to remain there, it has to be given a licence! Now how absurd is that?

And further, pharmaceutical grade omega-3 from fish oil, which has had heavy metals removed from it, will do your heart good, no matter what it is called. A licence is something added on later which will have no effect on your body at all

Image Source: News BBC http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42953000/jpg/_42953887_heart_organ203152.jpg

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Learn about Vitamin B12

Good for:
• Nerve formation and making red blood cells

Signs of deficiency:
• Tiredness due to anaemia and abnormalities of nervous system function

Good sources:
• Fish, liver, beef, milk and cheese (preferably organic)

Vitamin B12 deficiency:
• Often experienced by vegetarians and vegans because our dietary sources of vitamin B12 are animal in origin

Recommended daily requirements:
• 1 microgram. No danger of overdose exists so there is no real upper limit. The vitamin dissolves in water and excess is excreted in urine

B12 is destroyed by:
• Water, sunlight, alcohol, oestrogen (The Pill and HRT) and sleeping pills

Research shows that vitamin pill-poppers are healthier!

New research indicates that taking a single daily multi-vitamin is inadequate and that NOT taking supplements may be harmful to your health.

A study of hundreds of people found that the more supplements people took, the better their health was and the study authors reported “a greater degree of supplement use was associated with more favourable concentrations of serum homocysteine, C-reactive protein, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as lower risk of prevalent elevated blood pressure and diabetes.”

Indeed good news. Contributors to this Blog are all fans of plenty of good quality nutrients, especially as many vegetables and fruit in supermarkets today are low in the minerals and vitamins we would expect them to contain. In my Clinical Nutrition practice I’ve seen many people respond amazingly to even a simple regimen of high-dose Vitamin C, fish oil and a good quality multi-vitamin.

(Block G, Jensen CD, Norkus EP, Dalvi TB, Wong LG, McManus JF, Hudes ML. Usage patterns, health, and nutritional status of long-term multiple dietary supplement users: a cross-sectional study. Nutr J. 2007 Oct 24;6(1):30)

Toxic tuck-shops

No mother in her right mind would knowingly give her little darlings hard earned cash to buy poison. This is an obvious fact, but what is not obvious is that many loving parents have unknowingly fallen into this very trap and happily bundle the kids off to school, sometimes every day, armed with the means to swallow toxins and poisons on a regular basis. These poisons build up in their bodies and soon their young and vulnerable immune systems become compromised when their bodies are no longer able to rid themselves of the offending substances quickly enough or find spaces in their tissues to store them

The results? Obesity is the most visually obvious, as little people become rounder and wider, unable to keep up with others in the play ground and becoming figures of fun, developing asthma and eczema, regular chest infections and more. Although so many children are obese these days that it’s almost hard to find a thin kid – and then probably only because the thin one is also starving. Oh, and by the way, the obese kids are starving too – for REAL food.

Less obvious consequences of these daily toxins are see-sawing sugar levels, bad concentration, aggression and children yawning with exhaustion at 10 in the morning. Many of these children are diagnosed with ADD and are further lumped with harmful drugs, adding more toxic loads onto already compromised immune systems

And all in the name of ‘necessary School Funds’. Further damage comes from the frightening alliance between cola drink manufacturers and schools where these poisonous drinks are available for children to help themselves. As long as the school advertises the manufacturer, they get kick backs to help with ‘School Funding’. Money again. And make no mistake the drink manufacturers know full well what dangers they are ‘allowing’ young minds and bodies to become addicted to. Colas are drugs – just try giving them up…….

Unfortunately there is not enough space in this article to give mothers healthy alternatives to Toxic Tuck-shops, so watch out for the good news in future postings!

Argyria – A story of the blues

Argyria is an irreversible condition, causing blue colouration to skin, gums and nails, which is promoted when people self-medicate on a commercial treatment known as colloidal silver

Silver in any form is a heavy metal, like mercury and copper. Whereas copper toxicity is rare, and whilst many people have lived long and healthy lives with mouths full of mercury fillings, even small amounts of heavy metals can cause serious illness. Multiple sclerosis is a common example, often due to just a small amount of mercury leaching into the gums

So where there may be many people using regular doses of colloidal silver with no ill-effects, the fact remains that there are others who have experienced irreversible and unwelcome symptoms such as:

Seizures
Neurological problems
Kidney damage
Indigestion
Headaches
Fatigue
Skin irritations

Is it worth the risk?

Decide for yourself by watching the clip on News.com.au

Chromium and Diabetes

In the metabolism of glucose (or GTF – glucose tolerance factor), chromium is required for energy. Chromium is also vital in the synthesis of cholesterol, fats and proteins – further important factors concerning diabetes

Chromium is an essential mineral that maintains stable blood sugar levels through proper insulin utilization and is helpful for diabetics as well as hypoglycemics. In fact, both diabetics and hypoglycemics are deficient in chromium and only 10% of Americans have an adequate amount of chromium in their diets, for the following reasons:

• Not enough foods containing chromium are consumed
• Chromium is lost during food processing
• People don’t like foods containing chromium
• High quantities of sugar in the diet cause chromium loss
• Chromium in many foods is not easily absorbed
• Chromium levels start to decrease in the early 40’s

Supplemental chromium as chromium picolinate enables chromium to enter the cells of the body and so help insulin do its job more effectively. If you are a diabetic, be sure to advise your health care professional should you begin to supplement with chromium, as it will have a positive effect on your blood sugar levels and you may then need to decrease your medication

Find chromium in these foods:

Beer (hooray!), brewer’s yeast, brown rice, cheese, meat, whole grains, dried beans, calf liver, chicken, corn, dairy products, dried liver, eggs, mushrooms and potatoes

Image source=Osage
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Problems with digestion?

Many digestive conditions are labeled IBS, but confusion lurks here, as more serious conditions such as Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis can be the true culprit, both of which can lead to bowel cancer.

These conditions can be caused from food intolerances or it can be an auto-immune disease – the researchers are not quite sure which. Regular medicine holds no hope and treats with symptom-suppressors like cortisone, which do not cure it, instead causing horrendous side-effects and discomfort for the sufferer

• Many drugs list constipation as a side effect including iron supplements
• A high fat and sugar diet will feed unfriendly bacteria very nicely, as do alcohol, dairy products, margarine, processed vegetable oils, wheat and many grains
• If you habitually consume coffee, tea, dairy products, wheat, chocolate and red meat, you are in line for digestive problems.

Read our 10 Tips for a Healthy Bowel

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Image Source=International Scler0derma Network

10 Tips for a Healthy Bowel

1.) Supplementation is essential when reversing tricky digestive problems as internal flora will be seriously compromised. Large doses of a good probiotic (at least 20 billion per dose, x 3 per day to start) are a must; Pharmaceutical Grade omega 3 (with DHA, so must be from fish oil, not flax oil) in good doses; a good colon cleanser, vitamin B complex and B12 (neurobian) injections, L-Glutamine, magnesium and a good Multi-vitamins. Speak to a Nutritionally trained health professional for more details

2.) Check for food sensitivities

3.) Fibre is very important as it soaks up liquid and bulks the stool

4.) Eliminate white foods from your diet, such as white rice, sugar, flour, salt, processed wheat and grain products and animal fat (all red meat contains animal fat)

5.) Include good quantities of fresh vegetables and fruit (cooked for the first month unless juiced) and legumes

6.) Keep a note of trigger foods, as this will help you trace your food sensitivity

7.) Everyone with a bowel disorder does not drink enough water. Without water the bowel contents dry up and the lining of the colon changes, becoming thicker and stickier rather than providing a smooth lubricant for faeces to pass through

8.) Chew your food until it is almost liquid, eat slowly and never bolt your meals. Digestion begins in the mouth and the enzymes produced there are vital for good digestion

9.) Exercise regularly – stretching exercises are also good

10.) Give your bowel individual attention by massaging it gently but firmly in a clockwise direction around your belly, going up the right hand side across under your rib cage and down the left side. Using a lavender oil in a cream or oil base is helpful and relaxing too


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Image Source=Radio Netherlands

Omega-3 Fats Prevent Breast Cancer

• Animal experiments have shown that a diet rich in linoleic acid (omega-6 fatty acids) promotes the growth of malignant breast cancer tumors

• However, the addition of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids to the diet can block this effect

• Epidemiological studies have shown that countries with a high intake of omega-3 acids from fish have lower breast cancer rates. Researchers evaluated over 250 patients with breast cancer and analyzed their fat relative to 90 women without breast cancer
Int J Cancer March 2002 1;98(1):78-83

While we now know that EFA’s (Essential Fatty Acids) are exactly that – essential to the existence of a healthy body, have you noticed the confusion about how much of each we should be taking? Why do some say ‘we must have all our omegas’, while others say ‘omega-3 is the only one’? Omega-6 is abundant in our diets, its everywhere we look! In nearly all processed and packaged foods under the wording ‘vegetable oil’, it dominates our diets in the form of sunflower, canola (real name ‘rape seed oil’, no wonder they changed its name!) oil and low grade olive oils such as pomace oil, a very cheap oil which is used to fry chips and fast foods, amongst others.

The important point is to keep our EFA intake balanced. Because we have so much omega-6 and 9 (olive oil, seeds, nuts, etc) without even trying, we need to increase omega-3 to get the ratio right. In early humans the ratio was about 1:1 between omega-3 and 6. Currently most Americans eat a dietary ratio that falls between 20:1 and 50:1. For most of us to achieve this we must reduce omega-6 and increase omega-3 on a daily basis. Eating more fish is the natural way to do this, but we must be aware of heavy metal poisoning, so a pharmaceutical grade omega-3 fish oil supplement is free from possible toxic poisoning from deep sea fish and will give you adequate supplies of healthy omega-3

Further reading:
Britsh Journal of Cancer

Image source = http://primev.com/images/products/general/omega%203.jpg

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Sweet dangers of Aspartame

Aspartame dangers have been widely published for some time now. It is available in fizzy drinks, many sweeteners and sugar substitutes and is not the harmless sweetener we were led to believe – but a dangerous and toxic chemical we should all avoid and is available in over 90 countries around the world. The only sugar substitutes which are safe at this time are Xylitol and Stevia.

Aspartame is in most processed foods, so unless you are really vigilant, you will unwittingly consume aspartame. Nancy Markle, speaking for several days at the World Environment Conference on Aspartame, noted the epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus across the United States was to a large degree due to the ingestion of this toxic substance.

When the temperature of aspartame exceeds 86°F (in cooked food), the wood alcohol converts to formaldehyde (used in embalming procedures to preserve tissues, and a potent carcinogen) and then to formic acid – the poison found in the sting of the fire ant.

Methanol toxicity from aspartame mimics multiple sclerosis, and once the sufferers are taken off the artificial sweetener, their symptoms disappear, their vision returns and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) dissipates. Often, people with symptoms of Fibromyalgia instead have “aspartame disease”.

Aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye and formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic – both deadly poisons. Aspartame just takes longer to kill, and is causing many neurological problems in people who wouldn’t suspect it’s being the cause. It causes alterations in the brain’s chemistry, seizures and changes the dopamine level in the brain. Just imagine what this must do to a Parkinson’s sufferer?
There is no good reason to take aspartame – it is NOT A DIET PRODUCT. It makes you crave carbohydrates and will make you FAT. Imagine that – a diet product, which encourages weight gain?

Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics. It can cause the blood sugar levels to go out of control, causing coma, and some people have died as a result.

Dr Russell Blaylock has written a book entitled “Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills” outlining the dangers of aspartame. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians:
“We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly poison.” Aspartame.

There are many case histories, books, papers and articles on this subject. Educate yourself and don’t be fooled by clever advertising.

Further reading on the dangers of Aspartame

Image Source=Doc Workers.com
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Jawbone death

Bisphosphonate-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (BRONJ) is a serious side-effect of the popular osteoporosis drug Fosamax that in effect, destroys the bone of the jaw, often requiring removal and reconstructive surgery.

BRONJ was reported in 2003 by oral surgeons, who noticed the condition among patients treated with intravenous forms of bisphosphonates. A broader warning of BRONJ was issued for the entire class of drugs in 2005.

Prescriptions for Fosamax and BRONJ are now so common that dentists refer to the condition causing your jaw bone to rot and decay as “Fossy Jaw”. Quite paradoxical considering people who take the drug are hoping to strengthen their bones!

There are even ‘Fosamax and BRONJ lawyers’ who advertise on the internet, so if you think you may be a victim of jawbone death, why not see what they have to offer?

Drugs used to improve bone density and strength such as Fosamax and Boniva stay in the bones indefinitely, possibly causing an imbalance of cells and so disturbing the regeneration process of the jaw, and in removing old and unhealthy bone. The condition is irreversible

Warnings over the dangers of Fosamax were starting to appear nearly ten years ago and it still makes no sense to take an osteoporosis drug that can literally kill off your jawbone. There is no good reason to use this dangerous drug and there are plenty of natural therapies available to improve bone density and strength.

See elsewhere on this Blog for tips on strengthening your bones naturally:
7 Steps on naturally healthy bones
Calcium as a vitamin supplement
10 Common nutrients in vegetables
What are vitamins


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Food taxes ‘could save lives’

Dr Mike Rayner at Oxford University says ‘The time is right for more debate on the issue of fat taxes’.

A 17.5% increase in the price of fatty, sugary or salty food would cut heart and stroke deaths by 1.7%, according to a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

This approach has some merit, because people have become hooked on excess sugar and damaged fats, but these ‘foods’ should not be available in the first place. They are filled with substances our bodies cannot process and are known to cause heart disease and diabetes, amongst others. Sugar is one of the foods manufacturers use as ‘fillers’ giving foods a bulkier appearance, giving the impression of being ‘more for our money’.

However, there is a downside to this intended way of controlling the dangerous increase in degenerative heart disease (by a whole 1/7%!!) People will find other foods to feed their craving for fat and sugar, and more Frankenstein foods to replace them will be dreamed up by the food industry.

Our bodies have to have fat, but it must be the right kind of fat, not the substitutes the food industry has dreamed up in their laboratories, such as margarine and ‘butter look-alikes’, or sugar substitutes like fructose and aspartame.

The ‘low-fat’ fad in the US has turned America into a nation of diabetics, including their children. Watch out you don’t become a statistic too.

To add to the problem, some health ‘professionals’ are still recommending unhealthy foods and there are still dieticians recommending margarine and crisp breads, so-called ‘healthy’ breakfast cereals for ‘fiber’ or rice cakes, in the misguided belief they are healthy. Fake sugars produce empty calories that have no health benefits, and which cause numerous mixed messages in your body, in the end causing that degenerative heart disease Dr Rayner is lobbying to reduce.

Stick with food the way God made it and avoid man made junk for all you’re worth. That way you won’t have to pay more for your food and you’ll be healthy enough to avoid heart disease and obesity too.

Image source=Rational Revolution
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7 steps to naturally health bones

1. Maintain healthy levels of pharmaceutical grade omega-3 fish oil through supplementation. We have ample supplies of omega-6 in our diets and are all omega-3 deficient

2. Eat a healthy diet of fresh organic vegetables, especially onions and garlic as they appear to slow bone loss, fruit, legumes, lentils, seeds, nuts, lamb, fish, poultry and eggs and supplement according to your needs established by a recongnised nutritionally trained health practitioner

3. Green vegetables such as broccoli, kale, beans, spinach and beet tops are particularly beneficial

4. Consider supplementing with vitamin K2 if you are not getting enough from food alone. Vitamin K serves as the biological "glue" that helps plug the calcium into the bone matrix

5. Get enough vitamin D, ideally from good amounts of sun exposure. Vitamin D builds your bone density by helping your body absorb calcium

6. Increase your Vit C supplementation to a minimum of 1 – 2 g per day, preferably in the form of Ester C

7. Exercise. Studies show that exercise is as important to your bone as eating a calcium-rich diet

View the Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet

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Image Source = Office of Dietary Supplements

Yo-yo diet warning to mothers

Mothers who diet back their figures after giving birth and put on excess weight during pregnancies are putting their own and their baby’s health at risk, as reported by the BBC.

Fluctuating weight ups the risk of dangerously high blood pressure and diabetes in the mother as well as risking stillbirth, Dublin-based specialists in the British Medical Journal suggest, and reported by the University of Toronto.

One Swedish study involving 207,534 women found that weight gain between pregnancies was strongly associated with major complications for the woman and baby in the months preceding, and just after childbirth.

Another study found that women whose weight fell significantly between pregnancies had a higher risk of giving birth prematurely than women whose weight remained stable.

‘There is a known association between overweight and obese parents and the likelihood of a child being overweight themselves’ says Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum.

It is also common for overweight women to experience more discomfort and difficulties during childbirth than healthy women.

Young girls should be taught the importance of a healthy diet not only for their own physical health and comfort but also that of any children they may wish to carry in the future.

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Image Source= Kaiser Permanente

Mercury can produce brain damage

This video clip shows how mercury produces brain degeneration with minimal particles.

Mercury is found in amalgams (tooth cavities), vaccines and fish.

The video clip was made by the University of Calgary.

How mercury produces brain damage

Phone mast allergy 'in the mind'

Mobile phone masts are not responsible for the symptoms of ill health some blame them for, a major UK study says, as reported on the BBC.

Dozens of people who believed the masts triggered symptoms such as anxiety, nausea and tiredness could not detect if signals were on or off in trials.

However, the Environmental Health Perspectives study stressed people were nonetheless suffering "real symptoms".

What is interesting to note is that this article is funded by the mobile telecommunications industry which is typically slanted towards positive outcomes for them. As we know, they are a multi billion dollar industry with huge interests to protect. They know there is a health problem, but won’t admit it and will do everything possible to communicate to the public that there is no health risk

Why? Well, on the one hand, no insurance company is prepared to cover the risk of possible health related claims due to cell phone usage and on the other hand, they want to avoid the flood of lawsuits against them

See the summary of an article from the Safe Wireless Initiative, an independent non profit scientific research institution that puts into perspective a Danish research study funded by the mobile telecommunications industry and used extensively as a PR campaign.

Image source=the BBC
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