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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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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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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14-year-olds 'use cannabis daily'

Teenagers as young as 14 are using cannabis every day, according to a study by Queen's University Belfast

Dr Patrick McCrystal says cannabis used at a young age can lead to metal illness and other problems.

While 4,000 teenagers from 43 schools in Ireland have annually taken part in this survey since they entered secondary school, they seem to be unmoved to the dangers of the habit:

• Smoking marijuana on a regular basis causes a weakened immune system and soothe users lose the ability to stop allergies, bacteria or viruses from making them sick
• Occasional marijuana smoking leaves it in the body for up to 10 days, but if smoked regularly it will remain in the system for up to 30 days. It is fat soluble and so is stored in the major organs of the body, being the liver, brain and kidneys
• Short-term effects of marijuana smoking include memory and learning problems; distorted perception; fuzzy brain; difficulty in thinking and problem solving and increased heart rate
• Depression, disturbed personalities and anxiety are all linked with the use of marijuana
• Heart disease, lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema are all exacerbated with increased risk as a result of chronic cannabis smoking
• An analysis of a study published in the Lancet Medical Journal of previous research into the effects of the drug on tens of thousands of people, provides the most persuasive evidence to date that smoking cannabis can cause mental illness years after people have stopped using it.

And now to make matters worse, the drug has been downgraded from 'Class B' to 'Class C', putting it on a par with tranquilizers and steroids. Of course we could look at this step from another angle – tha tranquilizers and steroids are pretty damaging drugs!

Image Source=PIPs Project
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Power lines and Childhood Leukemia

Wednesday morning, 18 July 2007 brought a headline report on New Scientist about power lines and the link with childhood leukemia.

Alternatively take a look at the video link below on Sky News.

If you are concerned about this widely suspected silent enemy, you are not alone. There are many reported links between leukemia and the proximity of power lines, but the scientists cannot agree on their findings

In the meantime, don’t buy a house within 150m of anything you may think is producing unseen radiation, such as mini-substations, pylons, mobile phone masts or any kind of transformer

Especially if you have Alzheimer’s concerns

Just in case …….

Image source=AOL blog
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A great cold and flu treatment

If you are in the middle of a cold or ‘flu (which means you can’t get out of bed - there’s no such thing as ‘a touch of ‘flu’. If you’re not flat on your back, you haven’t got ‘flu), try this powerful ginger root tea from Dr Andrew Weil:

o grate a 1in piece of ginger root into a pot
o cover with 2 cups of cold water and bring to the boil &
o simmer for five minutes
o add ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper and
o simmer for another minute
o remove from heat and
o add two teaspoons fresh lemon juice
o honey to taste and 1or 2 mashed cloves of garlic
o cool slightly and strain if you like

Drink as much of it as you like, get under the blankets and feel better soon!

Image source=Yoga & Health
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How to banish a cold

OTC cold remedies don’t work. Masking one lot of symptoms just to suffer a bunch of others which make you feel worse doesn’t make any sense. To top it, your cold still lasts either 2 weeks or fourteen days. Why not set about preventing them for a change? If you get more than two colds a year, here’s how:

From today on, take 1-2 grams of vitamin C three times a day

Next time you get that scratchy feeling in your throat, don’t hang around waiting to see how it develops, and try this:

• Immediately eat 2 cloves of raw garlic, either chopped up with some other food, or in a glass of juiced vegetables, or just swallow the cloves whole. Do this 4 times a day for four days, or take 2 good quality garlic tablets, sourced from raw Alpine garlic leaves
• Four times a day for four days, take 2g vitamin C, 2 Olive Leaf tablets and 2 Golden Seal tablets
• After 4 days. stop the Golden Seal and Olive Leaf and continue with the vitamin C and garlic for another four days
• Suck some zinc gluconate or zinc acetate lozenges

Image source=Strange invensions from Japenese Research Labs
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Pulling the Wool over Our Eyes

Guest blogger Sally-Ann Creed, gives an informative overview of the importance of using natural laundry detergents.

Are you using a “natural” Laundry Detergent(s)? Are you quite sure? Read Your Labels and avoid products with these ingredients:

Phosphates in our Washing Powder
Phosphates are natural minerals that are important to a variety of biological processes. A key nutrient for plants and animals, these minerals were once widely used in detergents because they did two very useful things: They reduced water hardness which allowed the detergent’s soap to clean more effectively, and they prevented dirt from being re-deposited back onto the items being cleaned. But while phosphates may be a perfect ingredient for laundry and other detergents, once they’re released into the environment via household wastewater, the results are anything but desirable.

The trouble starts with an algae bloom. Simply put, algae love phosphates. For these tiny plants, a washer load of phosphate-laden detergent is an invitation to a giant all-you-can-eat feast. In response to all this sudden food, the algae feed and reproduce prodigiously, and then die off in equally large numbers as the ecosystem becomes unable to support their burgeoning population.

They destroy our Environment!
Once dead, they drift to the bottom of the pond or lake where they become food for other microorganisms. Now it’s the other microorganisms’ turn to enjoy an overabundance of food. As they feed and reproduce in growing numbers in response to the increased availability of dead algae, the microorganisms strip more and more oxygen out of the water. Eventually, if the population explosion is great enough, the waters in question become so devoid of this crucial element that they can’t support any life at all. The result is a “dead” body of water. Soon thereafter, something called eutrophication often occurs, a process by which a body of water loses all its life, fills in with solids, and becomes dry land.

In response to this once common problem, most products containing phosphates were eliminated years ago. An exception, however, was made for automatic dishwasher detergents - these products gained an exemption from phosphate bans because of the unique way dishwashers work. Responsible manufacturers now create high performance automatic dishwashers that work without using phosphates in their formulas. To keep your local waterways in healthy balance, look for these alternatives when you shop and keep phosphates out of the environment.

Sodium Carbonate
The use of large quantities of sodium carbonate in washing powder has been shown to be very hard on fabrics. Cotton fibres in particular will slowly suffer when washed repeatedly with sodium carbonate. This fraying is especially visible with dark colours, and over time can make the colours looked slightly bleached out.

Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLS)
This inexpensive detergent is commonly used in cosmetic cleansers, hair shampoos, bath and shower gels, bubble baths and washing powders - it is probably the most dangerous ingredient used in skin and hair-care products. In the cleaning industry SLS is used in garage floor cleaners, engine degreasers, car-wash soaps, etc. It is very corrosive and readily attacks greasy surfaces. What is it doing to our bodies, our children and our environment?

Sodium laureth sulfate is used throughout the world for clinical testing as a primary skin irritant (and to think some people wash their clothes and bodies with this….). Laboratories use it to irritate skin on test animals and humans so that they may then test healing agents to see how effective they are on the irritated skin.

A study at the University of Georgia Medical College, indicated that SLS penetrated into the eyes as well as brain, heart, liver, etc, and showed long-term retention in the tissues. The study also indicated that SLS penetrated young children's eyes and prevented them from developing properly and caused cataracts to develop in adults. It may also cause hair loss by attacking the follicle (but hang on - this in in a lot of shampoo too...!) it is potentially harmful to skin and hair. It cleans by corrosion.

Another extremely serious problem is the connection of SLS with nitrate contamination. SLS reacts with many types of ingredients used in skin products and forms nitrosomines (nitrates). Nitrates are potential cancer-causing carcinogenics.

Because of the alarming penetrating power of SLS, large amounts of these known carcinogens are absorbed through the skin into the body. A variation of SLS is SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate- SLES). It exhibits many of the same characteristics and is a higher-foaming variation of SLS. Boy, do we ever NOT want this in our cleaning products! Avoid it like the plague - there ARE products out there without these dangerous chemicals masquerading as "natural".

Nonyl phenyl ethoxylate
These are the published warnings:

Skin Contact: In case of contact, immediately flush skin with plenty of water. Cover the irritated skin with an emollient. Remove contaminated clothing and shoes. Wash clothing before reuse. Thoroughly clean shoes before reuse. Seek immediate medical attention. (Wow - and this is part of “natural” LAUNDRY detergent???) For skin contact wash with a disinfectant soap and cover the contaminated skin with an anti-bacterial cream.

Inhalation: If inhaled, remove to fresh air. If not breathing(!), give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen. Get medical attention.
Flammability: May be combustible at high temperature.
Routes of Entry: Absorbed through skin (and you are washing CLOTHES in it?).

Toxic Effects on Humans: Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Mist may cause irritation of the respiratory tract experienced as nasal discomfort and discharge with chest pain and coughing. May affect respiration experienced as audible respiration, and mouth breathing, and distended abdomen. Exposure to high aerosol concentrations for a prolonged period of time may result in suffocation.

Special Remarks on Chronic Effects on Humans: May affect genetic material and cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects based on animal studies.
Eyes: Causes severe eye irritation and conjunctivitis with possible chemical burns of the eye.

Chronic Potential Health Effects:
Skin: Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause irritation and dermatitis. Prolonged or widespread contact may result in absorption of potentially harmful amounts and may cause abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomitting, and diarrhea. Studies also indicate that continuous exposure to high concentrations may be toxic to the kidneys.

For more on Sally-Anne Creed, please see her website's at www.sallyanncreed.co.za and www.creeds.co.za.

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Barking mad

If you’re a dog or cat lover who’s been feeding your pets with pellets and canned food since forever, you are probably tearing your hair out wondering ‘where to now?’ because of the recent scary recall of contaminated pet food in the US and in South Africa. Well, Steve Brown and Beth Taylor have been talking about healthy dog food for years and their book See Spot Live Longer has some wonderful recipes that will make your mouth water, never mind Spot!

The scare of contaminated (with an industrial chemical) pet food is far from over and it’s now reported to have affected nearly 39000 pets in America, so best we start thinking long term nutrition for our pets. The information was released by the Banfied Pet Hospital, from their records of more than 615 veterinary hospitals.

What did our grand parents feed to their dogs? After all, ‘scientific’ pet foods were unavailable then, but dogs seemed to manage pretty well as man’s best friend, and hunting dogs in particular had to be on top form to be able to find whatever they were sniffing out. Most of their food came in table scraps, with quite a lot of raw meaty bones, if my memory serves me, and that sounds a far cry from some of the stuff we hear goes into ‘scientific’ pet foods!

Do your pets a favour and prepare their food yourself – they’ll love you for it!

Image source=http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_eyeteeth_archive.html

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What is your skin eating?

It is a medically recognized fact that our bodies absorb significant amounts of what we put on our skin. And now with certified organic food rapidly becoming the nutrition of choice by the health conscious amongst us, why would you accept any less for your skin?

Did you know that:

- An average adult is exposed to 126 harmful chemicals per day, via the 9 or so cosmetic products they use
- There are no mandated safety studies of cosmetics in the world
- Only 11% of the known 10,500 known ingredients have been assessed for safety
- The lipstick or nail polish you may be wearing could be a danger to your health
- And so is could your deodorant, toothpaste, baby lotion and soap

Seemingly innocuous personal-care products contain a large amount of mostly unregulated chemicals and toxic ingredients. Some of them – phthalates, formaldehyde, petroleum, parabens, benzene and lead can be linked to:

- Breast cancer
- Endometriosis
- Reproductive disorders
- Birth defects
- Developmental disorders in children
- Nearly all lipsticks (including well known brand names) contain lead

Women should be particularly concerned as they have a greater percentage of body fat and fat soluble chemicals such as parabens and toluene tend to settle long term in these storage sites

Synthetic chemicals such as alkylphenols (detergents) and bisphenol A (hard plastics), can mimic the body’s natural oestrogens.

There is a very simple test you do to test if you are swallowing lead every day through your lipstick and there is at least one product available that is lead free, so it’s not all bad news

Don’t take your health for granted – learn about the products out there so you can find safer choices for yourself and your family. Find a health practitioner who specializes in organic products and use only healthy creams on your body.

Image source=http://www.nvperriconemd.com/index.cfm?action=home.about_doctor

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Epidurals – are babies adversely affected?

If you know someone contemplating an epidural to avoid the pain and trauma of childbirth, there are a few points of interest they may not have come across.In Lise Eliot’s book What's Going on in There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life she comments as follows:

• Every drug used for epidural anesthesia can diffuse out of the epidural space and enter the baby’s circulation
• Using more sensitive indices of infant behaviour, some studies have found that newborns are:
• Less alert
• Less able to orientate toward stimuli and
• Less mature in their motor abilities than babies of unmedicated mothers
• Greater exposure makes babies jumpy and more irritable
• The effects are most pronounced on the first day after birth, but some have been found to persist up to six weeks of life
• The most common side-effect of epidural administration is…a reduction in the mother’s blood pressure. Maternal hypotension is at least partially responsible for the fact that the baby’s heart rate of slows down for a while shortly after an epidural anesthetic is injected
• If the mother’s blood pressure falls too low for too long it can seriously compromise the blood flow to the placenta, reducing the fetus’s supply of oxygen. These serious side effects are prevented by giving the woman fluids through an IV…If this countermeasure doesn’t work, another drug may be needed to prevent her blood pressure from falling too low and compromising the baby
• Studies have show that women receiving epidural have longer labours
• This is especially the case during the 2^nd stage (pushing) of the labour
• These mothers are frequently diagnosed with dystocia, the failure of labour to progress
• Are four times more likely to require forceps
• Are two or three times more likely to end up having a C-section, than women receiving systemic or no pain relief
• Although most babies are not significantly affected, epidural anesthesia may compromise the health of babies already at risk due to illness, premature birth or a difficult delivery
• Encouraging women to have unmedicated deliveries would be best for babies, and for the mothers this would mean:
• Fewer side effects
• Shorter labours
• Easier breast feeding and bonding

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Power lines link to cancer in new alert

This is not a new idea, but its gathering speed and attention around the world and while the jury’s out on whether the anecdotal evidence will satisfy people who insist on scientific results one way or the other, I’m personally not prepared to take the risk. So I have a gizmo on my mobile, as well as on my computer, digital bedside clock and rib heaters and I keep reading the reports and as much unbiased opinion as I can find.

The choice is yours, but why not do some investigating for yourself – there’s loads of information around – but do think again about making the minimally responsible decision to protect your children’s brains by not giving them mobile phones when they are barely out of Reception class.

An extract by Nicholas Cecil in the Evening Standard highlights that "Homes and schools could be banned from being built near power lines. A secret report has raised fresh fears of a link between power lines and cancer. The confidential study, obtained by the Evening Standard, urges ministers to consider banning the building of homes and schools close to overhead high-voltage power cables because of possible health risks. It says a ban is the best way to reduce significantly exposure to electromagnetic fields from the electricity grid system."

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Reasons to Throw Out Your Microwave Oven

Here are some great reasons from Joseph Mercola – writing in The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients at www.mercola.com on why microwave ovens are actually not good for us.

1. Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term, permanent brain damage by ‘shorting out’ electrical impulses in the brain (de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue)
2. The human body cannot metabolize or break down the unknown by-products created in microwaved food
3. Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods
4. The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual (long term, permanent) within the human body
5. Minerals, vitamins and nutrients of all microwaved food are reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down
6. The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens
7. Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths (tumours). This may explain the rapidly increasing rate of colon cancer in america
8. The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cells to increase in human blood
9. Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph glad and blood serum alterations
10. Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability and a decrease of intelligence

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Memory Loss: 6 simple ways to prevent it!

1. Exercise your mind. Crossword puzzles, mind games, challenging reading or educational classes can help keep your brain agile and strong.

2. Exercise your body. Physical exercise seems to correlate with better mental function, perhaps because of improved circulation.

3. Eat a diet rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Vegetables and fruit are the best sources of antioxidants. A good pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement provides omega-3s – remember, men don’t take a chance with flax oil – its now well documented to promote cancer growth

4. Limit or avoid alcohol. Alcohol in almost any quantity can be toxic to the nervous system.

5. De-stress. Perform daily breathing exercises and practice relaxation techniques like meditation, prayer or yoga.

6. Take multivitamin containing B vitamins. Folic acid, B6 and B12 are essential to maintaining healthy nerve function. Ginkgo biloba is also a helpful supplement

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Ala and prostate cancer

Quick Tip

A recent review article points out that prostate cancer is increasing, and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the Western world. The etiology of prostate cancer remains unclear, course and progression are unpredictable, and definite treatment is not yet established. Lifestyle and diet Prostate Forum Nutrition Guide could contribute to the progression from small, latent, non-metastatic tumors to clinically significant, invasive, metastatic lesions. What Is Metastatic Cancer?

Of six studies done, one showed no correlation. One found a small (not statistically significant) positive correlation. Four studies found a strong positive correlation between ALA (Alpha-Linolenic Acid) and prostate cancer. At least two other studies have also shown a correlation of alpha-linolenic acid with increased prostate cancer.According to Prostate Forum, several labs have found that ALA is one of the most powerful growth stimulants for human prostate cancer cells. The Prostate Forum has recommended against the use of flax oil by men with prostate cancer. Since flax oil is the richest readily available food source of ALA, the reasoning goes, this oil should cause the most prostate cancer.

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