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Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: August 28th, 2012, 9:00 am
by BroJones
Dr Mercola takes on vaccination programs in Africa which seem to put a priority on shots rather than on food and water for the starving:
By Dr. Mercola

As one of the world's most well-known and respected voices, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has a unique opportunity to call attention to important social issues and make a huge impact worldwide.

Unfortunately Gates, through his foundation, has been partnering with not only biotech giant Monsanto to hoist genetically modified seeds on third-world countries, but also with Big Pharma, to whom he pledged $10 billion to provide vaccinations to children around the world.

This is billed as a humanitarian effort to save lives, but what children in developing countries need is healthy food, clean water and better sanitation.

These are the keys to preventing the spread of infectious disease, and they are being wholly ignored by the likes of Bill Gates and other vaccine proponents – at the children’s expense!

The Aftermath of a Bill Gates Vaccine Campaign …

An American family, the Gianelloni’s, visited a village in Uganda shortly after a Bill Gates vaccine campaign swept through and discovered what Bill Gates’ money does for hungry, sick children – essentially nothing.

The family found that the children were starving, living on one meager meal a day. Their only water source was the same stagnant stream that they bathed in. They had no sewage or sanitation. But, thanks to Gates, they were now vaccinated against measles and polio. Never mind that the most pressing epidemics in the area were actually Yellow Fever, malaria, HIV/AIDs and diarrhea …

Worse yet, one little girl who had received a measles vaccine two weeks earlier was now suffering with the measles as a result! After this blogger left, thanks to her and the mission group that arrived with her, the village had a water tank and clean water system, a cow, and a year’s worth of rice and beans. You can probably understand why the blogger made this comment about Gates’ “philanthropy”:

“I don’t care who you are or what side of the vaccine philosophy you fall under, there is no logic in the world that can explain that going into a remote village and giving children who only eat one meal a day and have never had clean drinking water, a vaccine.

Seriously? Think about it. Can you imagine walking up to this precious little girl and saying ”I know you are starving, but here is a measles vaccine instead. I promise this will make you much healthier than food or water”. It’s a scary day when simple logic no longer exists.

Food & Water, nope. Vaccines, yep. And innocent children suffer the consequences. It’s absurd."

Food, Water, Sanitation is What’s Needed to Help Prevent Disease

The most vulnerable of the world's children are those in the poorest countries where death and disease are often a result of malnutrition and lack of adequate sanitation and clean drinking water. In many third-world countries, children are often battling some sort of infection 200 days out of the year. Vaccines can be devastating to these already immunosuppressed children, as well as to adults, because vaccines often weaken and confuse the immune system, which ultimately increases the recipient’s susceptibility to the very infectious diseases vaccines are designed to prevent.

Nonetheless, emerging vaccine markets like third-world countries will soon outgrow developed markets by hundreds of billions of dollars. Emerging markets are areas of the world that are beginning to show promise as a profitable venture for many products, including vaccines. And emerging markets – primarily in developing countries in Southeast and Central Asia, and Africa – have been on vaccine makers' radar for quite some time.

One reason that vaccine makers are interested in these parts of the world is that that's where most of the world's deaths from major infectious diseases occur. The only problem has been that, until recently, making vaccines for undeveloped countries with no money to pay for them was not exactly a profitable goal for vaccine makers.

Concerned that developed countries would have little or no resources for addressing serious infectious diseases if vaccine makers continued their pull-out, the World Health Organization and the G8 – the top developed countries in the world – responded with a plan for enticing vaccine companies to stay in the business. That plan was called Advance Market Commitments (AMCs).

AMCs Guarantee Drug Company Profits

Under AMCs, developed countries make legal, binding agreements to purchase vaccines that are needed in low-income countries. The purchase guarantees a bottom line for the manufacturers. In return, the manufacturers promise to sell those vaccines at reduced prices in the countries where they are most needed.

The idea is simple: "rich" nations sign legally binding commitments to purchase and/or finance an AMC vaccine once it's ready for market. In return for the guaranteed market and income, drug companies promise to sell the new vaccine to "poor" countries at vastly reduced prices.

To speed up the process, the World Health Organization "prequalifies" AMC vaccines in an approval process that slices years off the time it normally takes a vaccine to make it to market.

Unfortunately, legally binding, advance market commitments to purchase vaccines that are mostly needed in third-world countries could backfire on developed countries that don't need – or want – certain vaccines.

For instance, HPV (human papillomavirus) statistics show that HPV causes 4,000 deaths from cervical cancer per year in the United States, compared to 274,000 worldwide, 88 percent of which are in developing countries. So why were the HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix -- which have known safety issues -- introduced in the U.S. and Europe, first, instead of going straight to where they're needed most, if not to help sell huge quantities of the vaccine at premium prices, in anticipation of it becoming an AMC?

Even Gates and a Leading Vaccine Maker Admit Clean Water is Key

Malaria is another one of the top neglected diseases that world health leaders want to address with AMCs, but the ability to resist diseases like malaria requires a strong immune system, and for that, you require good nutrition, clean drinking water, and sanitation. If we want to help people in other countries to lower their malaria rates, and rates of other infectious diseases (like infection-associated diarrhea, which is one of the most common, and most preventable causes of death among children in the developing world) it would be wise to focus on these basics first.

Infectious organisms are more likely to penetrate the bodies of malnourished children due to inadequate vitamin C, which causes their skin to break down more easily and facilitates the entry of bacteria and other pathogens. The same is true for vitamin A deficiency, another common third-world problem, which results in increased susceptibility to infection and which could be rectified in individuals for pennies a day. Also, the living conditions of third-world children are often so poor that they are exposed to inordinately large numbers of pathogens, from which they have little defense.

In order to eradicate infectious disease from a nation, you also have to first address compromised immune systems. If you hit immune suppressed children with a potent, adjuvant-loaded vaccine, you're far more likely to create new disease, not eradicate it.

With all of the billions being poured into vaccines to “save” the children, how many water purification systems could have been built? How many sanitation facilities? How many rations of meat and fresh produce?

Even Bill Gates himself has admitted that vaccines alone don't eradicate disease. In a Wall Street Journal article about the resurgence of polio in African countries, Gates said that's why he is revamping his disease fight to incorporate health, hygiene, and clean drinking water programs into vaccination programs.1 Polio spreads, after all, largely through feces-contaminated water, so ignoring that major risk factor while trying to eradicate the disease is ignorant, to put it nicely.

What's really interesting is that at least one major vaccine maker has also echoed these sentiments, as evidenced on the front page of GlaxoSmithKline's presentation to shareholders in June 2010:2

"With the exception of clean drinking water, vaccines are the most cost-effective public health measure," GSK said.

What if, just what if, the same amount of money that has been spent on vaccines over the past decade had been spent on sanitation facilities, toilets, healthy food and clean water instead?

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

Increasing numbers of vaccines are being introduced not only in third-world countries but also in the developed world, and it's simply not wise to blindly depend on the information coming directly from the vaccine makers' PR departments, or from federal health officials, agencies or foundations that are mired in conflicts of interest with industry ...

No matter what vaccination choices you make for yourself or your family, it is a basic human right to be fully informed about all the risks of medical interventions and pharmaceutical products, like vaccines, and have the freedom to refuse if you conclude the benefits do not outweigh the risks for you or your child.


Unfortunately, the business partnership between government health agencies and vaccine manufacturers is too close and is getting out of hand. There is a lot of discrimination against Americans, who want to be free to exercise their human right to informed consent when it comes to making voluntary decisions about which vaccines they and their children use.

We cannot allow that to continue.

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand your rights under the law to make voluntary vaccine choices, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights will have the greatest impact.

Signing up to be a user of NVIC's free online Advocacy Portal at http://www.NVICAdvocacy.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. You will get real-time Action Alerts about what you can do if there are threats to vaccine exemptions in your state. With the click of a mouse or one touch on a Smartphone screen you will be put in touch with YOUR elected representatives so you can let them know how you feel and what you want them to do. Plus, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have all the information you need to make sure your voice is heard. So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Right now, in California, the personal belief exemption is under attack by Pharma-funded medical trade organizations and public health officials trying to get a bill (AB 2109) passed that would require parents to get a medical doctor's signature to file an exemption for personal religious and conscientious beliefs. Watch NVIC's 90-second public service message and learn more about what you can do if you are a California resident.

Internet Resources

To learn more about vaccines, I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at http://www.NVIC.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;:

* NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
* If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
* Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or state officials for making independent vaccine choices.
* Vaccine Ingredient Calculator (VIC): Find out just how much aluminum, mercury and other ingredients are in the vaccines your doctor is recommending for you or your child.
* Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) on MedAlerts. Search the government's VAERS database to find out what kinds of vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths have been reported by patients and heath care workers giving vaccines.

Find a Doctor Who Will Listen to Your Concerns

Last but not least, if your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to punish those patients and parents, who become truly educated about health and vaccination and want to make vaccine choices instead of being forced to follow risky one-size-fits-all vaccine policies.

If you are treated with disrespect or are harassed in any way by a doctor (or government official), do not engage in an unproductive argument. You may want to contact an attorney, your elected state representatives or local media, if you or your child are threatened.

That said, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate and connect with a doctor who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child, and isn't just competing for government incentives designed to increase vaccination rates at any cost.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: August 29th, 2012, 10:39 am
by BroJones
Next Dr Mercola challenges the X-ray scanners used by TSA -- gotta love this guy. Interesting read:
By Dr. Mercola

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) first began using advanced imaging technology in airports nationwide in 2007. But just how "tested," and how safe, are the TSA's backscatter machines?

The TSA1 and Department of Homeland Security will tell you they've been extensively tested and that these machines are very safe. But if that's true, why did both houses of Congress file bills this year demanding that the TSA and DHS produce proof of their safety claims with an independent laboratory study?2,3

Could it be that Congressmen―who often fly as part of their jobs―are worried that maybe those safety claims are not as documented as the TSA claims?

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has been making similar demands of the TSA through lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests for several years. The group has even filed a lawsuit to suspend the deployment of body scanners at US airports, pending an independent review:4

"On July 2, 2010, EPIC petitioned5 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend the body scanner program, stressing its core assertion that "the TSA has acted outside of its regulatory authority and with profound disregard for the statutory and constitutional rights of air travelers.

EPIC asserted that the federal agency's controversial program violated the Administrative Procedures Act, the Privacy Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, and the Fourth Amendment.

On July 15, 2011, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled6 that the agency had violated the Administrative Procedures Act by implementing body scanners as a primary screening method without first undertaking public notice and comment rulemaking.

The Court ordered the agency to 'promptly' undertake the proper rulemaking procedures and allow the public to comment on the body scanner program. To date, the agency has made no visible progress toward complying with the Court's order."

So far, this is what EPIC has found through an FOIA request:

* TSA employees have identified cancer clusters allegedly linked to radiation exposure while operating body scanners and other screening technology. However, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters—safety devices that would warn of radiation exposure.
* The DHS has publicly mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), stating that NIST "affirmed the safety" of full body scanners. NIST has stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test full body scanners for safety, and that the Institute does not do product testing.
* A Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the "General Public Dose Limit."
* A NIST study warns airport screeners to avoid standing next to full body scanners.

Rouge Federal Agency Refuses to Comply with the Law

On July 18, The Washington Times ran an editorial7 about the TSA's defiance of the courts. Remember, it's been over a year since the D.C. Circuit court ruled the TSA had to "promptly" comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires public hearings and a 90-day public comment period. In a November 9, 2011 affidavit, TSA acting general manager James Clarkson responded that "While TSA has prioritized the rulemaking directed by the Opinion, TSA has many important rulemakings in progress, many of them required by statute," essentially telling the court and the rest of us that they're too busy to address it.

On July 17, 2012, EPIC again asked the D.C. Circuit court of appeals to compel the agency to comply with the law, and the court has now demanded the TSA respond by August 30.

"It's a widely held belief that the agency's hasty embrace of expensive, X-rated x-ray machines has more to do with closed-door lobbying efforts of manufacturers than a deliberate consideration of the devices' merits," The Washington Times states.8

"The last thing TSA wants is the public-relations disaster of having to collect and publish the horror tales from Americans subjected to humiliation from the nude photography and intrusive 'pat-down' groping sessions. Scanner manufacturer Rapidscan Systems, which has invested $2.2 million in wining and dining administration officials and lawmakers since 2007, probably isn't keen on broader public discussion either."

The Security Implications of Nude Body Scanners

On March 6, 2012 engineer Jonathan Corbett posted a video on YouTube, demonstrating how easily the "nude body scanners" can be defeated, and why these machines actually make air travel LESS safe, if we're actually worried about terrorists boarding planes with guns and other lethal objects on their person.

Furthermore, as explained by Miles O'Brien in the video in the next section below, these machines are also unlikely to detect certain explosives, and likely would NOT have caught the infamous "underwear bomber"—the case that presaged the rapid release of these backscatter scanners in the first place.

Corbett was one of the first to sue the United States when the scanners were initially rolled out, charging that the machines were a violation of the 4th amendment of the US constitution. In July, he filed a petition to have his case heard by the Supreme Court. Corbett also claims he was falsely arrested by TSA agents at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last year.

According to The Washington Times:9

"As part of the agency's convoluted legal defense, TSA officials argue transportation security officers are not law enforcement officers because they 'do not have the authority to execute searches.' That's a rather curious assertion for an agency whose sole mission is to rifle through the belongings of others.

It's time to admit the post-Sept. 11 experiment in having the government take over airport screening duties has been a colossal flop. TSA has defied the Administrative Procedures Act, an appellate court, the public will and common decency. It's not enough just to pull the plug on the scanners; the plug should be pulled on TSA itself."

WeWontFly.com also recently posted a story of a family traveling with a .22 caliber pistol, magazine, and seven rounds of ammunition in their luggage—not once, but twice, at Charlotte's international airport and JFK in New York—without any of the items being detected by the TSA.10

The Health Implications of Backscatter X-Ray Machines

So, getting back to the health implications of the backscatter scanners. As explained in the following video, the machines work by emitting a narrow beam of high-intensity (ionizing) radiation, which quickly moves across your body in a sweeping, rotating motion. One of the worries with the technology is the potential for mechanical malfunctions, which could result in the high-intensity beam stopping in one location and resulting in over-exposure.

As reported by Miles O'Brien in a NewsHour broadcast11 on December 1, 2011, the European Union actually banned scanning devices that expose the public to ionizing radiation, even if the exposure is miniscule, at the end of last year. The reason for the decision was quite simply, "because there are alternatives." The US would do well to consider such logic as well... Especially when you consider the dubious nature of the alleged safety testing of these machines.

Watch Behind the Backscatter on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices.

Could Backscatter Scanners Cause Cancer?

As summarized by WeWontFly.com:

"Backscatter X-ray uses ionizing radiation, a known cumulative health hazard, to produce images of passengers' bodies. Children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those with defective DNA repair mechanisms are considered to be especially susceptible to the type of DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation.

Also at high risk are those who have had, or currently have, skin cancer.

Ionizing radiation's effects are cumulative, meaning that each time you are exposed you are adding to your risk of developing cancer. Since the dosage of radiation from the backscatter X-ray machines is absorbed almost entirely by the skin and tissue directly under the skin, averaging the dose over the whole body gives an inaccurate picture of the actual harm."

Last year, ProPublica published a letter to John Holdren, senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology, written by five professors who reveal that there has not actually been any verifiable scientific testing of the safety of airport scanners -- and that the levels of radiation being used are likely much higher than the public has been led to believe. These scientists believe the high quality images produced cannot possibly be obtained with the low levels of radiation described, and that the actual level may be 45 times higher than what the manufacture is claiming.

The supposed "testing" of the Rapiscan Secure 1000, the most widely deployed X-ray scanner, was actually performed on a mock-up of spare parts "said to be similar to those that are parts of the Rapiscan system." In addition, none of these tests have ever been peer reviewed—the data and even the names of the researchers who carried out the tests have been kept secret from the public.

According to the letter, as printed by ProPublica:12

"The problem remains that the safety of the X-ray airport scanners has not been independently verified... the Johns Hopkins report,13 which is the more detailed and significant because it refers to the widely deployed Single Pose system, does not hold to critical principles of scientific reporting... [T]here is no way to repeat any of these measurements ... The tests were performed by the manufacturer using the manufacturer's questionable test procedures ... [T]he independent testing of the safety of these specific scanners has not been rigorous nor has it been held to the standards usually associated with new devices".

... It is still unclear how much damage to cells occur with low dose x-rays. One of the most important points in the 'Red Flags' section of our letter of April 2010 was that potential x-ray damage, primarily to skin cells and adjacent tissues, would lead to a 'damage response' by the cells.

Thus, damaged cells would show DNA damage of various kinds and/or an increase in concentration of many proteins that attempt to repair the damage. Being able to demonstrate that the x-irradiation does not induce the 'damage response' as compared to a control sample just exposed to background radiation would establish that the machines at least do not have a high (potentially damaging) x-ray intensity.

Interestingly, the 8-page HHS letter response did not even comment on this crucial point.

The research community has the methodology to unambiguously determine in a very sensitive way whether there is damage to cells after x-irradiation from the airport scanners. For example, a recent study using tissue culture cells... has shown that with low dose x-rays (1 mSv, a dose coming within 100 to 1,000 times that of the potential x-ray scanner dose), the cells have unrepaired DNA double-strand breaks that are detectable for several days...

Because... the whole body is exposed to the x-ray scanning... and therefore many cells could, summed up in toto, be damaged... Where are the studies utilizing mutant mice... looking for enhanced mutations/cancer? This does not have to be an exhaustive search, but a small pilot study looking for mutations/cancer to confirm that the beam intensity is truly small would be sufficient. In summary, this kind of research has not been done with the x-ray scanners.

An additional point regarding biological damage from x-ray sources is that usually radiation biology deals with the integrated radiation dose. However, there is a phenomenon known as dose rate... which could significantly influence damage. Dose rate, however, is poorly studied. In the few documented studies... it was shown that for the same overall dose, a 2-5 fold increase in damage can result from a high dose rate (for the short exposure) compared to a reduced dose rate (at a longer exposure time). The x-ray airport scanners can be characterized by a high dose rate... which adds additional unknowns for the potential damage by this radiation..."

History Tells Us to Beware of Ionizing Radiation Technology Safety Claims

How can we be certain that errors will not occur with the X-ray scanners when malfunctions are virtually always a risk of using technology? For example, even CT scans were once deemed to have far lower levels of radiation than we know they have today.

As Dr. Russell Blaylock says:

"As for the assurances we have been given by such organization as the American College of Radiology, we must keep in mind that they assured us that the CT scans were safe and that the radiation was equal to one chest X-ray. Forty years later we learn that the dose is extremely high; it is thought to have caused cancer in a significant number of people, and the dose is actually equal to 1,000 chest X-rays."

A 2007 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine14 estimated that 0.4 percent of all cancers in the US may be attributable to the radiation from CT studies – confirming how profoundly inaccurate original safety assessments of this technology were, as well as how harmful X-ray-based diagnostic technologies really are. These errors of the past should indeed serve as cautionary tales when making safety claims for brand new technologies.

How many times will a belated "oops!" suffice before we demand the return of the precautionary principle, as is already being followed in Europe?

Hopefully, the TSA will comply with the court's demands for a response by August 30. We need to have public hearings about the many issues, running the gamut from potential health hazards to violations of privacy and good-old-fashioned decency, posed by these invasive scanners.

Who Stands to Gain Financially from Full-Body Scanners?

As in so many other instances, our legal and civil rights system is being willfully manipulated and trampled, and our health is put at risk, all for the sake of private and corporate profits. In this case, the former homeland security chief and co-author of the PATRIOT act, Michael Chertoff, is a primary promoter of full-body scanners, and is a paid consultant for the companies that sell them!

The mandate to use these scanners is yet another blatant conflict of interest that erodes personal freedom in the name of "security" and places corporate profits ahead of public health.

Tips for Reducing Your Cumulative Radiation Load While Flying

Europe has already taken a strong stance against the use of these scanners, and in the United States if we have enough people objecting to this new technology we can get them to stop using it altogether. It is far too man-power intensive for agents to manually inspect everyone with the enhanced pat down. In 2010, when massive numbers of people were planning on opting out in protest, they shut all the X-ray scanners off that day and ran people through the older ones. If 10 percent of us choose to opt out regularly, my guess is that they will shut the machines off permanently.

Personally, as a very frequent air traveler, I ALWAYS opt-out of the x-ray scanner. Even if the radiation dose is minute (and that's a big IF), I'm not willing to risk my health by exposing my entire body to any avoidable dose on a regular basis. Fortunately, I fly frequently enough that in Chicago I am TSA PRE, which means I get to use a special security line and do not have to take off my shoes or belt, or take the computer out of my bag, and there is no total body scan or pat down done.

An interesting point you will want to consider is that in order to use the body scanner you must be able to raise your arms above your head. If you can't, then TSA has to send you through the FAR safer magnetic scanner and they typically do NOT pat you down.

If you're exposed to other forms of radiation through CT scans, mammograms and other medical procedures, your exposure could easily reach dangerous levels, and this is why it makes sense to avoid unnecessary radiation exposures as much as possible. One of the strategies I use is to take 8-10 mg of astaxanthin regularly as it has been shown to lessen ionizing radiation damage.

If you opt out of the scanner and go for the pat-down, I also suggest you keep hygiene in mind. Make certain that TSA agents put on a fresh pair of gloves before touching you and your child.

As for the humiliation factor that these enhanced TSA security checks present, I would encourage you to contact your local government officials and state representatives, or join the "We Won't Fly" campaign, which also lists 24 additional ways you can make your voice heard on this issue.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 2nd, 2012, 10:56 am
by BroJones
this weekend, Dr Mercola warns about the effects of sugar - fructose - HFCS - on the BRAIN and on OBESITY:

By Dr. Mercola

It's a fact that excess dietary fructose can harm your body by setting up the conditions for diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver, but what does it do to your brain? Studies have not addressed this question—until now.

A new UCLA study1 is the first to show how a steady diet high in fructose can damage your memory and learning. The study was published in the Journal of Physiology.

Researchers investigated the effects of high-fructose syrup, similar to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a cheap sweetener six times sweeter than cane sugar, which is used in most soft drinks, processed foods, condiments, and even many baby foods.

The team sought to study the effects of a steady intake of this super-processed, concentrated form of fructose, which is quite dissimilar from the naturally occurring fructose in fruits. They fed rats a fructose solution as drinking water for six weeks, then tested their ability to remember their way out of a maze.The results certainly grabbed the researchers' attention.

Too Much Sugar Makes You Stupid!

The rats fed fructose syrup showed significant impairment in their cognitive abilities—they struggled to remember their way out of the maze.
They were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity. Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats' ability to think clearly and recall the route they'd learned six weeks earlier.

Additionally, the fructose-fed rats showed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls your blood sugar and synaptic function in your brain.

Because insulin is able to pass through your blood-brain barrier, it can trigger neurological processes that are important for learning and memory. Consuming large amounts of fructose may block insulin's ability to regulate how your brain cells store and use sugar for the energy needed to fuel thoughts and emotions. The average American consumes roughly 47 pounds of cane sugar and 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture2.

Researchers concluded that a high fructose diet harms your brain, as well as the rest of your body. But there is even more to this story.

A second group of rats was given omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), in addition to the high fructose diet. After six weeks, this group of rats was able to navigate the maze better and faster than the rats in the non-DHA group.

The researchers concluded that DHA is protective against fructose's harmful effects on the brain. DHA is essential for synaptic function—it helps your brain cells transmit signals to one another, which is the mechanism that makes learning and memory possible. Your body can't produce enough DHA, so it must be supplemented through your diet.

HBO Documentary Series: "The Weight of the Nation"

The HBO Weight of the Nation documentary is a collaboration among the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Kaiser Permanente, and several other health-related organizations. The entire series can be viewed free of charge from their website.

Sadly however, HBO chose to interview many who did not understand the foundational causes of obesity, and their editors chose to continue many myths that are simply incorrect, like using insulin for type 2 diabetes; a calorie is a calorie and you simply need to burn more to lose weight, for example, both of which are utter nonsense. If you have time, the four hour series is useful to watch and has some powerful illustrations and statics that are true, just be warned it is filled with loads of misleading dietary fallacies.

It is projected that 42 percent of Americans will be obese by 2030, which is expected to cost the nation roughly half a trillion dollars per year in additional health costs.

Clearly, that will affect YOU, whether you are among the 42 percent or not.The obesity problem cannot be solved by waiting for the food industry to be struck by a wave of altruism. Big business always has and always will be driven by healthy profits, not healthy people. America has cultivated a toxic culture that has written real food and exercise right out of the script.

The facts are sobering3:

* Americans today consume an average of 600 more calories per day than they did in 1970
* Seventy-five percent of Americans now drive to work, a 300 percent increase since 1960
* In 1969, 42 percent of kids walked or biked to school, versus less than 20 percent today
* Fewer than five percent of adults meet the minimum guidelines for physical activity, and one in four adults gets no physical activity at all
* Currently, only four percent of elementary schools, eight percent of middle schools, and two percent of high schools provide physical education

Drugs are a TERRIBLE Answer to the Diabetes Epidemic

Skyrocketing obesity rates are accompanied by escalating rates of type 2 diabetes. This makes perfect sense when you realize the two problems share the same primary cause: insulin resistance. As was confirmed in the UCLA fructose study, a major driver of insulin resistance and therefore a major driver of increasing diabetes rates, is excessive fructose consumption. According to the CDC's 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet4:

* Diabetes affects 25.8 million people, which is 8.3 percent of the total U.S. population
* Among Americans age 65 or older, 26.9 percent have diabetes and 50 percent have pre-diabetes
* Among Americans age 20 or older, 79 million people (35 percent) have pre-diabetes
* Among Americans age 20 or younger, 215,000 have diabetes
* Overall, if you have diabetes, your risk for death is about TWICE that of people of similar age who don't have diabetes

Most conventional physicians are quick to pull out the prescription pad as a first-line defense against type 2 diabetes—but the price you pay for diabetes drugs is a high one. In fact, taking glucose-lowering drugs is typically far more dangerous than the disease itself and actually has the potential to radically increase your risk of death from heart attacks, and all other, causes.

Avandia (rosiglitazone) is the poster child for the dangers of diabetes drug treatment. A 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine5 linked Avandia to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack, and a 64 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death, compared to patients treated with other methods. It took nearly 10 years of the drug being on the market for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action and restrict access to this dangerous drug, whereas the European Medicines Agency banned it altogether.But now another diabetes drug has been drawn into the spotlight.

Whistleblower Exposes Deadly Effects of Diabetes Drug Actos

Actos, a type-2 diabetes drug manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, is now the subject of hundreds of lawsuits. It was pulled from the market by both France and Germany a year ago after being found to cause bladder cancer and other tumors. But now, a whistleblower, Dr. Helen Ge, has come forward with a lawsuit of her own stating that the drug company is benefiting from "tens of billions of dollars in sales" at the expense of the lives of people still taking the drug6,7,8.

Dr. Ge worked in the Takeda's pharmacovigilance division, where she was in charge of reviewing side effects of Actos as reported by patients and physicians. She then prepared safety reports that were filed with the FDA―reports that Ge says she was ordered to water-down or not report at all, so Actos would look better than it actually was.

Dr. Ge believes Actos is even more dangerous than Avandia.

She believes that, besides bladder cancer and tumors, Actos is also connected to heart attacks and stroke, suicide, schizophrenia, homicidal ideation, and renal failure. Dr. Ge claims Takeda concealed reports from regulators about hundreds of heart failure cases directly related to the drug in an attempt to drive sales. Dr. Ge filed her lawsuit in September 2011. Actos is still being sold in the United States.

Getting Off The Path of Dietary Madness

But what can be done to derail this obesity freight train that seems to be speeding out of control? The obesity epidemic is different from naturally occurring epidemics in that it is completely human-created. The good news is it has the potential of a human-directed reversal, which begins with expanding awareness about the gravity of the problem. If you are one of my long-term readers, you already know I've been committed to expanding this awareness for decades. In one of the featured articles, best-selling author David Sirota lists what he believes are five of the most promising ways to reverse these trends and the science-based rationale for each9 :

* Taxing junk food. Multiple studies confirm that this strategy does indeed work—people's food choices are affected by price.
* Stop subsidizing junk food. Stop giving money to corn and soy growers and start paying farmers to produce real food like fruits and vegetables—the foods that will improve the nation's health. There is NO inherent reason junk food should cost less than fresh fruits and vegetables.
* Ban junk food in schools. Nearly half of public and private schools surveyed sold sweet or salty snack foods in vending machines or other places, and in most schools, school lunches are not much better
* Stop glorifying unhealthy eating habits. It's time the media are held accountable for equating America with hot dogs, apple pie, and cheesesteaks, and the message this sends to America's youth
* Start broadening our understanding of obesity. There is no denying the abundance of science disproving conventional wisdom that "a calorie is a calorie"—it's time for the mainstream to wake up and acknowledge the factors responsible for obesity, particularly massive quantities of fructose and refined grain products that Americans are consuming each day.

What Have You Got to Lose?

Solving this problem is going to require significant changes on personal, community, and nationwide levels. The Weight of the Nation website10 lists a wide variety of action steps you can take on all of these levels. But the best first step is to take an honest look at your own personal lifestyle habits—and start making some changes there.

Whether you need some slight dietary tweaking or a total nutritional overhaul, here are some basic strategies you can implement today to get yourself off the "path of dietary madness":

* Avoid as much sugar as possible, especially fructose. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes or pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. Limit your fructose intake to 25 grams per day (refer to this chart to see the fructose content of common whole foods).

If you want to use a sweetener occasionally, consider using the herb stevia, or organic cane sugar or organic honey in moderation. Avoid agave syrup, as most commercial products are just highly processed sap consisting almost entirely of fructose.
* Consume your sugar with fiber. Fiber helps modulate the impact of sugar by slowing absorption. The perfect sweet food is a piece of fruit, which contains fiber as well as beneficial antioxidants.
* Eat a well balanced diet, tailored to your specific body type. It should consist of ample raw foods, fresh organic produce, grass pastured meat and dairy, raw nuts and seeds, and naturally fermented foods. Avoid processed foods, genetically engineered foods, and foods with added chemicals. For more information, refer to my total nutrition plan.
* Get plenty of high quality omega-3 fats from both plant and animal sources. As the study above showed, omega-3's are crucial to modulating the damaging effects of sugar—and have MANY other benefits. My favorite animal-based omega-3 source is krill oil.
* Optimize your vitamin D level.
* Exercise every day. Exercise improves insulin sensitivity, reduces stress and cortisol levels, suppresses ghrelin (the appetite hormone), speeds up your metabolism, strengthens your bones, and even lifts your mood.
* Rehydrate with fresh, pure water.
* Get plenty of sleep.
* Manage your stress.

How Fructose Turns ON Your "Fat Switch"

If you have ever struggled losing weight and keeping it off, you already know what a challenge that can be. Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension at the University of Colorado has published hundreds of articles and two books on this topic: The Sugar Fix, and most recently, The Fat Switch, which presents a groundbreaking approach to preventing and reversing obesity. According to Dr. Johnson, based on his decades of research:

"Those of us who are obese eat more because of a faulty "switch" and exercise less because of a low energy state. If you can learn how to control the specific "switch" located in the powerhouse of each of your cells – the mitochondria – you hold the key to fighting obesity."

There are five basic truths that Dr. Johnson explains in detail in his new book that overturn current concepts:

1. Large portions of food and too little exercise are NOT solely responsible for why you are gaining weight
2. Metabolic Syndrome is A NORMAL CONDITION that animals undergo to store fat
3. Uric acid is increased by specific foods and CAUSALLY CONTRIBUTES to obesity and insulin resistance
4. Fructose-containing sugars cause obesity not by calories but by turning on the fat switch
5. Effective treatment of obesity requires turning off your fat switch and improving the function of your cells' mitochondria

I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book, which has been described as the "Holy Grail" for those struggling with their weight. Dietary sugar, and fructose in particular, is a significant "tripper of your fat switch," so understanding how sugars of all kinds affect your weight and health is imperative.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 4th, 2012, 6:13 am
by BroJones
Dr Mercola warns of doctor fatigue and errors; explaining some of his personal experiences as an MD:

By Dr. Mercola

A substantial portion of U.S. doctors suffer from burnout on the job, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.1

Of the nearly 7,300 doctors who participated in the survey, nearly half had at least one symptom of burnout; 38 percent had high emotional exhaustion scores; and 30 percent had high depersonalization scores (viewing patients more like objects than human beings) – twice the rate of the general population of working adults.

Burnout was most common among doctors at the "frontline of care," such as those working in emergency rooms, general internal medicine, or in family medicine. Nearly 60 percent of doctors in these specialties reported high levels of burnout.

Doctors also report being dissatisfied with work-life balance more frequently than other working adults, with more than 40 percent of doctors reporting dissatisfaction compared to 23 percent in other professions.

The main complaint was excessive work hours – on average, doctors worked 50 hour weeks, with nearly 38 percent of doctors working 60 hours a week.

According to the authors of the study, US doctors are burning out "at an alarming level," as previous years' polls have placed physician burnout levels between 30-40 percent.

"This high rate of burnout has consequences not only for the individual physicians, but also for the patients they are caring for," said Dr. Tait Shanafelt of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who led the research, Reuters reports.2

"'Previous studies have shown burned-out doctors are more prone to thinking about suicide and to making medical errors than are their peers,' Shanafelt added...

'It's not clear why burnout strikes so many doctors, said Shanafelt, adding that excessive workloads are only part of the equation. Other possible reasons include too much paperwork, loss of professional autonomy and a higher patient load to make up for declining reimbursement rates.

There is a sense that the volume of patients that need to be seen is increasing and it's taking away some of the time needed to build a relationship and give the best care possible,' Shanafelt told Reuters Health. 'That starts to build cynicism, I think.'

Shanafelt worried that as more and more people get health insurance under President Obama's Affordable Care Act, the pressure on primary care providers would increase 'at a time where those individuals are already quite stretched."

My Experience with the Flawed System

Having gone through conventional medical training, I can tell you the entire system seems to set the physician up for burnout. I spent four years in medical school after four years of college and then did a three year family medicine residency. After that I served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for some time while I was starting my private practice.

Internship and residency training typically, and certainly in my case, was exhausting both physically and emotionally. The schedule provides little free time to do much of anything besides patient care.

Residency work weeks can often reach 80 hours, which leave little time for exercise, shopping, preparing meals, or cleaning your home, let alone maintain close personal relationships. This acute time pressure is combined with an enormous responsibility of caring for very sick individuals in precarious situations, where a misdiagnosis or incorrect order could frequently be a matter of life or death.

I did virtually all of my residency training in an inner city hospital very similar to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, which one of my old favorite TV series, ER, was based out of. I really enjoyed that show and even wrote a eulogy for Dr. Greene when he died I actually did spend about three months at Cook County doing an endocrinology rotation so I have a strong basis to make the comparison.

The hardest rotations though were the medicine and surgery rotations, as you were on call in the hospital and were available to be paged at any time during the night by the nursing staff for new admissions or medical emergencies. Not only is it a challenge to provide reasonable care at night, but even more so the following day when you were sleep deprived, as some nights you simply did not sleep much, if at all.

The Bullying Culture of Medical School

Then there's the medical hazing that regularly occurs during rounds, in which you review the patients with students and senior medical staff who grill the residents and students for complex differential diagnosis or obscure bits of information about the pathology of the patients' disease.

This certainly has its purpose in molding students and residents to morph into professionals who can assume the responsibly and provide competent care to patients when there's no supervision. However, knowing what I know now of course, a good portion of the process was fatally flawed as they were simply training you to become skilled in the administration of drugs, and rarely, if ever, addressed the foundational cause of why that person was in the hospital. (Of course, this doesn't apply to all cases, especially in emergency room situations or cases of acute trauma.)

But there are other forms of bullying taking place as well – something most people would never consider possible. After all, isn't the medical industry run by adult professionals?

A recent article in The New York Times discusses the bullying culture of medical school, stating:3

"For 30 years, medical educators have known that becoming a doctor requires more than an endless array of standardized exams, long hours on the wards and years spent in training. For many medical students, verbal and physical harassment and intimidation are part of the exhausting process, too.


It was a pediatrician, a pioneer in work with abused children, who first noted the problem. And early studies found that abuse of medical students was most pronounced in the third year of medical school, when students began working one on one or in small teams with senior physicians and residents in the hospital. The first surveys found that as many as 85 percent of students felt they had been abused during their third year.

They described mistreatment that ranged from being yelled at and told they were 'worthless' or 'the stupidest medical student,' to being threatened with bad grades or a ruined career and even getting hit, pushed or made the target of a thrown medical tool."

What could be the root of such mistreatment? While I don't proclaim to have the answer, I have to wonder if over-work and exhaustion isn't at the heart of this problem as well. Virtually any parent with more than one child who has suffered many sleepless nights nursing and tending children will probably be able to tell you it's tough keeping your cool when you're flat out exhausted and emotionally drained.

At What Price is Freedom to Practice Medicine?

After surviving the medical training, the next step is to earn a living, which comes with enormous financial pressures. This was a bit easier when I started my practice nearly 30 years ago and student loan debt was far lower. At the time, you could get a medical degree for about $50,000, but now students graduate with loans three times that; some as high as $250,000, not including any undergraduate debt they might have accumulated. This is before any rent, mortgage or auto expenses.

This financial pressure really limits their opportunity to go into private practice, where they would incur yet additional expenses and an even longer time to develop the revenues to become debt free. So the vast majority of physicians, over two-thirds, are not in private practice but employed by hospitals or large medical groups

Private practice allows physicians to enjoy the autonomy of running their own practice. Setting their own schedule, developing their own philosophy of care, deciding how much time to spend with each patient, and even something as simple as choosing how to decorate the office, which can boost morale, are some of the freedoms of private practice.

All of these factors tend to help prevent burnout, but most physicians are not able to reap these benefits.

However, for the minority of physicians who are able to start a private practice, the challenges certainly continue, as one needs to address reimbursement concerns from insurance companies whose major business purpose seems to be denying payment.

Making matters worse, physicians with integrity, who seek to practice what they are convinced will help their patients even if it conflicts with the "standard of care" are regularly paraded through hospital committees to defend their positions.

State medical boards will typically seek to have a day with outliers who choose to practice natural medicine. I personally have had to defend my license twice before the medical board in Illinois. Both times it was a result of anonymous skeptics who felt the information I was providing on the website was medical heresy and I should be prosecuted for it. I prevailed each time, but at significant cost and time. Ten years ago I even had to sue them in the Supreme Court for freedom of speech issues, but I prevailed.

Many other natural medicine physicians have to defend their license with the state medical board as a result of peer harassment for not complying with the drug model. It's a sad and frustrating fact that many doctors will do everything in their power to defend this model by attacking those who have differences of opinion about its merit.

The Challenges of Patient Care

Even once the factors mentioned above are addressed, one has to take care of patients. Some will follow your advice and implement the nutritional and lifestyle changes prescribed and typically experience profound improvements after having seen the best and brightest in conventional medicine and come up short-handed... Those provide the kind of joyful feedback that makes the entire process worthwhile.

However, there are a fair number of people who remain unconvinced that natural medicine can actually "work," or worse yet, simply are non-compliant with the program and less than honest in their follow-up visits. This makes it very difficult to determine what precisely is the problem – their non-compliance or that they are truly non-responsive to the treatment.

To top it all off there is the issue of scheduling. How do you schedule patients in a way that makes everyone happy? To balance the time necessary to properly address their problems yet still create enough revenue to pay all your expenses?

Once you have that nut cracked, then you have to solve the challenge of how to address patients who have some new problem that takes much longer than you anticipated, and you have a waiting room full of patients you are scheduled to see. This is compounded by 'no-shows' and patients who come late for their appointment.

In addition to the challenges of patient care, one has to adeptly manage all the clinical staff and keep them happy, while following the complex array of federal rules and regulations applied to a small business owner.

Physician Burnout: Part of the Puzzle of Why U.S. Health Care is So Dangerous


Last but not least, there's the ever-increasing cost of medical malpractice insurance, which, aside from being just the cost of doing business as a doctor, raises health care costs across the board. According to a 2010 report4, medical malpractice liability costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $55 billion a year, the vast majority of it – nearly $46 billion annually – in "defensive" medical practices such as extra tests and scans, which are often ordered by doctors in order to 'cover their behinds.'

This causes virtually any doctor you interact with to order expensive and very frequently unnecessary tests, not so much to figure out what is going on with you but to protect themselves against future litigation or reprimands from hospital committees or state medical boards. These statistics alone hint at the problems inherent with conventional medicine, which has been, and still remains, one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.

Eight years ago, I posted the comprehensive, footnoted research article, Death by Medicine, on this website. Authored in two parts by Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, and Dorothy Smith PhD, it described in excruciating detail how the modern American medical system had bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. From medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures, the authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), and showed that on the whole American medicine caused more harm than good.

A 2010 analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all. Instead, 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person's death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery. In all there were over 25 injuries per 100 hospital admissions!

Can physician burnout have something to do with these abysmal statistics? Of course it must play a rather significant role...

For the Record – What is a D.O.?

As most of you probably know, but might forget from time to time, I am an osteopathic physician, also known as a "DO". DOs are licensed physicians who, similar to MDs, can prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. DOs and MDs have similar training, requiring four years of study in the basic and clinical sciences, and the successful completion of licensing exams. But DOs bring something extra to the practice of medicine.

Osteopathic physicians philosophically are committed and more likely to practice a "whole person" approach, treating the entire person rather than just symptoms. Focusing on preventive health care, DOs help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don't just fight illness, but help prevent it, too. Unfortunately from my perspective there is no significant difference between DOs and MDs in using conventional allopathic strategies for chronic disease, as they typically rely on drugs and surgery rather than lifestyle changes.

As a Patient, How Can You Avoid the Risks Inherent with Physician Burnout?

Hopefully, this helps give you a peek into the complexities that can easily contribute to physician burnout.

So what is the solution?

Well, from my perspective there isn't any easy one, other than to simply minimize your interactions with the conventional system, because even if they have successfully navigated all the land mines above, they will likely still be advising strategies that in no way shape or form address the underlying cause of your disease. One of the reasons I am so passionate about sharing the information on this site about healthy eating, exercise, and stress management is because it can help keep you OUT of the doctor's office, or even worse, the hospital.

In her book, Death by Modern Medicine, Dr. Carolyn Dean talks about how, for well over a century, the definition of health care has been pills-and-drugs. It's a deliberately schemed and manipulated paradigm that's been packaged and sold through:

* The insurance industry's (including Medicare's and Medicaid's) methodology for payment, which doesn't recognize nutritional care or proven naturopathic approaches to health care
* Direct-to-Consumer advertising
* Influencing physicians and other health care providers through gifts, honoraria for speaking engagements, and financial support for training programs, which is simply another form of advertising
* Intense lobbying by PhRMA and individual drug makers

You can use the internet, and this site, to find well-proven strategies that will address the vast majority of ANY chronic health problem you struggle with. If you have an acute injury, of course you need to seek immediate competent care. However the very first step for any chronic health challenge would be to follow my Nutrition Plan as that will likely improve, if not completely eliminate, more than 80 percent of your health challenges.

I want to emphasize that it doesn't really matter what your health problem is, applying the Nutrition Plan is the first step to getting better. It has the absolute best information I have learned over the last 30 years to help you Take Control of Your Health.

In the unusual case where you are not getting better, it will be wise to seek a health coach or medical professional that can guide you through complicating factors that may be impairing your progress. Typically, it is best to use the time honored local social networking strategy of asking as many people in your community who the best practitioners are for your problem. You can typically find many good referrals from people in independently-owned health food stores. But be sure to get a clear consensus and ask as many people as you can, as choosing a doctor is a very important step, and you want to make sure you get it right.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 4th, 2012, 8:40 am
by BroJones
Dr M warns about shots again, particularly measles shots:
By Dr. Mercola

Four infants between nine and 14 months of age recently died within 24 hours of receiving their measles and DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccines in the Doti area of Nepal, a small country between India and China.

The children allegedly began vomiting profusely just hours after the vaccination, and "developed a deathly pallor." Two more children were hospitalized following their shots.

According to a recent report in The Himalayan1, the Doti District Public Health Office (DPHO) has stated the primary investigation suggests the measles vaccine was the cause of death.
Other infants who received other vaccines, but not the measles vaccine, have not developed any life-threatening side effects.

"The vaccines that were administered to infants were not expired though, said DPHO, adding that the vials of measles vaccines had labels showing expiry date of September 2013," The Himalayan reports. "...Kadamandau locals ...staged a sit-in in front of the hospital demanding a thorough investigation and punishment to the guilty. Doti-based human rights organizations also demanded that a probe be launched immediately."

In response, the Child Health Division under the Ministry of Health and Population has formed a committee to investigate the deaths. This case is reminiscent of a story from 2010, when nine-month-old twin girls in Ghaziabad, India died approximately 15 minutes after receiving a measles vaccine. Similar deaths in two other regions in the country were also reported at the time.

Vaccine-Related Deaths are Not Limited to Third-World Countries

A quick search of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)2 reveals nearly 5,100 U.S. deaths related to various vaccines, as of this writing. The vast majority of deaths – nearly 60 percent – occurred in children under the age of three. Just over 360 of the reported deaths in the US have been related to any of the measles-containing vaccines.


With over 70 vaccines included, VAERS is a phenomenal tool that can help you easily identify which vaccines are significantly associated with specific side effects. It is important to know, though, that only a tiny fraction of the reactions are actually reported to VAERS.

Studies have estimated that less than 10 percent, to as little as ONE percent, of side effects are ever reported, so the true side effects, and deaths, are easily FAR higher than the reported statistics represent. This means there may have been anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 deaths in the US alone from measles vaccines.

The truth is that while vaccines may be touted as safe, ALL vaccines and other pharmaceutical products carry a risk of injury or death. This is something that the media or nearly every health professional fails to make clear. Most take the position that everyone should be forced to have mandatory vaccines to help eliminate disease, in spite of the fact that there is no evidence to support this one-size-fits-all strategy.

Last month, I interviewed Dr. Larry Palevsky, a former fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and trained at the New York University School of Medicine, about childhood vaccinations, in which he shares the dire truth about the lack of safety of many childhood vaccines. There are so many unanswered questions that it really boils down to a roll of the dice as to whether the vaccine will ultimately protect you or harm you.

Download Interview Transcript

According to Dr. Palevsky:

"I think that if you ask most of my colleagues where they get their information, they will say that they read it from the American Academy of Pediatrics, from the AMA, from the CDC, and in their journals. But I would like to challenge most of my colleagues to look through the studies themselves to actually see if the proper scientific studies were done using a proper study group and a proper control group.

* Were the ingredients in vaccines properly studied?
* Is there a difference between being exposed to a virus, bacteria, heavy metal or toxin through the air, food, your intestines and your skin, versus when it's injected into your body?
* Have we really looked at what happens to vaccine materials once injected into a child? And is an antibody sufficient to provide protection for a child against disease?

More and more studies are coming out to show that:

* The proper studies haven't been done and antibodies are not the final way in which your body is protected
* There is a difference between how children process material through air and food versus through injection
* There are particles in vaccines that do accumulate in your body and cause impairments in your immune system
* There are particles in the vaccines that get into your brain and there are foreign DNA particles that get into your body

For many health professionals it is a shock to discover that there is such a lack of information on the safety and efficacy, and a mounting degree of information that actually raises suspicions about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, and whether or not they have been properly studied... n my research of the vaccines, and of the basic microbiology and virology that we're trained to know in our medical training, I cannot understand how a vaccine with a virus can be safe."

MMR Vaccine has Long History of Being More Reactive than Other Vaccines

There are vaccines that historically have been associated with more side effects than others, and the combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine – MMR shot – is one of those.

The health risks associated with the MMR vaccine has been in the news for about 15 years, and questions about the safety of the vaccine recently re-emerged – at least in Europe – when the Italian health ministry conceded that the MMR vaccine caused autism in Valentino Bocca, a now nine-year-old boy, who suffered brain inflammation and permanent brain damage after he was vaccinated.

According to his parents, the change in his behavior was immediate. That same night he refused to eat, and he developed diarrhea during the night. It quickly went downhill from there. While his parents immediately suspected the vaccination, they were told this was "impossible." Valentino progressively regressed, and received the diagnosis of autism a year later. In the final analysis, the Italian Health Ministry disagreed with the initial conclusion of the pediatrician, conceding that the vaccine was indeed at fault.

It's well worth noting that this story was completely ignored by US media, and serves as a potent example of how health information is censored. Is it any wonder so many Americans are still in the dark about vaccine hazards? Whether hearing about this case in the US media would sway you to believe vaccines are risky or not, the fact is that you were not even allowed to learn about it in the first place.

Get Informed Before You Vaccinate

No matter what vaccination choices you make for yourself or your family, there is a basic human right to be fully informed about all risks and have the ability to refuse to allow substances you consider to be harmful, toxic or poisonous to be forced upon you. Unfortunately, the partnership between government health agencies and vaccine manufacturers is getting closer and closer. There is a lot of discrimination against Americans, who want to be free to exercise their human right to informed consent when it comes to making voluntary decisions about which vaccines they and their children use.

We cannot allow that happen!

It's vitally important to know your legal rights and understand your options when it comes to using vaccines and prescription drugs.

For example, your doctor is legally obligated to provide you with the CDC Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) sheet and discuss the potential symptoms of side effects of the vaccination(s) you or your child receive BEFORE vaccination takes place. If someone giving a vaccine does not do this, it is a violation of federal law. Furthermore, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 also requires doctors and other vaccine providers to:

* Keep a permanent record of all vaccines given and the manufacturer's name and lot number
* Write down serious health problems, hospitalizations, injuries and deaths that occur after vaccination in the patient's permanent medical record
* File an official report of all serious health problems, hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following vaccination to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS)

If a vaccine provider fails to inform, record or report, it is a violation of federal law. It's important to get all the facts before making your decision about vaccination; and to understand that you have the legal right to opt out of using a vaccine that you do not want you or your child to receive. At present, all 50 states allow a medical exemption to vaccination (medical exemptions must be approved by an M.D. or D.O.); 48 states allow a religious exemption to vaccination; and 18 states allow a personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination. But vaccine exemptions are under attack in a number of states, and it's in everyone's best interest to protect the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand your rights under the law to make voluntary vaccine choices, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights will have the greatest impact.

Signing up to be a user of NVIC's free online Advocacy Portal at http://www.NVICAdvocacy.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. You will get real-time Action Alerts about what you can do if there are threats to vaccine exemptions in your state. With the click of a mouse or one touch on a Smartphone screen you will be put in touch with YOUR elected representatives so you can let them know how you feel and what you want them to do. Plus, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have all the information you need to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Internet Resources

I also encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at http://www.NVIC.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;:

* NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
* If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
* Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or state officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Find a Doctor Who will Listen to Your Concerns

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to punish those patients and parents, who become truly educated about health and vaccination and want to make vaccine choices instead of being forced to follow risky one-size-fits-all vaccine policies.

If you are treated with disrespect or are harassed in any way by a doctor (or government official), do not engage in an unproductive argument. You may want to contact an attorney, your elected state representatives, or local media if you or your child are threatened.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate and connect with a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 7th, 2012, 9:12 am
by BroJones
IMO, I would recommend staying away from vaccinations (see Dr Mercola's post above, for starters, and Jesus' warning in D&C 89 seems applicable also).

Onward -- APPS:
By Dr. Mercola

Did you know that 80 percent of doctors use smartphones and medical apps to help monitor and improve their health?1

And 40 percent of them also believe that health apps for mobile phones and tablets can help patients to monitor their fitness and eating habits, and thereby cut down on their number of office visits.

Technology can be a strong factor in helping you take control of your health, but there are now some 40,000 health apps to choose from – and it’s a completely rapidly growing, market.

It can take a serious time investment to determine which apps are actually helpful and provide accurate information, and which are merely a waste of your time.

Many of you know that I have a passion for technology in addition to health, so health apps, which combine the two, are invaluable to a “gadget geek” like me.

I have scanned many thousands of articles and downloaded several hundred applications, and the app suggestions that follow are among those I consider to be quite valuable.

6 Fitness Apps to Check Out

1. My Fitness Pal

This free app lets you track your activity and food/caloric intake using an activity log and food diary. I use this app nearly every day to record my food intake and help me keep track of my macronutrient ratios. It’s an incredibly easy way to monitor your food intake without a lot of fuss.

MyFitnessPal has an easy to use interface that allows you to access about 1 million food items in its database, plus you can also add your own foods and recipes at any time and access them from anywhere with an Internet connection. Once you enter new food nutritional information, it will be there for you the next time you need it.

I really love this app as it quickly and easily allows you to see the number of grams of carbs, fats and protein you're eating. I consider myself fairly sophisticated nutritionally, but I was really shocked when I found out what the actual numbers were. This is a very powerful tool and best of all it is free.

2. Nike+ Running

If you love running or jogging, this free app lets you map out runs, monitor your distance and speed, and even track calories burned. It will even track your location as you run using GPS, and lets you share goals and run information with those on your social networks.

3. Endomondo Sports Tracker

Another free app, this one is like having your very own personal trainer available at your fingertips. Along with the “usual” ability to track your heart rate, calories, speed, and distance during a workout, a built in GPS tracks your route on a map. Plus, when you enter your goals, an audio coach will give you feedback while you exercising to keep you motivated, and you can also share your workouts with friends and even track the workouts of your friends in real time.

4. Mother’s World and Period Tracker

These are actually two separate apps, but both are incredibly useful for women. Mother’s World is a pregnancy app that gives you updates about your pregnancy, nutritional information, exercises, and allows you to record baby movements, and even has tips for dealing with pregnancy emotions.

Period Tracker allows you to keep track of your menstrual cycle, ovulation, temperature, moods and PMS symptoms. It also has a health journal and a feature to connect with other women for support.

5. D Minder

Discerning how much vitamin D you’re actually getting when you are outside is a very complex individualized formula, which takes into account your location, weather, your skin color and more. After entering some basic information, such as your height and weight, skin type, location and time you are outdoors, D Minder helps you track and manage your vitamin D.

It will compute your generated vitamin D versus your target vitamin D, as well as track how long you can stay out in the sun and warn you when that time is up.

6. All-in Yoga

If you’re interested in creating an individualized yoga program, but don’t want to hire a one-on-one instructor, try this app. It lets you create a program based on your experience (beginner to advanced), time available and goals, as well as a database of more than 200 poses with detailed instructions. Also fun, it will give you a daily inspirational message to keep you on target.

And a Bonus App: Fitness Builder

There are loads of exercise applications on the net but Fitness Builder, in my experience, is the most comprehensive fitness database in the world. It contains the largest library of exercise images and videos, the most challenging workouts across all disciplines, access to a live personal trainer and a complete set of every fitness tool, and a calculator and tracking feature are available.

Most all of the apps I have are free, but this one costs $10 for the base version and it is worth every penny if you use it, as it helps you keep incredible records for your workouts.

Should You Consider a Tablet for Your Apps?

Apps are quickly becoming one of the most useful ways to harness the power of technology, but can you really get their full effect if you access them from a smartphone?

It depends on your usage, but if you plan to use fitness or other apps with any frequency, a tablet will make it much easier. Personally, the iPad is definitely one of my favorite gadgets. I simply do not travel without it, as it is a nearly ideal way to make use of electronic content. Every expert I have read gives it a significant advantage over other tablets and it will likely retain its lead for the next several years.

That said, if you’re in the middle of a workout and are looking to track your heart rate or calories burned, apps for your Blackberry or iPhone will make more sense, and can keep you informed and get you going no matter where you are, as long as you have a smartphone.

More Apps You Might Want to Consider – From Gauging Radiation Exposure to a Personalized “Magazine”

I also want to mention several other applications that you might find useful if you pull them up on your smartphone or iPad:

* The Galactic Radiation Calculator: Calculates how much radiation you're being exposed to when you fly in a plane.
* The NVIC Vaccine Ingredients Calculator: This simple-to-use application can help you evaluate the ingredients in specific vaccines to help you compare brands and create a vaccination plan for your child
* The True Food Shopper's Guide by the Center for Food Safety, which helps you identify and avoid genetically modified (GM) ingredients.
* The NON-GMO Shopping Guide by the Institute for Responsible Technology, which also helps you avoid GM foods. This guide is also available in Spanish.
* Flipboard is without question my favorite app. I have used RSS feeds for well over a decade, but Flipboard takes them to a new level. It is like a personalized magazine. It's actually one of the most popular apps on the Web, as you can easily find RSS feeds and blogs on any topic and easily add them.
* Zite is a lighter weight version of Flipboard but can also be useful for novices. It's a personalized digital magazine that updates virtually every time you open it up to crawl over half a million Web sites to find specific reading material that would be of interest to you. It is a snap to learn and use.
* Newspapers: Another justification for purchasing the iPad is that you can get free subscriptions to some of the best papers in the US as they all have free apps. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today are all on my home page. Subscription to the WSJ costs hundreds of dollars a year but you can get virtually all of the articles for no charge on the app and for the ones you can't get, all you need to do is type the article headline in a search engine and it will give you a link to the full article where you can read it for free.
* The Weather Channel: If you want to know what the weather is now or will be in the near future, I don't know of a better app out there than this one. This free app is an absolute must have. Beautiful graphics allow you to easily compare different cities by a single swipe with colorful graphic 10-day predictions. Of course they have Doppler radar maps so you can easily see when rain or snow will likely hit your area. I use this nearly every day and suspect you might too.
* Dragon Dictate is another free app that is shockingly accurate and will allow you to dictate emails and texts on your phone or iPad.

What are YOUR Favorite Apps?

One of the primary reasons for posting this article was to get YOUR feedback. Many of you have been using apps for some time and I suspect you have found some good ones. So let's share! You can write a comment below to share your favorite apps and what your experience has been with them. This will not only help me but all the millions of others who read this site as well.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 11:03 am
by BroJones
Discussion of the Standard American Diet (SAD) et al:
By Dr. Mercola

In recent years, as the pace of the US economic recovery has slowed, the number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program has skyrocketed, recently reaching an all-time high of roughly 46 million Americans.

With so many people in need of assistance to purchase food for their families, the question of whether or not it is possible to truly eat healthy on a food-stamp budget has become all the more pressing.

Husband and wife filmmakers Yoav and Shira Potash tackled this inquiry with both their cameras and their stomachs in the acclaimed documentary film Food Stamped.

Can You Eat Healthy for $1 a Meal?

While food assistance varies from state to state, a typical food-stamp budget amounts to a paltry $1 per person, per meal.

At the start of Food Stamped, nutrition educator and filmmaker Shira Potash reveals that teaching healthy cooking classes to elementary students in low-income neighborhoods gave her the idea to take the food stamp challenge. As she says in the film, "Even though I can get kids excited about fruits and vegetables, can their families realistically afford to make the kinds of things we're introducing in school?"

In its depiction of a wide variety of people who receive food assistance dollars, Food Stamped shows that many of these Americans live in "food deserts" – areas without grocery stores, and perhaps only a convenience store where they can purchase their food.

Like all Americans, there's a decent chance that these low-income individuals may lack any knowledge of healthy eating and cooking, let alone the resourceful combination of skills and habits required to transform a $1-meal budget into a tasty, balanced diet for themselves and their families.

The filmmakers acknowledge that they had some advantages from the start. For one, Shira's experience as a nutrition educator provided her not only with the knowledge of what constitutes a healthy meal, but also the practice of how to prepare it. Meanwhile, the filmmakers took their food stamp challenge not in a food dessert, but in the "food-mecca" of Berkeley, California, a city with plentiful access to healthy food and farmer's markets.

On the other hand, Shira's filmmaker husband Yoav possesses no formal nutrition knowledge and was, more or less, dragged into the challenge by his health-crusading wife. In a humorous scene in which the couple traipses through the grocery store with their low-budget shopping list in hand, Yoav asks – incredulously – "You're choosing lettuce over coffee?" When Shira reminds Yoav of the high price of his daily habit, he mentions that perhaps he will have to "crash Alcoholics Anonymous meetings" for the free coffee.

While this filmmaking couple has a charming and light-hearted presence on-camera, when they are behind the camera they provide a deep and powerful look at the struggles many families face as they attempt to put three square meals on the table. The filmmakers visit food stamp enrollment clinics and tag along with low-income shoppers who tend to opt for the cheapest, most filling foods, such as white bread, factory-farmed ground beef, and ramen noodles.

Meanwhile, in interviews with Members of Congress who also took the food stamp challenge, Food Stamped shows how our elected officials – when forced to eat on meager budgets themselves – likewise fell prey to the allure of cheap convenience foods.

"The food that we ended up buying was the least healthy food," says Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern of Massuchusetts in a poignant interview featured in the film. "The less nutritious the food, the cheaper it is, the more you can afford."

Looking beyond our personal food choices, Food Stamped explores the faults in US food and farm policy. Why, for instance, is fresh produce hard to come by while fast-food restaurants seem to pop up on every corner?

Government Food Choices That Make or Break Your Health

If your meals consist of $1 burgers and super-size drinks, your diet may be cheap, but it is also excessively high in grains, sugars, and factory-farmed meats. This is a recipe for obesity, diabetes and heart disease, just to name a few calamitous conditions that befall those who consume "the Standard American Diet," which Food Stamped memorably depicts with a red frowny face and the abbreviation S.A.D.

In a wonderful distillation of the US Farm Bill, the documentary shows how we have the US government to thank for this cheap food. Farm subsidies, particularly for corn, lead to the production of high-fructose corn syrup, cheap fast food, animal factories, monoculture, and a host of other contributors to our unhealthful modern diet. (A U.S. PIRG report on federal subsidies used an "apples-to-Twinkies comparison" to reveal the shocking truth about where your tax dollars are really going.)2

As Food Stamped uses graphics to show the billions of taxpayer dollars given to commodity crops every year, food policy experts, such as Shereen D'Souza, Director of the California Food and Justice Coalition, describe how the US farm subsidies program is actually promoting foods that are extraordinarily high in calories, fat, and sugar.

By examining the farm subsidies program and government-assisted nutrition education efforts side by side, Food Stamped reveals the glaring contradictions is US food policy. In one USDA program, our tax dollars are subsidizing junk food , while across the hall another USDA program funds an anti-obesity campaign. This hypocrisy shows just how broken and wasteful our regulatory system really is. No wonder so many people fall into the junk-food trap.

The Allure of Junk Food That Keeps You Coming Back for More

For me, watching Food Stamped made me think about how many Americans purchase junk food not because of their own financial limitations, but simply because they choose to. Make no mistake: junk food is convenient, economically alluring, and engineered to appeal to your primal drive for calories, fat, sugar, and salt.

From the intense advertising to the lab-tested recipes, the junk food system is orchestrated to keep you buying more junk in lieu of real food. As you consume more and more of these highly processed products, you lose touch with the foundations of healthy eating – and your kids may grow up never knowing the value of a home-cooked meal.

The fact that manufacturers are able to keep pulling the wool over people's eyes, convincing them that these products are "foods" worthy of buying is nothing more than a marketing victory, albeit a very persuasive one.

One telling shot in Food Stamped reveals the ubiquity of fast-food with a simple but effective zoom-out. As the filmmakers visit a farmer's market in the low-income food desert of Watts, California, the camera reveals a Jack-in-the-box directly across the street from the farmers and the fresh produce. The implication is clear; on the one hand, the farmers and their produce have arrived in the ghetto, helping to make fresh and healthy food available in an area where it is sorely needed. On the other hand, the farmer's market is an occasional institution, operating just one day a week, while the fast food franchise pumps out its low-nutrient fare seven days a week, 365 days a year.

While it's possible to make the healthy choice, under these conditions, it's not easy.

And yet, Food Stamped provides inspiring glimpses of people like an African-American woman shopping at the Watts farmer's market patron who proudly conveys that her doctors tell her to "keep doing what I'm doing – a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of water, no fried foods."

But cost is just one factor. The convenience, pervasive presence, and the addictive nature of processed food are what drive so many Americans – rich or poor – to eat far too much junk.

In response, I want to highlight healthy foods that are very affordable, and also offer eight tips for stretching your food budget in a manner that is good for your health and your pocketbook

Healthy Foods That Are Under $1

I'm often surprised at the prices people are willing to pay for boxes of breakfast cereals that are full of nothing more than sugar, or for bags of chips that offer nothing good for your body whatsoever. And don't get me started on soda and all the other sugary drinks that flood our stores. In short, they are an absolute health disaster!

These pricey processed foods will eat up your grocery budget in the blink of an eye, and will cause disease in the long-term. In reality, any money spent on junk food is a waste, and purging these items from your grocery list is the first step to eating right on a budget.

Some of the healthiest foods are incredibly affordable, even under $1 a serving, such as:

Raw organic milk
Raw nuts and seeds
Two cage-free organic eggs
Avocado, berries and broccoli
Fermented foods you make at home

Getting back to the original question, is it possible to eat healthy even on a very limited budget, I believe it can be – if you keep these foundational rules in mind…

8 Tips for Stretching Your Food Budget and Still Eating Real Food

In order to protect your health, I believe you should spend 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent on processed foods (unfortunately most Americans currently do the opposite). This requires some strategy, especially if you're working with a tight budget:

Identify a Person to Prepare Meals. Someone has to invest some time in the kitchen. It will be necessary for either you, your spouse, some other family member or someone you pay to prepare the meals from locally-grown healthful foods.
Become resourceful: This is an area where your grandmother can be a wealth of information, as how to use up every morsel of food and stretch out a good meal was common knowledge to generations past. Seek to get back to the basics of cooking – using the bones from a roast chicken to make stock for a pot of soup, extending a Sunday roast to use for weekday dinners, learning how to make hearty stews from inexpensive cuts of meat, using up leftovers and so on.
Plan your meals: If you fail to plan you are planning to fail. This is essential, as you will need to be prepared for mealtimes in advance to be successful. Ideally this will involve scouting out your local farmer's markets for in-season produce that is priced to sell, and planning your meals accordingly, but you can also use this same premise with supermarket sales.

You can generally plan a week of meals at a time, make sure you have all ingredients necessary on hand, and then do any prep work you can ahead of time so that dinner is easy to prepare if you're short on time in the evenings.

It is no mystery that you will be eating lunch around noon every day so rather than rely on fast food at work, before you go to bed make a plan as to what you are going to take to work the next day. This is a marvelous simple strategy that will let you eat healthier, especially it you take healthy food from home in to work.
Avoid food waste: According to a study published in the journal PloS One,4 Americans waste an estimated 1,400 calories of food per person, each and every day. The two steps above will help you to mitigate food waste in your home. You may also have seen my article titled 14 Ways to Save Money on Groceries. Among those tips are suggestions for keeping your groceries fresher, longer, and I suggest reviewing those tips now.
Buy organic animal foods. The most important foods to buy organic are animal, not vegetable, products (meat, eggs, butter, etc.), because animal foods tend to concentrate pesticides in higher amounts. If you cannot afford to buy all of your food organic, opt for organic animal foods first.
Keep costs down on grass-fed beef. Pasture-finished beef is far healthier than grain-fed beef (which I don't recommend consuming). To keep cost down, look for inexpensive roasts or ground meat. You may also save money by buying an entire side of beef (or splitting one with two or three other families), if you have enough freezer space to store it.
Buy in bulk when non-perishable items go on sale.
If you are fortunate to live near a buyer's club or a co-op, you may also be able to take advantage of buying by the pound from bins, saving both you and the supplier the cost of expensive packaging.
Frequent farmer's market. You may be surprised to find out that by going directly to the source you can get amazingly healthy, locally-grown, organic food for less than you can find at your supermarket. This gives you the best of both worlds: food that is grown near to you, cutting down on its carbon footprint and giving you optimal freshness, as well as grown without chemicals, genetically modified seeds, and other potential toxins.

Just as restaurants are able to keep their costs down by getting food directly from a supplier, you, too, can take advantage of a direct farm-to-consumer relationship, either on an individual basis or by joining a food coop in your area. Many farmer's markets are now accepting food stamps, so this is an opportunity most everyone can join in on.

While the film Food Stamped doesn't spell out these steps, it's clear that filmmakers Shira and Yoav Potash exerted considerable effort in the planning and preparation of their meals. The point for them was not to score an A+ on their nutrition report card (revealed at the end of the film), but instead to take audiences on an entertaining and highly informative journey. For that, they do deserve an A+.

While their trek began at the intersection of the economic recession and the obesity epidemic, it never really ends. Instead, it weaves its way into your grocery list and your own thoughts about what you consume. While there have been many films that explore food and health issues, Food Stamped does so with freshness, intelligence, and an appropriate sense of both humor and hope. In the face of a multi-billion dollar processed food industry, this low-budget documentary packs both a punch and a crunch. I highly recommend it.
We are enjoying the produce from our local farmers' market at this time!
Hmmmm... raspberries and tomatoes!

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 12th, 2012, 6:27 pm
by BroJones
This about depression from another source:
10 Ways to Stay Depression-Free
By Catherine Winters, Special to Lifescript
Published July 12, 2012
You finally beat depression. But even after the sadness lifts, your symptoms may return. So how can healthy habits like ditching the booze, getting more vitamin D or practicing yoga help? We talked to experts about the top 10 natural ways to manage moods...

After months of battling depression, you’re feeling normal again.

Your doctor or therapist has given you tools for staying positive, and you know the warning signs of a depressive episode so you can get help as soon as you sense them.

Now’s the time to enjoy life – and to take better care of your physical and mental well-being.

Depression is a lifelong, chronic condition, and it needs to be maintained like any other disease.

“You have to approach depression the same way you would diabetes. There’s a vigilance you have to maintain for a balanced life,” says Alan Manevitz, M.D., associate professor of clinical psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

Besides medication or therapy, that means practicing healthy habits associated with better moods.Healthy living is an important part of self-care, Manevitz says. For example, when you eat right, brain cells get appropriate nutrition so “the brain works at its maximum,” he explains.

And exercise releases endorphins, brain chemicals that act as natural antidepressants.

Here are 10 lifestyle changes that can keep you feeling your best.

1. Lose the booze.
People with chronic depression sometimes use alcohol to self-medicate.

Drinking releases neurotransmitters that may make you feel better, but only temporarily. And as you develop a tolerance, you need larger amounts, and then it becomes even more of a depressant on your central nervous system, Manevitz says.

If you’re taking antidepressants, alcohol can also increase their side effects, making you drowsy, more intoxicated than usual, or in some cases, causing a blood pressure spike that could lead to a stroke, according to the Mayo Clinic.

2. Work up a sweat.
Exercise is great for mental well-being, says Jasper Smits, Ph.D., director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

It can head off a recurrence of mild to moderate depression, or help you overcome an episode, according to his team’s research.

With severe depression, exercise can augment traditional treatments, including psychotherapy or antidepressant medication, adds Smits, co-author of Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being (Oxford University Press).Researchers are still determining how physical activity helps, but evidence suggests it may act as a form of behavioral activation, a depression treatment strategy that encourages people to be productive rather than inactive.

“If you’ve been productive, your mood improves,” Smits says.

Smits recommends aiming for the government’s physical-activity recommendations: 150 minutes per week of moderately intense movement (brisk walking, water aerobics, gardening); 75 minutes of vigorous activity (jumping rope, running, hiking); or a combination of the two.

Multiple studies have found benefits from doing 20-60 minutes of exercise per session, so aim for at least 20 minutes. But if you’re new to exercise or short on time, that doesn’t mean you should skip it.

“Even a 10-minute walk has short-term positive effects on mood,” Smits says.

3. Eat like a Spaniard.
Closely following a Mediterranean diet is strongly associated with lower depression risk, according to a 2009 Spanish study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Researchers speculate that the diet’s heart-healthy benefits – reducing inflammation, improving blood vessel function and decreasing the risk of metabolic syndrome – may play a role in keeping the brain fit.Mediterranean-style eating is simple: When you’re grocery shopping, fill your cart with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, beans, fish, poultry, nuts and low-fat dairy. Meanwhile, cut back on refined carbs, fatty meats and highly processed foods.

4. Get your zzz’s.
It’s no surprise that too little rest can worsen your mood, but depression itself can keep you from sleeping through the night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

The connection between the conditions is significant: People with regular insomnia are nearly 10 times more likely to have significant depression, and 17 times more likely to develop anxiety, according to a 2005 University of North Texas study.

If you’re having trouble sleeping – whether or not you’re currently depressed – talk to your doctor or a sleep expert so you can get the 7-9 hours you need.

5. Get more vitamin D.
Low levels of vitamin D have long been linked to depression. And research is ongoing about whether the fat-soluble vitamin can improve rates of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or winter depression.

SAD hits when days get shorter and there’s less sunlight, our prime natural source of vitamin D. But we don’t always get enough of the vitamin in summer, either, because the sunscreen we slather on to protect against skin cancer blocks D-producing rays.It’s also hard to get the amount of D we need from food. Only certain fish (salmon, sardines, tuna, mackerel and cod), D-fortified milk and a few other foods contain much of this important nutrient.

How much do you need? Expert opinions vary. Government recommendations suggest 200 international units (IU) per day until age 50, 400 IU between 51 and 70, and 600 IU after that.

But some researchers recommend considerably more. Vitamin D expert Michael F. Holick, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, molecular medicine physiology and biophysics at Boston University Medical Center, thinks adults actually need closer to 1,500-2,000 IU of vitamin D per day.

Since one 8-ounce glass of milk only has about 100 IU, your best bet is taking a multivitamin or vitamin D supplement.

Read more about this and other supplements in 4 Natural Mood-Boosters: Do They Work?

6. Embrace your inner yogi.
Yoga relaxes you, but does it fight depression? Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine think it could. And the more you practice, the better off you may be.

In their study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in 2007, participants spent three hours a week either walking or practicing Iyengar yoga, a form of hatha yoga that uses blocks, belts and other props to ensure correct body alignment during postures.

Their moods and anxiety levels were measured at the start of the study and at weeks 4, 8 and 12.MRI brain scans were also done to measure levels of a neurotransmitter called gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), low levels of which are associated with mood and anxiety disorders.

At the end of the study, the scans showed higher GABA levels in the participants who practiced yoga. (Those new to the discipline saw a 13% increase, while experienced yoga practitioners had a 27% rise.) By contrast, those who only walked had no bump in GABA levels.

According to researcher Chris Streeter, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and neurology, yoga boosts the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is associated with rest and rejuvenation.

So why didn’t walking offer the same benefits? In this study, participants were limited to ambling around the periphery of a gymnasium. Walking outside or walking faster could make it a more effective mood booster, Streeter says.

The key to getting the most out of any workout is to choose a physical activity you like and do it in a setting you’ll enjoy, she adds.

7. Just say om.
People who practiced transcendental meditation (TM), a form of “mantra meditation” in which you mentally repeat a sound, had fewer depression symptoms than those who didn’t, according to researchers who presented two studies at a 2010 meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

In fact, participants with clinically significant depression who meditated twice a day for a year had an average 48% reduction in symptoms.Not only does TM decrease psychological stress, it may also reduce a person’s reactions to environmental stress and reduce the amount of brooding about problems, says lead study author Sanford Nidich, Ed.D., senior researcher at the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

It may also have a positive effect on serotonin, the brain’s feel-good chemical, Nidich adds.

You don’t need to join a particular group to learn healthy meditation techniques – just read How to Meditate to get started.

8. Keep your cool.
Too much mental stress can harm your ability to maintain a steady mood. But stress overload varies by person – some can't function outside a calm environment, while others may do fine in stressful situations.

For example, “some people thrive as a fireman or ER doctor,” Manevitz says. “Others get so stressed out they’re vulnerable to depression.”

His solution? Balance your life based on the amount and kinds of stress you can handle. “You need to know what your abilities and trigger points are.” 9. Kick the habit.
Here’s another reason to put away that pack: Women who smoke have a greater risk of developing major depression than non-smokers, according to a 10-year Australian study published in 2008 in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Among heavy smokers – those who smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day – the depression risk was more than double that of non-smokers: 15% of the smokers studied went on to develop major depression, while only 6.5% of the non-smokers did.

Smoking can be another way of self-medicating for a depressed mood, so ask your doctor or therapist to help you quit.

Read on for a no-fail quit smoking guide.

10. Build a support system.
People who care about you can help you through tough times, and that includes mental illnesses.

In fact, a 2005 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry reported that women who feel more loved and have more support from friends and family members face lower risk for major depression.If you have a tendency to isolate yourself, make an extra effort to spend time with friends and family. Support groups, social clubs and interest-based organizations can also help bring you out of your shell.

Learn more about managing your moods in our Depression Health Center.

How Much Do You Know About Depression?
Depression is an extremely disabling disorder. Despite all the progress in diagnosing and treating this disease, many people still are in the dark when it comes to understanding depression. How much do you really know? Take this depression quiz, which includes information from Dr. Lawson Wulsin's book, Treating The Aching Heart, and see how well you know fact from fiction.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 14th, 2012, 4:00 pm
by BroJones
Today Dr Mercola quotes from another researcher, re; intermittent fasting.

By Ori Hofmekler

The intermittent fasting approach has been getting increased recognition these days. But 10 years ago, it was a different story.

When I introduced The Warrior Diet concept about 12 years ago, it was highly criticized by mainstream fitness authorities as an "extreme and dangerous" approach to dieting. Telling people to skip breakfast and lunch was like committing dietary heresy.

The Warrior Diet book was the first to offer a diet plan based on intermittent fasting. Yes, at that time, it felt like I was the only person in the world arguing for substituting the frequent feeding approach of several meals per day with one meal per day.

Then, a few years later, studies on intermittent fasting (conducted by Dr. Marc Mattson/NIH) shocked the world with the news that this "radical" pattern of eating yielded a substantial increase in the lifespan of rodents along with outstanding improvements in major health markers including insulin sensitivity, body composition and neuro-regeneration capacity. Since then, a growing number of health and fitness gurus have been jumping on the intermittent fasting (IF) wagon. Just Google intermittent fasting and check for yourself.

Multiple websites and many bloggers are now claiming credit for their IF plan. The variations include fasting all day, every other day, every third day, twice per week, once per week, or once every other week. Some recommend skipping breakfast or skipping dinner, whereas others advise "eating only when hungry," or "not eating when not hungry."

Incredibly, even Andrew Weil is now blogging in favor of IF. According to Weil, simply eating three meals per day with no snacks should be called in America "a form of intermittent fasting"… yes indeed, to be popular in this country, a diet plan must be easy to follow… But fasting is never easy. And there is always a reason to avoid fasting. Virtually all IF websites are happy to give you these reasons.

Plenty of Reasons (or Perhaps Excuses) to Avoid Fasting

They tell you: don't fast if you're hypoglycemic; don't fast if you're diabetic; don't skip meals if you suffer from heartburn, or don't get yourself overstressed with fasting if you're already overstressed.

It is also very popular these days to say, "fasting is not for everyone"… hence, if you're looking for a reason to avoid fasting, that's the easiest one to pick.

Note that there are cases that may prohibit long-term fasting, such as with young children, type I diabetics (on insulin medication), or in the case of clinical myopathy (muscle wasting disease). Nonetheless, even in these or similar cases, the exclusion of fasting is not necessarily wise, as fasting could be potentially useful as a therapeutic strategy. Fasting has shown to improve conditions of metabolic disorders, lower the need for insulin medication, and help relieve inflammation.

So how can fasting benefit you?

To figure that out, you need to take a look at the science behind fasting. You need to know how fasting induces its beneficial effects on your body, and what meal frequency allows you to take maximum advantage of that.

How Fasting Benefits Your Body

Scientists acknowledged three major mechanisms by which fasting benefits your body, as it extends lifespan and protects against disease:

Reduced oxidative stress – Fasting decreases the accumulation of oxidative radicals in the cell, and thereby prevents oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids associated with aging and disease.
Increased insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial energy efficiency – Fasting increases insulin sensitivity along with mitochondrial energy efficiency, and thereby retards aging and disease, which are typically associated with loss of insulin sensitivity and declined mitochondrial energy.
Increased capacity to resist stress, disease and aging – Fasting induces a cellular stress response (similar to that induced by exercise) in which cells up-regulate the expression of genes that increase the capacity to cope with stress and resist disease and aging.

There is Only One Fasting Regimen that Makes Sense in Practice...

So given the above, what kind of fasting regimen will benefit you most?

If you learn the facts behind human biology and how your body is programmed to thrive, you will realize that almost every popular IF program today, including alternate day fasting, once or twice a week fasting, and once every other week fasting are, in the best case, only partially beneficial.

Most IF programs cannot and will not yield the results you're looking for. The reason: Your body operates around a 24-hour cycle that dictates your innate circadian clock. Most IF programs are not designed to accommodate that cycle.

Most IF Programs Disregard Your Circadian Clock

Your innate clock is an essential factor in your life as it controls all your circadian rhythms. Called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN), it is located in your hypothalamus, where it regulates how your autonomic nervous system operates along with your hormones, your wake and sleep pattern, your feeding behavior, and your capacity to digest food, assimilate nutrients, and eliminate toxins.

What happens when you go against your innate clock?

If you're routinely disregarding your innate clock – working during sleeping hours, or feeding at the wrong time – you'll sooner or later pay the consequences with symptoms that may include disrupted sleep, agitation, digestive disorders, constipation, chronic fatigue, chronic cravings for sweets and carbs, fat gain, and lower resistance to stress.

Note that chronic disruptions in circadian rhythms have been linked with increased risk for chronic inflammatory disease and cancer. Most IF programs overlook this issue. Their timing of feeding is either random or wrong.

But the timing of your feeding is not something you can afford overlooking. There is a dual relationship between your feeding and innate clock. And as much as your innate clock affects your feeding, your feeding can affect your innate clock. Routinely eating at the wrong time will disrupt your innate clock and devastate vital body functions; and you'll certainly feel the side effects as your whole metabolic system gets unsynchronized.

Your Biological Feeding Time is at Night

So when is your right feeding time?

Your body is programmed for nocturnal feeding. All your activities, including your feeding, are controlled by your autonomic nervous system which operates around the circadian clock. During the day, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) puts your body in an energy spending active mode, whereas during the night your parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) puts your body in an energy replenishing relaxed and sleepy mode.

These two parts of your autonomic nervous system complement each other like yin and yang. Your SNS, which is stimulated by fasting and exercise, keeps you alert and active with an increased capacity to resist stress and hunger throughout the day. And your PSNS, which is stimulated by your nightly feeding, makes you relaxed and sleepy, with a better capacity to digest and replenish nutrients throughout the night. This is how your autonomic nervous system operates under normal conditions.

But that system is highly vulnerable to disruption.

If you eat at the wrong time such as when having a large meal during the day, you will mess with your autonomic nervous system; you'll inhibit your SNS and instead turn on the PSNS which will make you sleepy and fatigued rather than alert and active during the working hours of the day. And instead of spending energy and burning fat, you'll store energy and gain fat. This is indeed a lose-lose situation. Unfortunately, most IF programs fail to recognize this.

Most IF Programs Miss the Boat

Let's take a brief look at some of the most notable IF regimens.

Alternate day fasting. This program seems to be the most difficult to handle. Followers of this regimen have been complaining of a significant increase in hunger and a chronic excruciating desire to eat on their fasting day. But what makes this IF program even more problematic is the adaptability issue – as followers seem to be just as hungry on the last day of fasting as on their first day. There have also been reports of side effects such as sleeping disorders, constipation, and a persistent fatigue among the followers.

The alternate day fasting has one major caveat: the 24 hours fast seems too long to handle (both physically and mentally). This regimen has been shown to cause sleeping issues due to the fact that night fasting turns on the SNS which keeps you alert and anxious rather than relaxed and sleepy during the night – thereby disrupting your sleep-wake cycle.

Furthermore, based on epidemiological evidence, it seems that the human body is programmed for a daily cycle of 24 hours and its optimum fasting threshold should be within the range of 18 hours. Anything beyond that may put your body in a starvation-catabolic mode which if done chronically, may lead to metabolic shutdown's symptoms such as underactive thyroid, decreased sex hormones, loss of muscle mass, and declined energy.
Once a week or twice a week fasting. Both once or twice a week seem to be easier to follow than the alternate day fasting, only that these regimens are less effective than the alternate day fasting. Eating 3-4 square meals every day for most of the week is a serious compromise of the original IF concept, as it minimizes the weekly impact of fasting to merely 1-2 days per week.
Fasting every other week or every month. Worse than that is "fasting every other week" or every month. These IF programs seem to target the typical American dieter who is constantly looking for an "easy to follow" program to lose weight or improve health. The motto "better fasting once or twice per month than not fasting at all" is just an excuse to choose mediocrity over excellence.
Skipping dinner. The skipping dinner approach goes against your innate clock. This regimen may cause sleep disorders and similar side effects as the alternate day fasting diet, only that skipping dinner is less effective than the alternate day fasting due to its shorter fasting time.

Advocates of skipping dinner argue that breakfast is an important meal and should not be skipped. Nonetheless, the science clearly indicates the opposite – the typical breakfast antagonizes the SNS and disrupts healthy circadian rhythms.

There is growing evidence that the typical breakfast is the most harmful meal of the day. A study by the Human Nutrition Research France1 indicated that the typical high energy breakfast caused major adverse effects in the short and long terms. These included a strong inhibition of fat burning throughout the day, increase in serum triacylglycerol, decrease in HDL (good cholesterol), and over-glycemic reactions. The researchers concluded that high-energy breakfast does not appear to be favorable to health; they also indicated that the study's results do not support the current advice to consume more energy at breakfast.

Note that the average consumption of energy at breakfast among breakfast eaters is between 15-20 percent of total daily energy intake. The typical breakfast composition: 12 percent of calories from protein, 25 percent from fat and 63 percent from carbohydrates.

Other reports coming from epidemiological surveys have been indicating that the consumption of a high energy breakfast leads to a significant higher energy consumption for the whole day. Furthermore, a big breakfast has shown to yield only a limited satiety effect which lasts merely 2 hours after breakfast. Overall, science confirms that the typical high carbohydrate breakfast tends to increase fat storage, increase body weight, and increase the risk for cardiovascular disease and long term health.

Note that some of the healthiest societies in the past did not eat breakfast; the word breakfast was not part of their vocabulary. The typical breakfast did not exist during Biblical times. In the original Hebrew text of the Bible, breakfast is called "pat shacharit" which meant a tiny piece of bread at dawn – nothing more. And there isn't a single mention of breakfast in the new testament; supper was the main meal of the day (hence, the Last Supper). The ancient Greeks and Romans were very particular about eating their main meal at night. According to Plutarch and Cicero, only slaves and farm animals were fed breakfast and lunch, as contrary to free men and soldiers who ate one meal per day at night.
Skipping breakfast. Skipping breakfast is certainly a better idea than skipping dinner. This protocol seems to be particularly viable for those who exercise during the morning hours. In this case a specially modified high protein lunch can serve as a post exercise recovery meal. The skipping breakfast regimen is nevertheless problematic.

Proponents of this approach speculate that skipping breakfast after a night fast yields about 16-18 hours of fasting including sleeping time. That seems good in theory but in reality this regimen doesn't yield as many hours of fasting as claimed.

Here is why: What really counts is your net fasting time, the gap between your meals minus digestion time. It typically takes your body between 6-8 hours to fully digest a hearty evening meal (depends on your meal density – content of protein and fat, etc). If for instance you start your evening meal at 8pm and finish eating at 9-10pm, your body will only shift into a fasting state by the early morning hours (about 3-6am). Hence, your body will not be in a fasting state for most of the night.

So when you skip your morning meal until noon, your net fasting time is merely 6-9 hours. That might be good but not enough to grant maximum impact. So what is the ideal way to fast? What should be your right meal frequency?

The One Meal Per Day Plan

The one meal per day plan is the only regimen that can accommodate your innate clock and maximize the beneficial effects you get from IF on a daily basis. That's if your food choices and meal timing are adequate.

The one meal per day yields 14-16 hours of net fasting time provided that you have a window of about two hours to finish eating. And in the case that you have a feeding window of four hours, you're still left with 12-14 hours of daily net fasting – sufficient to get you the results you're looking for.

Other IF regimens yield a net fasting time that is either too long or too short. And most of these programs cause adverse side effects as they fail to accommodate your innate clock.

Can the One Meal Per Day Regimen Satisfy Your Physical Needs?

The one meal per day regimen can accommodate your physical needs, but you need to know how to modulate this regimen to fit your specific condition. For instance, if you routinely exercise during the day you'll need to feed your muscle after your workout with a low glycemic recovery meal made with fast assimilating protein, such as that from high quality whey. You can also feed your muscle before your workout as this will help increase your capacity to sustain intense exercise.

Can One Meal Per Day Accommodate Intense Training?

If you're engaged in max strength conditioning or MMA training, you should feed your muscle before and after your workout. Only in this case, your pre-workout meal should consist of protein and carbs. Note that max strength exercise work your fast glycolytic muscle fibers (Type IIB white fibers), which are inherently carb dependent. Having fast assimilating protein and carbs before your workout can help load glycogen in your muscle, nourish your fast fibers; and boost your max strength performance.

Your best choice for your pre-exercise and post-exercise meal is quality whey protein, derived from raw milk of pasture-fed or grass-fed cows. For pre-workout carbs use nutrient dense fruits such as berries, which can swiftly fuel your muscle with carbs and antioxidants and thereby enhance your performance while reducing the oxidative stress in your muscle to allow a faster recovery after your training.

Having an oatmeal or porridge an hour before training can be a viable option in case you're engaged in prolonged intense training sessions. Again, make sure your post-exercise recovery meal is low glycemic with no sugar added, to support your insulin and accommodate your IF. High glycemic meals negate the benefits you get from fasting.

Foods That Can Be Safely Consumed During Fasting

So is it ok to eat whey protein during fasting? What other foods could be safely consumed during the fast? How often can you eat these foods and how much?

In the Warrior Diet Book, I introduced the concept of "undereating" as a viable alternative to water fasting. Undereating means minimizing your food intake to small servings of specific foods, which you're allowed to consume in a certain frequency during your fast. If done properly, undereating can yield the same benefits of fasting and even more. Let me explain.

Most foods negate the effects of fasting, but there are some exceptions. Some foods can be safely eaten without compromising your fast. These include fast assimilating nutrient-dense foods such as quality whey protein, green vegetables and berries. But you need to know how much you're allowed to consume and how often.

What makes these foods complimentary to fasting are the following properties:

They're rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients
They target the same genes as fasting
They induce similar effects to those you get from fasting

Having small servings of whey protein, green vegetables or berries during your fast isn't just ok, it may actually increase the benefits you get from fasting.

Being fast assimilating, these foods nourish your body without taxing your digestion, as they enhance the anti-inflammatory and metabolic modulating effects of your fasting. They also increase your body's antioxidant defenses against reactive oxygen species (ROS) which tend to accumulate in your body during fasting and exercise as byproducts of fat breakdown and detox. ROS are unstable and highly reactive molecules which search, bind to, and destroy cellular lipids, proteins and DNA. The above foods help protect your body from that oxidative damage.

Most importantly, non-denatured whey protein, green vegetables and berries contain nutrients (antioxidant polyphenols, flavons, resveratrol, cyanidins, indoles, in plants; leucine, calcium and immune factors in whey) that target the same genes and pathways as fasting and exercise. Most notable among these are the SIRT-1 gene (the longevity gene) and the transcriptional co-activator PGC-1α, known to counteract oxidative stress and inflammatory pathways associated with declined health and increased mortality. SIRT-1 and PGC-1α increase mitochondrial biogenesis and thereby prevent the typical decline in mitochondrial function (and decreased cellular energy) associated with aging and disease.

How Much, and How Often Can You Eat These Foods?

You can have a small serving of whey protein (20-30g net protein) every 3-6 hours, depending on your level of physical activity. Those who do not exercise can have one or two servings of whey protein during their daily fast.

Similarly, you can have 8oz of berries or green vegetables (or freshly squeezed green vegetable juice) every 3-6 hours while you fast. Do not mix berries with whey unless you use that blend as a pre-workout meal to support your strength conditioning.

Having a small serving of whey protein, berries or greens will hardly affect your body's negative energy balance throughout the fast. Hence, if you eat them at the right amount and frequency, the above foods will not compromise your IF.

It may take science another 10-15 years to figure out the difference between water fasting and that mode of undereating. Nonetheless, based on what we know today about the nutritional properties of whey, berries and greens, and based on testimonials coming from Warrior Diet followers, and my own experience, I can tell you that having these foods during the fast isn't just making it easier, but also makes it more effective and beneficial to your body than a sheer water fast.

Summary of Key Points

The one meal per day is the only regimen that can maximize the benefits of your IF on a daily basis.
Eat your main meal at night to accommodate your circadian clock.
Whey protein, berries and greens compliment your fast if you know how much to consume and how often.
If you exercise during the day, have a recovery meal after your workout consisting of whey protein with no sugar added.
If you're engaged in super intense training, have a pre-workout meal consisting of whey protein and berries.
If you're engaged in prolonged intense training, have a bowl of oatmeal with your whey protein about an hour before your workout.

The Science Behind Circadian Rhythms


Circadian regulation of immune response and resistance to disease. Recent studies published by the PNAS, January 2012, revealed the existence of a specific nuclear receptor that mediates circadian regulation of innate immunity and resistance to disease. This circadian regulation is controlled by an internal mechanism which is highly conserved in humans and animals and orchestrates the daily patterns of diverse physiological processes such as wake/sleep cycles, feeding, and metabolism.

According to the researchers, many diseases exhibit a disrupted circadian rhythmicity in their pathology… and lifestyles that disrupt the inherent timing system, such as chronic shift work, are associated with increased risk of cancer, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease.

The researchers indicated that inflammatory diseases in particular exhibit strong time-of-day symptoms. They concluded that in humans, circadian rhythms are driven by a complex of feedback loops that mediate gene activities throughout a period of 24 hours and speculated that daily risk of infection is likely to be a direct consequence of wrong timing of activity and feeding.
The 24 hours cycle. A study by Czeisler et al. at Harvard University found that the range for normal healthy adults of all ages to be quite narrow: 24 hours and 11-16 minutes. This innate clock resets itself daily to the 24 hour cycle of the Earth's rotation.
The sympathetic/parasympathetic division. Based on biology textbook (see Wikipedia – autonomic nervous system), the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions typically function in opposition to each other. Consider sympathetic as "fight or flight" and parasympathetic as "rest and digest" or "feed and breed."

The sympathetic nervous system – corresponds with energy generation, and inhibits digestion. The parasympathetic nervous system – promotes "rest and digest" response, along with calming of the nerves.
Light and the innate clock. According to a 2010 study, completed by the Lighting Research Center, daylight has a direct effect on performance and wellbeing. The research showed that students who experience disruption in lighting schemes in the morning experienced disruptions in sleep patterns. Removing circadian light in the morning delays the dim light melatonin onset by 6 minutes a day, for a total of 30 minutes for five days.
Feeding and the innate clock. The feeding clock mechanism is the same as the light/dark driven clock controlled by the innate master clock – the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which is a cluster of neurons in the hypothalamus. But the machinery that inter-regulates feeding and the innate clock is located in a different part of the hypothalamus (DMA).

Recent studies reveal that mice on a daily 4 hours feeding window shifted their circadian rhythms so that their peak physical activity was before feeding and not after. This rhythm continued even if the mice were kept in constant darkness. Hence, the animals are inherently programmed for post action feeding and not the other way.

If You Didn’t Fast, Don’t Eat Breakfast

When you think about it from an evolutionary perspective, the idea of "having to wait for a meal"… especially the first one of the day, is actually so intuitively logical that it is somewhat tragic that people misunderstand the statement that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" as an invitation to start binging the very moment they get up, instead of waiting for lunch or even dinner to begin stuffing junk down their gullets.

Actually this is quite ironic, because if we take a look at the etymological origins of the word "breakfast," it's plain obvious that this is not - as in Germany, where it is called "Frühstück" = "the first piece," the first meal of the day, but the meal that breaks the fast! Unfortunately, though, fasting has become something, the average TV watching couch-potato of the Western hemisphere is a total foreigner to.

The answer to the endlessly debated question of whether or not you should have breakfast is – as long as we understand "breakfast" correctly, i.e. as "breaking the fast" – stupidly simple: Without fasting there is no "break(ing the)fast"! Our diurnal metabolic rhythm is geared towards cyclic fasting and feeding patterns, where the feeding hours have always been shorter than the fasting hours.

About the Author

Ori Hofmekler is the author of The Warrior Diet, The Anti-Estrogenic Diet, Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat, and Unlock Your Muscle Gene.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 18th, 2012, 11:40 pm
by BroJones
The Latest Sneak Attacks in a Coordinated Effort to Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions
September 18 2012 | 33,183 views | + Add to Favorites


By Dr. Mercola

The featured article in the latest newsletter from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) gets straight to the point with its headline:1 Back to School – Is the Child Sitting Next to Yours Immunized?

The article goes on to berate vaccine exemption options and parents who use personal belief exemptions to opt-out of vaccines for their children. It stops short of ordering parents to march into their children's classrooms and demand to know who's vaccinated and who's not (health privacy laws prevent that anyway).

It peppers you with enough scare tactics – along with links to information on vaccine exemptions and states that allow personal belief exemptions – to leave readers convinced they need to do something to stop vaccine exemptions.

All across the United States, people are fighting for their right to choose not to be injected with vaccines against their will, and this is just the latest tactic in a coordinated effort aimed at eliminating all vaccine exemptions.

The Gates Foundation is even funding surveillance of anti-vaccine groups. Seth C. Kalichman, professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut recently received a $100,000 grant to establish an Anti-Vaccine Surveillance and Alert System.

The intention is to "establish an internet-based global monitoring and rapid alert system for finding, analyzing, and counteracting misinformation communication campaigns regarding vaccines to support global immunization efforts," GreenMedInfo.com reports.2

My strong guess is that some of the best sources for truthful information like NVIC.org and this web site have already been targeted by the Gates Foundation.

In light of that, it's not surprising that vaccine groups are trying to turn citizens against each other in an effort to squelch opposition and free will on this matter. According to CHOP:

"...these decisions, often referred to as personal belief exemptions, have been traced to recent cases of pertussis, measles and mumps in several states. Currently, 20 states allow personal belief exemptions.

Many people do not realize that these choices put not only their own children at risk, but also those around them because the more people in a community who are immune to a disease, the lower the chance that the disease will spread throughout the community. This is called herd immunity. So, even those who may not be immune will have a decreased chance of getting the disease."

First of all, there are only 18 states – not 20 – that allow personal belief, philosophical or conscientious belief exemptions to vaccination, in addition to 48 states that allow religious belief exemptions. To find out which non-medical vacine exemptions are allowed in your state laws, look at a map of states and get a copy of your state vaccine requirements on NVIC's website at: http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state- ... ments.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unvaccinated Population Falsely Blamed for Ineffective Vaccines

Recent disease outbreaks were traced back to personal belief exemptions... Really?

That's just not reality, and if you take the time to look into the truthfulness of that statement, you'll see it simply does not hold up. Many outbreaks of pertussis (whooping cough), measles, and mumps have occurred primarily in people who were vaccinated, and no one seems to be able to fully explain how that is the fault of those who are unvaccinated...

If the vaccine theory was correct, these people should have been protected because they were vaccinated. Published studies into the outbreaks have revealed that a lot of the blame should be placed on ineffective vaccines – not on the unvaccinated minority.

Consider the following findings about the last two whooping cough (pertussis) outbreaks.

In 2010, the largest outbreak of whooping cough in over 50 years occurred in California. Around that same time, a scare campaign was launched in California by Pharma-funded medical trade associations, state health officials and national media, targeting people opting out of receiving pertussis vaccine, falsely accusing them of causing the outbreak.

However, research published in March of this year3 shows that 81 percent of 2010 California whooping cough cases in people under the age of 18 occurred in those who were fully up to date on the whooping cough vaccine. Eleven percent had received at least one shot, but not the entire recommended series, and only eight percent of those stricken were unvaccinated.

According to the authors:

"This first detailed analysis of a recent North American pertussis outbreak found widespread disease among fully vaccinated older children. Starting approximately three years after prior vaccine dose, attack rates markedly increased, suggesting inadequate protection or durability from the acellular vaccine." [Emphasis mine]

B. pertussis whooping cough is a cyclical disease with natural increases that tend to occur every 4-5 years, no matter how high the vaccination rate is in a population using DPT/DTaP or Tdap vaccines on a widespread basis. Whole cell DPT vaccines used in the U.S. from the 1950's until the late 1990's were estimated to be 63 to 94 percent effective and studies showed that vaccine-acquired immunity fell to about 40 percent after seven years.

In the study cited above, the researchers noted the vaccine's effectiveness was only 41 percent among 2- to 7-year-olds and a dismal 24 percent among those aged 8-12. With this shockingly low rate of DTaP vaccine effectiveness, the questionable solution public health officials have come up with is to declare that everybody has to get three primary shots and three follow-up booster shots in order to get long-lasting protection4 – and that's provided the vaccine gives you any protection at all!

The Washington State Secretary of Health also declared a pertussis epidemic on April 3, 2012, in response to a 1,300 percent increase in pertussis cases compared to 2011.5 Scientists are now considering adding a seventh inoculation6, in order to boost protection against whooping cough.

According to a recent article and video by KPBS:7

"New research confirms the whooping cough vaccine is failing at a higher rate than expected, and scientists are considering adding a seventh dose to the national immunization schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two recent studies8 have found the majority of people getting sick are up to date with their immunizations."

Mumps and Measles Vaccines are Also Failing

Mumps: In 2010, more than 1,000 people in New Jersey and New York were also sickened with mumps. In the US, children typically receive their mumps vaccination as part of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises children to receive their first dose between 12 and 18 months, and their second between the ages of 4 and 6.

This vaccine is supposed to improve immunity to measles, mumps and rubella… yet 77 percent of the 1,000+ who came down with mumps were vaccinated. Similarly, in 2006, when mumps infected more than 6,500 people in the United States, cases occurred primarily among college students who had received two doses of MMR vaccine. At that time, just about the only people who were truly immune to mumps were older Americans who had recovered from mumps as children, and therefore had received natural, lifelong immunity.
Measles – The 1989 measles epidemic in the region of Quebec was largely attributed to incomplete vaccination coverage – until a study9 into the outbreak disclosed that the outbreak occurred in a population that had 99 percent vaccination coverage. The researchers concluded that: "Incomplete vaccination coverage is not a valid explanation for the Quebec City measles outbreak."

Conflicts of Interest – Not Science – Influence Most Vaccine Recommendations

The CHOP newsletter is delivered by email periodically to anyone who signs up for it, and almost always contains advice on getting all children vaccinated. The Vaccine Education Center10 at CHOP says it's funded by endowed chairs and "does not receive support from pharmaceutical companies."

But it neglects to mention that the hospital indirectly benefits from drug company money that helps fund endowed chairs like Merck's Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, which is currently held by Paul Offit11, who not only is very public about his belief that infants could theoretically safely handle 10,000 vaccines all at once; he also openly opposes personal belief vaccine exemptions.12 Rarely is it mentioned that Offit has a financial stake in the vaccine industry, as he invented one of the vaccines CHOP promotes. He's also served on the scientific advisory board of Merck.

Offit's personal beliefs about forcing people to involuntarily use vaccines, which violates the informed consent ethic in medicine, along with the inaccurate statements he makes about vaccine safety, which are not backed by solid scientific evidence, are echoed throughout CHOP's pro-forced vaccination propaganda. For example, one of their Q&A brochures13 answers the question: Can too many vaccines overwhelm an infant's immune system? with the following statement:

"No. Compared to the immunological challenges that infants handle every day, the challenge from the immunological components in vaccines is minuscule. Babies begin dealing with immunological challenges at birth. The mother's womb is a sterile environment, free from viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi. But after babies pass through the birth canal and enter the world, they are immediately colonized with trillions of bacteria, which means that they carry the bacteria on their bodies but aren't infected by them. These bacteria live on the skin, nose, throat and intestines. To make sure that colonizing bacteria don't invade the bloodstream and cause harm, babies constantly make antibodies against them.

...Given that infants are colonized with trillions of bacteria, that each bacterium contains between 2,000 and 6,000 immunological components and that infants are infected with numerous viruses, the challenge from the 150 immunological components in vaccines is minuscule compared to what infants manage every day."

This is an astounding comparison and shockingly ignorant of foundational physiology.
Not only do these ignorant statements dismiss and disparage the role of beneficial gut bacteria – which we now know are absolutely essential and vital for human health and well-being – and characterize normal gut bacteria as potentially harmful, but there is a false characterization of the immunological challenge posed by multiple vaccines, each of which can contain either live or killed viruses and a number of different adjuvants and chemicals, injected into the tiny body of an infant. CHOP even takes Offit's ridiculous claim that infants can safely handle 10,000 vaccines at one time to brand new heights, stating that:14

"The purpose of vaccines is to prompt a child's body to make antibodies, which work by preventing bacteria and viruses from reproducing themselves and causing disease. So, how many different antibodies can babies make?

The best answer to this question came from a Nobel Prize-winning immunologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named Susumu Tonegawa, who first figured out how people make antibodies. Tonegawa discovered that antibodies are made by rearranging and recombining many different genes, and found that people can make about 10 billion different antibodies.

Given the number of antibody-producing cells in a child's bloodstream, and the number of immunological components contained in vaccines, it is reasonable to conclude that babies could effectively make antibodies to about 100,000 vaccines at one time." [Emphasis mine]

The Difference Between Natural and Vaccine-Induced Immunity

Many still believe vaccines provide identical immunity to that obtained when you are naturally exposed to an infection, This widespread misconception needs to be corrected.

The presumed result of a vaccination is to help you build immunity to potentially harmful organisms that cause disease. What many fail to appreciate is that your body's immune system is already designed to do this in response to naturally-occurring infectious agents that you are constantly exposed to throughout life. One major difference between vaccine-induced immunity and natural immunity stems from how you're exposed to these organisms.

Most organisms that cause infection enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, mouth, lungs or your digestive tract.

These mucous membranes have their own immune system, called the secretory IgA immune system. It is a different system from the one activated when a vaccine is injected into your body. Your IgA immune system is your body's first line of defense and its job is to address the infectious microorganism at their entry points, thus reducing or even eliminating the need for activation of your body's entire immune system.

However, when a laboratory altered or created infectious microorganism is injected into your body with a vaccine and, especially when combined with an immune adjuvant, such as aluminum, your IgA immune system is bypassed, stimulating your immune system to mount a very strong inflammatory response.

Vaccines can also trigger such a strong inflammatory response that the inflammation becomes chronic and leads to chronic illness or disability. (People with a personal or family history of severe allergy or autoimmunity should be cautious about vaccination because they already have a genetic predisposition to inflammatory responses that do not resolve and can lead to chronic health problems.)

Injecting these lab-altered microorganisms into your body in an attempt to provoke an atypical, temporary immunity is clearly not the same way your body develops naturally-acquired immunity. Your immune system simply was not designed to be injected with lab altered disease-causing organisms in this manner. While I am a great fan and avocate of technology it is very clear to me that this is one reason why vaccines almost always only provide a much more temporary immunity compared to naturally acquired immunity.

Additionally, this plays a large role in why vaccines have the potential to do serious damage to your health.

Since vaccines bypass your natural first-line defense (your lgA immune system), they are clearly inferior to natural immunity and fail to provide the same kind of long lasting protection from future disease as they provide typically inferior immunity compared to that your body would acquire by experiencing and healing from the natural disease. In the case of mumps, for instance, immunity is typically permanent for those who contract the disease during childhood.

What You Need to Know about "Herd Immunity"

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases describes vaccine-induced herd immunity, also labeled "community immunity" by public health doctors as follows:

"When a critical portion of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, most members of the community are protected against that disease because there is little opportunity for an outbreak. Even those who are not eligible for certain vaccines – such as infants, pregnant women, or immunocompromised individuals – get some protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained. This is known as 'community immunity.'"

The problem is that there is in fact such a thing as natural herd immunity. But what they've done is they've taken this natural phenomenon and assumed that vaccines will work the same way. However, vaccines do not confer the same kind of immunity as experiencing the natural disease, and the science clearly shows that there's a big difference between naturally acquired herd immunity and vaccine-induced herd immunity.

To learn more, I urge you to listen to the following video, in which Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), discusses the concept of herd immunity.

Download Interview Transcript

Barbara explains:

"The original concept of herd immunity is that when a population experiences the natural disease… natural immunity would be achieved – a robust, qualitatively superior natural herd immunity within the population, which would then protect other people from getting the disease in other age groups. It's the way infectious diseases work…

The vaccinologists have adopted this idea of vaccine induced herd immunity. The problem with it is that all vaccines only confer temporary protection… Pertussis vaccine is one the best examples… Pertussis vaccines have been used for about 50 to 60 years, and the organism has started to evolve to become vaccine resistant. I think this is not something that's really understood generally by the public: Vaccines do not confer the same type of immunity that natural exposure to the disease does."

Vaccine professionals would like you to believe they are the same, but they're qualitatively two entirely different types of immune responses.

"In most cases natural exposure to disease would give you a longer lasting, more robust, qualitatively superior immunity because it gives you both cell mediated immunity and humoral immunity," Barbara explains. "Humoral is the antibody production. The way you measure vaccine-induced immunity is by how high the antibody titers are. (How many antibodies you have, basically.)

But the problem is, the cell mediated immunity is very important as well. Most vaccines evade cell mediated immunity and go straight for the antibodies, which is only one part of immunity. That's been the big problem with the production of vaccines."

Vaccines are designed to trick your body's immune system into producing protective antibodies needed to resist any future infection. However, your body is smarter than that. The artificial stimulation of your immune system produced by lab altered bacteria and viruses simply does not replicate the exact response that your immune system mounts when naturally encountering the infectious microorganism.

According to Barbara:

"The fact that manmade vaccines cannot replicate the body's natural experience with the disease is one of the key points of contention between those who insist that mankind cannot live without mass use of multiple vaccines and those who believe that mankind's biological integrity will be severely compromised by their continued use.

...s it better to protect children against infectious disease early in life through temporary immunity from a vaccine, or are they better off contracting certain contagious infections in childhood and attaining permanent immunity? Do vaccine complications ultimately cause more chronic illness and death than infectious diseases do? These questions essentially pit trust in human intervention against trust in nature and the natural order, which existed long before vaccines were created by man."

Why We Must Defend Vaccine Exemptions

The religious exemption to vaccination is now under heavy attack across the country. In the video below, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), discusses this important exemption, and why it's so vital we defend our right to opt out of vaccinations for medical, religious, or conscientious belief reasons.

All Americans need to know their options for legally opting-out of vaccinations, and you also need to know why it's so important to protect this legal option, whether you choose to use every federally recommended vaccine for yourself and your children or not.

Download Interview Transcript

Get Informed Before You Vaccinate

No matter what vaccination choices you make for yourself or your family, there is a basic human right to be fully informed about all risks and have the ability to refuse to allow substances you consider to be harmful, toxic or poisonous to be forced upon you.

Unfortunately, the partnership between government health agencies and vaccine manufacturers is getting closer and closer. There is some seroius discrimination against Americans, who want to be free to exercise their human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking when it comes to making voluntary decisions about which vaccines they and their children use. We cannot allow that happen!

It's vitally important to know your legal rights and understand your options when it comes to using vaccines and prescription drugs.

For example, your doctor is legally obligated to provide you with the CDC Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) sheet and discuss the potential symptoms of side effects of the vaccination(s) you or your child receive BEFORE vaccination takes place. If someone giving a vaccine does not do this, it is a a violation of federal law. Furthermore, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 also requires doctors and other vaccine providers to:

Keep a permanent record of all vaccines given and the manufacturer's name and lot number
Write down serious health problems, hospitalizations, injuries and deaths that occur after vaccination in the patient's permanent medical record
File an official report of all serious health problems, hospitalizations, injuries and deaths following vaccination to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS)

If a vaccine provider fails to inform, record or report, it is a violation of federal law. It's important to get all the facts before making your decision about vaccination; and to understand that you have the legal right to opt out of using a vaccine that you do not want you or your child to receive. At present, all 50 states allow a medical exemption to vaccination (medical exemptions must be approved by an M.D. or D.O.); 48 states allow a religious exemption to vaccination; and 18 states allow a personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination. But as mentioned earlier, vaccine exemptions are under attack in a number of states, and it's in everyone's best interest to protect the right to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems "old-fashioned," the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand your rights under the law to make voluntary vaccine choices, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights will have the greatest impact.

Signing up to be a user of NVIC's free online Advocacy Portal at http://www.NVICAdvocacy.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. You will get real-time Action Alerts about what you can do if there are threats to vaccine exemptions in your state. With the click of a mouse or one touch on a Smartphone screen you will be put in touch with YOUR elected representatives so you can let them know how you feel and what you want them to do. Plus, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have all the information you need to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what's really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the "real life" experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Internet Resources

I also encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at http://www.NVIC.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;:

NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or state officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Find a Doctor Who will Listen to Your Concerns

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to punish those patients and parents, who become truly educated about health and vaccination and want to make vaccine choices instead of being forced to follow risky one-size-fits-all vaccine policies.

If you are treated with disrespect or are harassed in any way by a doctor (or government official), do not engage in an unproductive argument. You may want to contact an attorney, your elected state representatives or local media if you or your child are threatened.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate and connect with a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.




Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 20th, 2012, 11:12 pm
by BroJones
Exercise helps combat cancer -- surprised?

By Dr. Mercola

Mounting evidence shows that exercise can not only help cancer patients get well but also help keep their cancer from recurring. Yet, few oncologists tell their patients to engage in exercise beyond their simple daily, normal activities.

And many cancer patients are reluctant to exercise, or even discuss it with their oncologist.

A recent study1 by the Mayo Clinic investigated exercise habits among cancer patients and their clinicians' roles in providing related counseling, and found that:

"Participants overwhelmingly cited usual daily activities as their source of 'exercise.' Symptoms, particularly treatment-related, discouraged participation, with fear of harm being a significant concern only among younger women. Exercise was recognized as important for physical and mental well-being, but seldom as a means to mitigate symptoms.

...Although respondents preferred to receive guidance from their oncologist, none reported receiving more than general encouragement to 'stay active.' A lack of direction was typically accepted as a sanction of their current activity levels. Participants appeared less receptive to guidance from ancillary health professionals."

An Important Conversation You'd Be Wise to Have With Your Oncologist

Fear that exercise might be harmful appears to be largely unfounded, though it's certainly understandable. It can be difficult to be enthusiastic about exercise if you struggle with nausea, fatigue, and other detrimental side effects from the treatment. However, it may be helpful to focus on the benefits you can reap from exercise. For example, research has shown that exercising during and after cancer treatment can:

Reduce your risk of dying from cancer
Reduce your risk of cancer recurrence
Boost energy and minimize the side effects of conventional cancer treatment (see additional listing below)

The fact that most oncologists overlook this vital aspect of their patients' care is highly unfortunate, especially considering how most patients defer to their recommendations. However, it's not unexpected. Conventional doctors are trained to prescribe drugs, not exercise.

Ideally, they'd prescribe exercise in the same manner drugs are prescribed – in specific "doses" and intervals. To do this properly, oncologists would be wise to develop relationships with personal trainers, and prescribe training sessions for their patients. If you have cancer, I would highly recommend discussing exercise with your oncologist, and/or work with a trained fitness professional who can help you devise a safe and effective regimen.

Exercise Needs to Be Part of Standard Cancer Care

A recent report issued by the British organization Macmillan Cancer Support2 argues that exercise really should be part of standard cancer care. It recommends that all patients getting cancer treatment should be told to engage in moderate-intensity exercise for two and a half hours every week, stating that the advice to rest and take it easy after treatment is an outdated view.

The organization offers loads of helpful information about the benefits of exercise for cancer patients on their website, and also has a number of videos on the subject, available on their YouTube channel.3
Professor Robert Thomas discusses the benefits of physical activity after cancer treatment.



According to Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support:4

"Cancer patients would be shocked if they knew just how much of a benefit physical activity could have on their recovery and long term health, in some cases reducing their chances of having to go through the grueling ordeal of treatment all over again..."

Indeed, the reduction in risk for recurrence is quite impressive. Previous research has shown that breast- and colon cancer patients who exercise regularly have half the recurrence rate than non-exercisers.5 Macmillan Cancer Support also notes that exercise can help you to mitigate some of the common side effects of conventional cancer treatment, including:
Reduce fatigue and improve your energy levels Manage stress, anxiety, low mood or depression Improve bone health
Improve heart health (some chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy can cause heart problems later in life) Build muscle strength, relieve pain and improve range of movement Maintain a healthy weight
Sleep better Improve your appetite Prevent constipation
How Exercise Can Improve Cancer Outcome

This topic is near and dear to my heart, as I went to medical school in large part because I wanted to use exercise as a therapeutic tool to help people get healthier. I strongly believe that without fitness, it is virtually impossible to achieve optimal health. Lack of exercise can also severely hamper your recuperative efforts once disease has set in.

A 2005 study6 by researchers at Harvard Medical School found that breast cancer patients who exercise moderately for three to five hours a week cut their odds of dying from cancer by about half, compared to sedentary patients. In fact, any amount of weekly exercise increased a patient's odds of surviving breast cancer. This benefit remained constant regardless of whether women were diagnosed early on or after their cancer had spread.

Similarly, researchers investigating the impact of physical activity on cancer recurrence and survival in patients with stage III colon cancer found those who were more active cut their risk of recurrence in half.7

One of the primary reasons exercise works to lower your cancer risk is because it drives your insulin levels down, and controlling your insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks. It's also been suggested that apoptosis (programmed cell death) is triggered by exercise, causing cancer cells to die. This theory was demonstrated in two studies published in 2006. In one, mice who used running wheels developed fewer and smaller skin tumors.8 The second study found that exercise reduced the number and size of intestinal polyps.9

The studies also found that the number of tumors decreased along with body fat, which may be an additional factor.
This is because exercise helps lower your estrogen levels, which explains why exercise appears to be particularly potent against breast cancer.

If you're male, be aware that athletes have lower levels of circulating testosterone than non-athletes, and similar to the association between estrogen levels and breast cancer in women, testosterone is known to influence the development of prostate cancer in men. Strength training may be of particular benefit. In one 2009 study10, men who regularly worked out with weights and had the highest muscle strength were between 30 percent and 40 percent less likely to lose their life to a deadly tumor.

Other research has shown:

Exercising moderately for six hours a week may reduce colorectal cancer mortality11
Three hours per week of moderate-intensity physical activity may lower risk of prostate cancer mortality by about 30 percent12, and lower the rate of disease progression by 57 percent13

Of course, exercise also improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood, whose job it is to neutralize pathogens throughout your body. The better these cells circulate, the more efficient your immune system is at locating and defending against viruses and diseases, including cancer, trying to attack your body.

Exercise Tips for Cancer Patients

I would strongly recommend you read up on my Peak Fitness program, which includes high-intensity exercises that can reduce your exercise time while actually improving your benefits.

Now, if you have cancer or any other chronic disease, you will of course need to tailor your exercise routine to your individual circumstances, taking into account your fitness level and current health. Often, you will be able to take part in a regular exercise program – one that involves a variety of exercises like strength training, core-building, stretching, aerobic and anaerobic – with very little changes necessary. However, at times you may find you need to exercise at a lower intensity, or for shorter durations.

Always listen to your body and if you feel you need a break, take time to rest. But even exercising for just a few minutes a day is better than not exercising at all, and you'll likely find that your stamina increases and you're able to complete more challenging workouts with each passing day. In the event you are suffering from a very weakened immune system, you may want to exercise at home instead of visiting a public gym. But remember that exercise will ultimately help to boost your immune system, so it's very important to continue with your program, even if you suffer from chronic illness or cancer.

Intense Workouts May Also Be Safe for Heart Patients

Another group of people often discouraged from exercise are those suffering with heart problems, but even here the mindset is starting to change. In an about-face in the way patients recovering from heart attacks or heart surgery are typically treated, a new study14 suggests high intensity workouts may in fact be a safe choice. The study followed 4,800 Norwegian heart patients who did aerobics. Only three cardiac arrests occurred in over 170,000 hours of intensive exercise in these patients.

According to Reuters:15

"The number was too small to say for sure that high impact workouts are just as safe as moderate ones, but they show the overall risk of exercise bringing on cardiac arrest is fairly low, according to the authors. There is plenty of evidence that the harder people work out, the more benefit they gain in cardiovascular function, said Oeivind Rognmo, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and lead author of the study..."

The participants completed both moderate- and high intensity workouts, spending a combined total of 129,456 hours working out at moderate intensity and 46,364 hours at high intensity. Moderate intensity workouts included an hour of walking, or other exercises resulting in exertion at 60-70 percent of maximum heart rate. The high intensity workouts consisted of four-minute-intervals (cycling, running, or cross country skiing), pushing their heart rate up to 85-95 percent of maximum, followed by four-minute-long rest periods.

During the more than 129,000 combined hours of moderate exercise, one person died from cardiac arrest. And during over 46,000 combined hours of high-intensity workouts, two suffered cardiac arrest during or within an hour of exercise, but both survived. According to the lead author:16

"We found that both types of intensities were associated with low event rates... I think (high intensity training) should be considered for patients with coronary heart disease."

Remember to Listen to Your Body

One of the key principles I teach and believe in is to listen to your body. This applies no matter what your current state of health is. If your body will not allow you to exercise, either due to pain or worsening of your underlying condition, then you have no practical option but to honor your body's signals and exercise less.

Even though your body desperately needs the exercise to improve, you will only get worse if you violate your current limitations. So you may have to start with as little as just minutes a day. That's okay. As your body gradually improves so will your tolerance to exercise, and you'd be wise to do as much as your body will allow in order to achieve a high level of health.


Additional Strategies to Help Prevent Cancer

While exercise is an important facet of cancer prevention and treatment, it's certainly not the only one. I believe the vast majority of all cancers could be prevented by strictly applying the healthy lifestyle recommendations below:

Avoid sugar, especially fructose. All forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer. Fructose, however, is clearly one of the most harmful and should be avoided as much as possible.
Optimize your vitamin D.
Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body and is one of nature's most potent cancer fighters. Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (cell death). If you have cancer, your vitamin D level should be between 70 and 100 ng/ml. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancer treatment I'm aware of, with no adverse effects. I suggest you try watching my one-hour free lecture on vitamin D to learn more.
Avoid charring your meats. Charcoal or flame broiled meat is linked with increased breast cancer risk. Acrylamide – a carcinogen created when starchy foods are baked, roasted or fried – has been found to increase cancer risk as well.
Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies, soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cell proliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.
Improve your insulin receptor sensitivity. The best way to do this is by avoiding sugar and grains and making sure you are exercising, especially with Peak Fitness.
Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally when you begin eating right for your nutritional type and exercising. It's important to lose excess body fat because fat produces estrogen.
Drink a quart of organic green vegetable juice daily.
Please review my juicing instructions for more detailed information.
Get plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. Omega-3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer.
Curcumin.
This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in high concentrations can be very useful adjunct in the treatment of cancer. For example, it has demonstrated major therapeutic potential in preventing breast cancer metastasis.17 It's important to know that curcumin is generally not absorbed that well, so I've provided several absorption tips here.
Avoid drinking alcohol, or at least limit your alcoholic drinks to one per day.
Avoid electromagnetic fields as much as possible. Even electric blankets can increase your cancer risk.
Avoid synthetic hormone replacement therapy, especially if you have risk factors for breast cancer. Breast cancer is an estrogen-related cancer, and according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer rates for women dropped in tandem with decreased use of hormone replacement therapy. (There are similar risks for younger women who use oral contraceptives. Birth control pills, which are also comprised of synthetic hormones, have been linked to cervical and breast cancers.)

If you are experiencing excessive menopausal symptoms, you may want to consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy instead, which uses hormones that are molecularly identical to the ones your body produces and do not wreak havoc on your system. This is a much safer alternative.
Avoid BPA, phthalates and other xenoestrogens. These are estrogen-like compounds that have been linked to increased breast cancer risk
Make sure you're not iodine deficient, as there's compelling evidence linking iodine deficiency with certain forms of cancer. Dr. David Brownstein18, author of the book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, is a proponent of iodine for breast cancer. It actually has potent anticancer properties and has been shown to cause cell death in breast and thyroid cancer cells.

For more information, I recommend reading Dr. Brownstein's book. I have been researching iodine for some time ever since I interviewed Dr. Brownstein as I do believe that the bulk of what he states is spot on. However, I am not at all convinced that his dosage recommendations are correct. I believe they are too high.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 23rd, 2012, 10:36 am
by BroJones
Broccoli vs Sugar -- you make the choice
By Dr. Mercola

Mounting scientific studies have demonstrated that broccoli is one of nature's most valuable health-promoting foods. Science has proven time after time that Mother Nature is the best physician, and food is the best medicine.

A recent study, published in the American Journal of Hypertension,1 adds to the mounting scientific evidence about broccoli's noteworthy health benefits. A compound in broccoli, glucosinolate, produces a metabolite called sulforaphane that can significantly improve your blood pressure and kidney function, according to this latest animal study.

Sulforaphane is an organic sulfur compound found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, horseradish and arugula – but it's highest in broccoli sprouts.

Sulforaphane has been shown to have antidiabetic and antimicrobial properties, and also kills cancer stem cells, which slows tumor growth. Researchers believe eliminating cancer stem cells is key to controlling cancer.

This is something current chemotherapies cannot do, but food can! This latest research confirms broccoli's benefits go beyond cancer prevention.

In this 2012 study, hypertensive rats with impaired kidney function were given sulforaphane. The natural compound improved the rats' kidney function and lowered their blood pressure by normalizing a process called DNA methylation.

The Food You Eat Actually Changes Your DNA

What is DNA methylation?

Without getting too far adrift in biochemistry, DNA methylation2 is the process by which a methyl group (one carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms) is added to part of a DNA molecule. DNA methylation is a crucial part of normal cell function, allowing cells to "remember who they are and where they have been" and is important in regulating gene expression. DNA methylation also suppresses the genes for things you DON'T want, such as viral and other disease-related genes. Abnormal DNA methylation plays a crucial role in the development of nearly all types of cancer.

Broccoli sprouts have also been shown to inhibit Helicobacter pylori (the bacteria thought to cause gastric ulcers), protect your heart, and may offer protection against UV radiation damage to your skin when applied topically.3 The sulforaphane from broccoli plays a role in activating more than 200 different genes. And you don't have to consume a truckload of broccoli to reap its benefits.

In fact, a 2008 study published in PLoS One4 found that just four servings of broccoli per week could protect men from prostate cancer. One serving of broccoli is about two spears, so that's only 10 broccoli spears per week.

Researchers believe hypertension (and kidney dysfunction) may result from a disturbance in DNA methylation, and it may just be that sulforaphane improves blood pressure and kidney function by ameliorating this problem. So, any food that mediates DNA methylation is very helpful toward keeping you healthy – and broccoli is one of the BEST! But if you hate broccoli, don't fret. Broccoli sprouts aren't your ONLY salvation if you suffer from hypertension or kidney trouble.

Hypertension is a Stroke's Best Friend

You are generally diagnosed with pre-hypertension if your blood pressure is between 120/80 and 140/80, and anything above 140/80 is generally diagnosed as hypertension ("high blood pressure"). Hypertension is dangerous because it typically shows no warning signs or symptoms, and in its complete silence, can cause a stroke. Drugs advertised to "treat" hypertension will not change or in any way address the underlying cause of your hypertension. That's the bad news.

The good news is that more than 85 percent of those who have hypertension can normalize their blood pressure with some basic lifestyle modifications.

The REAL Cause of Most Hypertension May Surprise You

High blood pressure is typically related to your body developing resistance to insulin. As your insulin level rises, your blood pressure rises. Most physicians – even cardiologists – do not understand the crucial connection between blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and insulin.

Dr. Richard Johnson, author of the book The Fat Switch, masterfully ties together the connection between hypertension, kidney disease, obesity and diabetes in his previous book, The Sugar Fix, which is one of the best books written on this issue. Dr. Johnson is the Chief of the Kidney Disease and Hypertension Division at the University of Colorado, and I would encourage you to listen to his interview.

Download Interview Transcript

According to Dr. Johnson, there is one major factor linking ALL of the health problems listed above: high dietary fructose. While sugar (sucrose) is a major source of fructose, it may not be quite as bad as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Americans on the whole are fructose addicts. HFCS is added to sodas, fruit juices, and nearly all processed foods lining supermarket shelves. HFCS in soda is a major source of calories in the typical American diet, so it's no wonder diabetes has risen to epidemic proportions. In fact, the use of high fructose corn syrup in the U.S. diet increased a staggering 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to a major USDA report.5 That statistic is no major surprise considering that, in addition to soda and sweetened beverages, processed foods account for more than 90 percent of the money Americans spend on their meals.

Unlike glucose, which is burned by fuel in every cell in your body, fructose, if not immediately consumed as fuel, is metabolized into fat by your liver, which can set the ball rolling toward insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. I highly recommend getting a fasting insulin level test, which must be ordered by your doctor. The level you want to strive for is about 2 to 3. If it's above 5, then you have a problem and you definitely need to get your insulin level down as you are at risk for cardiovascular problems.

The Fructose-Insulin Connection

What is the link between fructose and blood pressure? Fructose in your diet raises your blood pressure in three key ways:

When your liver breaks down fructose, uric acid is produced as a byproduct. Uric acid also drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting nitric oxide in your blood vessels. Nitric oxide helps your blood vessels maintain their elasticity. When you consume large amounts of fructose, increasing uric acid levels drive up your blood pressure. If your uric acid levels are chronically elevated, you have an increased risk for hypertension, kidney disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Large amounts of fructose also place a great strain on your liver, which is responsible for most of the metabolic burden.
As metabolic physician and nutrition expert Dr. Ron Rosedale has explained, insulin stores magnesium. If your insulin receptors are blunted and your cells grow resistant to insulin, you can't store magnesium, so it passes out of your body through urination. Magnesium relaxes muscles; so, when your magnesium level is low, your blood vessels will constrict rather than relax, which further raises your blood pressure.
Insulin causes your body to retain sodium, which in turn causes fluid retention. Fluid retention results in elevated blood pressure and can ultimately lead to congestive heart failure.

If your blood pressure is elevated and you consume a lot of sugar – especially in the form of fructose (such as high fructose corn syrup) – lowering your blood pressure might be as simple as cutting all forms of sugar and grains out of your diet. Normalizing your blood glucose levels will normalize your insulin and bring those blood pressures down into a healthy range. I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams if you have high blood pressure, are overweight, or diabetic.

The fructose in whole fruits is generally healthy, unless you consume large amounts, and/or in the form of fruit juices or dried fruits. Still, if you have any of the health issues just mentioned and you're consuming large amounts of fruit, you would be wise to restrict your fruit intake to under 15 grams of fructose per day as well until your condition has normalized.

Tips for Achieving a Healthy Blood Pressure without Drugs

Besides drastically reducing or eliminating fructose consumption, there are some basic lifestyle modifications that will help optimize your blood pressure, improve your liver and kidney function, and reduce your overall risk for disease. Make sure you address each of the following:

Use exercise as a drug. Physical activity is by far one of the most potent "drug" there is, especially for increasing insulin sensitivity and normalizing blood glucose and blood pressure levels. We have developed a comprehensive fitness program that includes high intensity interval burst-type activity, stretching, and resistance training, which are all important components of a complete fitness program.
Follow a good nutrition plan that's right for your body. It should be rich in fresh, organic vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, raw organic dairy, eggs from pastured hens, grass-fed meats, healthy fats such as coconut oil and animal-based omega-3, and plenty of fresh pure water.
Optimize your vitamin D levels. Sunlight, and the vitamin D it causes your body to produce, has a normalizing effect on your blood pressure. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

The best source for vitamin D is direct sun exposure. But for many of us, this just isn't practical during the winter. The next best option to sunlight is the use of a safe indoor tanning device. If neither natural nor artificial sunlight is an option, then using oral vitamin D3 supplements is your best bet. If you wish to take an oral vitamin D3 supplement, follow my dose recommendations, which are based on the latest scientific research. The only way to know your optimal dose is to get your blood tested. Ideally, you'll want to maintain a vitamin D level of 50-70 ng/ml year-round.

For an in-depth explanation of everything you need to know about vitamin D, please listen to my FREE one-hour vitamin D lecture.
Manage your stress. Stress puts the "tension" into hypertension! The long-term activation of your stress-response system can disrupt nearly all of your body's processes, and elevated blood pressure is one of many negative effects. Finding a way to deal with life's everyday stressors is a necessity for good health. My preferred tool is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
Get plenty of deep, restorative sleep each night.

WARNING to Those Taking Blood Pressure Medications

I rarely recommend the use of drugs, but in some cases it may be appropriate to keep taking them as a temporary measure until you are healthy enough to wean yourself off. If you have serious hypertension, this is one of those cases.

If you are on medication for high blood pressure, please do not discontinue it without consulting your healthcare provider. Stroke risk is a serious concern. As you gradually make the necessary lifestyle changes, your need for medication will lessen, and eventually you'll probably be able to discontinue the drug altogether. It takes determination and commitment, but it IS possible – I've seen it many times! So keep taking your medications as prescribed, working with your healthcare provider, and keep eating your broccoli.

What's the Secret Key to Eliminating Hypertension?

Humans are genetically programmed to seek energy-dense foods, which served us well for thousands of years, when food was scarce. However this is maladaptive in today's environment of readily available, cheap, high-calorie but nutritionally bankrupt foods.

The standard American diet has tripped our "fat switch," as Dr. Johnson discusses in his new book, which results not only in unwanted pounds but also in related health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, and kidney disease. Once you understand how fructose-rich foods activate your body's "fat switch," you can finally say goodbye to many of your most nagging health problems.[/code]

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: September 25th, 2012, 11:27 pm
by BroJones
I agree with Dr Mercola, based on lots of evidence, that aspartame is dangerous.

IIRC, Donald Rumsfeld has made a LOT of money from the sale of this substance.

By Dr. Mercola

More than 90 countries have given the artificial sweetener aspartame the green light to be used in thousands of food and beverage products.1

Two hundred times sweeter than sugar, aspartame allows food manufacturers to produce sweet foods they can market as “low calorie,” “diet,” or sugar-free,” appealing to hundreds of millions of consumers looking to cut sugar from their diets.

No doubt about it, the less sugar you include in your diet, the better. But replacing sugar with aspartame is not the solution, and in fact is likely to be even worse for your health.

Despite assurances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other public health agencies that aspartame is safe, the research says otherwise…

So What the Heck is Aspartame Made Of?

Virtually all of the marketing material emphasizes the fact that aspartame is natural and made of two amino acids, the building blocks of protein. But, like many deceptions, this is only partially true. While there are two amino acids that comprise 90% of aspartame, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, they are held together in a methyl ester bond that comprises 10% of the molecule.

The methanol is released from the aspartame within hours of consumption after hydrolysis of the methyl group of the dipeptide by chymotrypsin in the small intestine. Once this methyl ester bond is broken it liberates free methyl alcohol or methanol, which is commonly called wood alcohol. The problem with methanol is that it passes into your blood-brain barrier and is converted into formaldehyde, which causes the damage. You may recognize formaldehyde as embalming fluid.

Interestingly, methanol is only toxic in humans. All other animals are able to detoxify it before it causes damage.

Methanol is a toxin that destroys the myelin tissue in your body, which is the insulating material around your nerves that allows nerve signals to travel properly. Once injured, one can have what are called demyelinating symptoms that are commonly seen in diseases like MS and also migraines that can include bizarre and inconsistent visual field disruptions.

My sister that helped me start my practice in 1985 is actually one of the people that develops these symptoms when exposed to aspartame. In the late ‘80s I helped to diagnose her with this sensitivity and she has avoided it for over 25 years.

Why is Methanol So Toxic?

Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde in your body. Many experts believe formic acid is the problem but the real problem is the formaldehyde, which is a deadly neurotoxin and carcinogen. An EPA assessment of methanol states that methanol "is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed. In the body, methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic."2

They recommend a limit of consumption of 7.8 mg/day. But according to Woodrow Monte, Ph.D, R.D., director of the Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory at Arizona State University:3

“When diet sodas and soft drinks, sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative toxin.

Further, he states that due to the lack of a couple of key enzymes, humans are many times more sensitive to the toxic effects of methanol than animals. Therefore, tests of aspartame or methanol on animals do not accurately reflect the danger for humans.

“There are no human or mammalian studies to evaluate the possible mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic effects of chronic administration of methyl alcohol,” he said.

Symptoms from methanol poisoning are many, and include headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, memory lapses, numbness and shooting pains in the extremities, behavioral disturbances, and neuritis. The most well known problems from methanol poisoning are vision problems including misty vision, progressive contraction of visual fields, blurring of vision, obscuration of vision, retinal damage, and blindness. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication and may cause birth defects. The researchers in the featured study then reasoned that the aspartame-induced methanol exposure was likely possible for oxidative stress in the brain.

New Study Shows Aspartame Damages Your Brain

A newly published study with rats investigated the chronic effect of aspartame on oxidative stress in the brain. Researchers found that there was a significant increase in lipid peroxidation levels, superoxide dismutase activity, GPx levels and CAT activity, showing that chronic exposure of aspartame resulted in detectable methanol in the blood, which may be responsible for the generation of oxidative stress and damage in the brain.4

So the study found that aspartame exposure did result in “detectable levels” of methanol in the blood. Methanol is gradually released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounters the enzyme chymotrypsin.

Are Artificial Sweeteners Stressing Out Your Brain?

Oxidative stress can be defined as the state in which damaging free radicals outnumber your antioxidant defenses. Oxidative stress tends to lead to accelerated tissue and organ damage.

Case in point, earlier this year another study investigated the effect of long-term intake of aspartame on the antioxidant defense status in the rat brain and also found it leads to oxidative stress.5 Male rats that were given a high dose of the artificial sweetener exhibited a lowered concentration of reduced glutathione (the active, antioxidant form of glutathione), and reduced glutathione reductase activity, a sign of increased oxidative stress-induced damage in the body.

Glutathione deficiency has also been linked to age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's. Examination also revealed mild vascular congestion – an obstruction of the normal flow of blood within the brain – in these rats. Researchers concluded:

"The results of this experiment indicate that long-term consumption of aspartame leads to an imbalance in the antioxidant/pro-oxidant status in the brain, mainly through the mechanism involving the glutathione-dependent system."

Adding to the problem, one of the amino acids in aspartame, aspartic acid is capable of crossing your blood-brain barrier. There it attacks your brain cells, creating a form of cellular overstimulation called excitotoxicity, which can lead to cell death.

Your blood-brain barrier, which normally protects your brain from excess aspartate, as well as toxins, is not able to adequately protect you against the effects of aspartame consumption because it:

Is not fully developed during childhood
Does not fully protect all areas of the brain
Is damaged by numerous chronic and acute conditions
Allows seepage of excess aspartate into the brain even when intact

That excess aspartate slowly begins to destroy neurons, and the large majority (75 percent or more) of neural cells in a particular area of the brain are killed before any clinical symptoms of a chronic illness are noticed. Then, when they do occur, they may or may not be associated with aspartame consumption, even though examples of chronic illnesses that are made worse by long-term exposure to excitatory amino acid damage include:
Multiple sclerosis (MS) ALS Memory loss
Hormonal problems Hearing loss Epilepsy
Alzheimer's disease and dementia Parkinson's disease Hypoglycemia
AIDS Brain lesions Neuroendocrine disorders

Why Was Aspartame Ever Approved?

If it causes brain damage, why is aspartame allowed in our food and drinks? The truth of the matter is the FDA rejected aspartame not once but multiple times. The scientific data just did not support it as a safe product. But the FDA is a federal agency subject to the political winds, and the people in charge of the agency have repeatedly and notoriously been accused of many conflicts of interest, both economically and ethically.

In 1975, the FDA came to the conclusion that aspartame should not be allowed on the market. They requested that further studies be conducted. The FDA's next move was to set up a public board of inquiry composed of outside experts to investigate the safety of aspartame, and in 1980 that board unanimously rejected aspartame's request for approval. Another internal FDA panel convened in 1980 also rejected aspartame for approval.

So it was three strikes against aspartame at this point, four strikes if you count the Bressler Report. This report was compiled in 1977 after FDA scientists looked into the field studies conducted on aspartame. The Bressler Report uncovered fraud and manipulation of data so serious that the FDA forwarded their files to the Chicago U.S. Attorney's office for prosecution.

Basically the results of the scientific data were fairly clear up until 1980: Aspartame was a dangerous, brain-tumor-causing man-made poison and the company trying to get it into the food supply was recommended for prosecution by the FDA. You would think that would be the end of aspartame, right?

Not by a long shot.

For more details on the story of how aspartame made it through the FDA approval process despite warning signs of potential health hazards and alleged scientific fraud, please watch the 60-Minutes report below, as Mike Wallace does a nice job of summarizing an otherwise very long story.

Did You Know Aspartame May Make You Fat?

If you’re one of the people who suffers from headaches/migraines, vision problems, fatigue, anxiety attacks, abdominal pains or other symptoms when you consume aspartame, deciding to eliminate it from your diet was probably an easy choice.

For the rest of you, doing so based on the possibility that it could “one day” cause symptoms of brain damage is much more abstract, and probably much less likely to make you take action today.

That’s why I want to share with you one of the major deceptions surrounding artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which is that they will help you lose weight by avoiding sugar.

This is a MYTH. Research has shown that artificial sweeteners can:

Stimulate your appetite
Increase carbohydrate cravings
Stimulate fat storage and weight gain. In fact, diet sodas, which are well-known sources of artificial sweeteners, may actually double your risk of obesity!6

So much for being a dieter's best friend... The point is, if you’re having a hard time giving up aspartame based on its potential to damage your brain, maybe the fact that it could make you pack on the pounds in the very near future will motivate you toward positive change.

My Favorite Tool for Addressing Artificial Sweetener Addictions

Artificial sweeteners tend to trigger enhanced activity within your brain's pleasure centers, yet at the same time provide less actual satisfaction. This separation of the taste of sweetness from caloric content means that when you consume artificial sweeteners, your brain actually craves more of it because your body receives no satisfaction on a cellular level by the sugar imposter. This can actually contribute to not only overeating and weight gain, but also an addiction to artificial sweeteners.

In order to break free, be sure you address the emotional component to your food cravings using a tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). More than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works to overcome food cravings and helps you reach dietary success. If diet soda is the culprit for you, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short amount of time.

If you're determined to sweeten your foods and beverages, I urge you to consider using stevia extract – a safe and natural sweet herb, which is my personal sweetener of choice. Lo Han is another herbal sweetener that doesn’t have the aftertaste of stevia that many object to.
Please note -- the connection between sodas with Aspartame and dementia/ Alzheimer's.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 2nd, 2012, 9:08 am
by BroJones
Excellent article follows, about getting up off that chair!
I have two spots where I put my lap-top and type while standing and moving around a bit, stretching occasionally also. In fact, I'm standing right now, and doing knee-bends.

By Dr. Mercola

According to recent research, if Americans cut back on the amount of time spent sitting down, it could add years to your life expectancy.

Unfortunately, most people spend a large portion of each day in a seated position. It's hard to avoid these days, as computer work predominates, and most also spend many precious hours each week commuting to and from work.

The study estimates that reducing the average time you spend sitting down to less than three hours a day could increase your life expectancy by two years.1 Reducing the time you spend watching TV to less than two hours a day could increase it by 1.4 years.

As reported by NBC News:2

"The study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that sitting itself is deadly. While previous studies have looked at the health risks to the individual, the new study examines the risk of sitting for the whole population, said study researcher Peter Katzmarzyk, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. The research 'elevates sedentary behavior as an important risk factor, similar to smoking and obesity,' Katzmarzyk said.

Other studies have found our culture of sitting may be responsible for about 173,000 cases of cancer each year.

Because U.S. adults spend, on average, between 4.5 and five hours a day sitting down, a significant shift in the population's behavior would be needed to have an effect on life expectancy, Katzmarzyk said. This might be achieved through changes at the workplace, such as the use of standing desks, and by watching less TV..."

Obesity Panacea3 made a good point in its report on this study:

"These sorts of theoretical studies obviously need to be taken with a large dollop of salt (just like the recent Australian study4 which estimated that every hour of TV viewing shortens your life by 25 minutes). The point is simply that there is a non-negligible impact of sitting/TV viewing on mortality, and given the extremely high prevalence of these behaviors at the population level, they can have noticeable impact on the lifespan of the population as a whole."

How to Increase Activity Levels on the Job

While sitting down is not the only thing that can cause trouble (adopting any particular posture for long periods of time can slow down your circulatory system), sitting is one of the most pervasive postures in modern civilizations. So how can you increase your activity levels if you have a "desk job," as so many of us do these days?

One of the things I do to compensate for the time I spend sitting each day is to regularly do Foundation exercises developed by a brilliant chiropractor, Eric Goodman. These exercises are used by many professional and elite athletes, but more importantly can easily address the root cause of most low back pain, which is related to weakness and imbalance among your posterior chain of muscles. It is easily argued that these imbalances are primarily related to sitting. I have recently interviewed Dr. Goodman and he shares his comments on the featured report below.

Here are two video demonstrations: "The Founder," which helps reinforce proper movement while strengthening the entire back of your body, and "Adductor Assisted Back Extension," which will teach you how to properly extend your spine.

Powerful New Way to Compensate for Sitting – Foundation Trainng

I recently learned of Dr. Eric Goodman's work through his TED presentation and was excited about the simplicity and elegance of his approach to address this issue. Many elite and professional athletes are big fans of his work. I asked him to comment on this article and he wrote the following:

"Many lifestyles require that people sit very often. While this may not be ideal, it is certainly ok. No law of nature requires that our body begins to deteriorate as soon as you sit down; it's actually the simple repetition that gets you. Fortunately there is a lot you can do to help counterbalance this, starting today.

You have some important anatomy happening in and around your hips, pelvis, spine and stomach. Unfortunately, these are precisely the areas that get the worst of your weight when you sit all day. It is because of this that teaching your pelvis and spine to remain supported while we sit, and more importantly, while you stand, is of the utmost importance.

Think about it for a moment, we are all very muscular animals… well, at least we have the ability to be very muscular animals. If sitting all day teaches your back, butt and leg muscles that it is ok to remain squishy and act more as a cushion than a support structure, you should do exactly the opposite to counter it. You have to let your muscles feel what they have accidentally forgotten, the feeling of being used for their original purpose.

Get up!

Stand up throughout the day to stretch your body appropriately, the way it is meant to be stretched. The simple act of standing as tall as possible for a minute or two will help break the pattern of sitting, as long as you repeat it frequently. Be sure that while standing you take full deep breaths to expand your torso as well. We often have very shallow breath while we sit, counter that with big deep breaths as often as you can throughout the day.

My opinion is that people should not go longer than 30 minutes in a chair without standing, deep breathing, walking and stretching. If you think I am crazy for asking that much of you, then I suggest you not go longer than 20 minutes.

Helpful Tips You Can Do Now:

You will do less harm by sitting upright on the front edge of your chair. Back rests tend to promote excessive rounding of the spine, and tend to push people into what's called an anterior head carriage. The further forward your head goes the shorter your hip flexors will remain and that just leads to all sorts of movement problems.
When sitting for a while try to keep your chest (sternum) in front of your chin. As soon as the head starts to fall forward you enter the compression and degeneration danger zone. Play around to see if you can feel a difference.
Think of lengthening the distance between the rib cage and the pelvis when you stand. This will lengthen your hip flexors.
If you have a life that keeps you sitting frequently, and you haven't tried Foundation Training yet, please do. Our work will likely help you. At least watch my TED talk and learn an important trick to counter balance the effects of sitting all day."

Regular Exercise May Not Be Enough to Compensate for Excessive Sitting...

I am a major proponent of exercise and believe it is absolutely essential if you are going to achieve any level of high-level health and wellness. Interestingly, previous research has suggested that even if you have a regular fitness regimen, it might not be enough to compensate for excessively sedentary behavior during the remaining hours of each day due to the adverse metabolic effects sitting down generates.

One 2009 study5 highlighted much of the recent evidence linking sitting with biomarkers of poor metabolic health, showing how total sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems. According to the authors:

"Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting – the activity that dominates most people's remaining 'non-exercise' waking hours."

In other words, even if you're fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week – you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk or on the couch. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "active couch potato effect."

The Price You Pay for a Sedentary Lifestyle

A number of studies have looked into the health ramifications of leading a sedentary lifestyle. The research linking too much sitting with increased risks of disease and premature death is quite eye-opening:

Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.6
A study of more than 17,000 Canadians7 found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting compared to those who sat infrequently.
Sitting time is a predictor of weight gain, according to a study of Australian women,8 even after accounting for calories consumed and leisure time physical activity, such as exercise time.
The risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity had only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.9
People who use a computer for 11 hours or more a week, or watch TV for 21 hours or more a week, are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for 5 hours a week or less.10

More Exercises You Can Do

I recently interviewed Dr. Goodman and he comprehensively described his program but that interview will not be out for a while. In the meantime he also had these useful suggestions to share:

"When it comes to your core, 'It's all in the hips, baby.' Every muscle that directly connects to the pelvis should be considered a piece of your core. To say it another way, your athletic ability, flexibility, balance and strength are all rather dependent on powerful hips. Here are some muscles that it would be a good idea to strengthen:

Glutes: These are the powerhouses of the body. They do not work alone.
Adductors (Inner thigh muscles): your built in traction system. When the adductor group of muscles remains strong you have increased in hip stability, stronger arches in the feet, and a pelvic brace using a couple of the strongest muscles in the body.
The deep lower back muscles: facilitate the proper integration of the Posterior Chain of Muscles. Simply put, a weak lower back changes every aspect of your movement patterns for the worse.
The abdomen and hip flexors: Think of the front of your body as a window that shows what is happening at the spine and pelvis. If the front is always too tight, the back is not working properly.
The Transverse Abdominal muscle: A built in bracing system. When the transverse abdominus is tightened against the other muscles among this core group, the entire system becomes stronger.

In order to better stabilize your pelvis you need an integrated approach at strengthening all of the muscles surrounding it. Focusing on the abdomen and hip flexors excludes roughly 80% of the muscles which allow stable powerful movement from the integrated core of the body. I speak about adaptation very often, in this case by allowing our bodies to adapt to a seated position we have stopped using many of our most important muscles effectively. These core muscles are not able to function as they should without proper length, strength and balance.

You've got to get reacquainted with your posterior chain of muscles, get the back of your body stronger, and start by connecting the deepest layers. Use these 2 simple exercises to feel what I am talking about: (Founder and integrated back extension) I know what happens on the other end of this, I've had the personal reward of changing my movement patterns for the better. I used it to avoid back surgery at a young age and I now surprise myself daily at what I am able to do without pain.

A simple shift of patterns can lead to extraordinary, life changing results. Enjoy the process!
"

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 8th, 2012, 8:54 am
by BroJones
Probiotics

By Dr. Mercola

Probiotics, i.e. beneficial gut bacteria have been heavily featured in the media lately, and for good reason. Researchers are increasingly realizing just how essential your intestinal microflora really is to your health.

The easiest way to improve the makeup of bacteria in your gut is to include traditionally fermented foods in your diet, but in an emergency situation, a novel procedure called fecal microbiota transplant may be the difference between life and death.

Who Knew a Fecal Transplant Could Be a Life Saving Procedure?

Such was the case with Kaitlin Hunter, a California woman who developed a potentially lethal bacterial infection in her colon after spending a month in the hospital recuperating from a serious car accident.

As reported by CNN Health:1

"In the hospital after her accident, doctors followed standard care and put Hunter on antibiotics to prevent an infection. In spite of the antibiotics – or possibly because of them – Clostrium difficile (C. diff) infected her colon, causing severe stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting...

It's believed that antibiotics, which kill harmful infection-causing bacteria, also weaken the beneficial, healthy bacteria percolating in the colon. With the colon's defenses down, C. diff grows rampant, releasing a toxin and inflaming the colon.

C. diff infections kill about 14,000 people in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the number and severity of total cases have increased dramatically over the past decade."

A fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) involves taking donor feces (the donor is typically a spouse or relative; in the Kaitlin's case, it was her mother) and transferring it to the patient during a colonoscopy. In this way, the patient receives a transplanted population of healthy bacteria that can combat the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria.

Recent research has shown the procedure to be very effective against recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. In a study2 published earlier this summer, FMT had a 91 percent primary cure rate, meaning resolution of symptoms without recurrence within 90 days of FMT. The secondary cure rate was 98 percent. Here, resolution of symptoms occurred after one additional course of vanomycin either with or without probiotics and/or a repeat FMT.

Antibiotics Without Probiotics Can Be a Dangerous Proposition

Kaitlin had received nine rounds of antibiotics, so it's no wonder such a dangerous infection could get foothold in her colon. In this particular case, the fecal transplant likely saved her life.

However, I would dissuade you from thinking this procedure is a magical route to fix less than life threatening conditions. Furthermore, it's important to understand that you have the power to prevent such a dangerous condition from occurring in the first place. It would certainly be nice if more doctors understood the importance of reseeding the gut with probiotics during and after a course of antibiotics, to reduce the health risks to their patients. However, as in so many other instances, many doctors still overlook this critical step, and this is where knowledge and self-responsibility comes into play.

Any time you take an antibiotic, it is important to take probiotics to repopulate the beneficial bacteria in your gut that are killed by the antibiotic along with the pathogenic bacteria. And you certainly don't need a doctor's prescription or permission for this.

If you're in a hospital setting, you're not likely to be served fermented foods, but you could have a family member or friend bring some in, or ask your doctor to sign off on a probiotics supplement. Outside a hospital setting, your best bet is to incorporate traditionally fermented foods in your diet, so you're constantly maintaining a healthy bacterial balance.

Other Infections that Can Be Treated with Probiotics

Clostridium difficile infections are very serious, and since the cure rate with beneficial bacteria is so high for this type of infection, it can give you an idea of the power of probiotics for other, far less lethal ailments. For example, another type of infection that is far more common than C. diff. is Candida albicans.

An overgrowth of Candida, a type of yeast, can cause a variety of chronic health problems in both men and women. Under normal circumstances Candida albicans is a harmless part of your skin, intestines, and for women, your vagina. But Candida cells develop rapidly, and if your system is out of balance from eating unhealthy foods, taking certain prescription drugs, or fighting an illness for example, Candida can quickly grow out of control.

Vaginal yeast infections tend to occur when the normal acidity of a woman's vagina changes, allowing the yeast to multiply. It's estimated that up to 75 percent of women have had at least one vaginal yeast infection in their lifetime, which typically is accompanied by intense itching, burning with urination and sometimes a thick, white discharge. Up to 80 million Americans – 70 percent of them women – suffer from yeast-related problems, and if you suffer from yeast infections (especially if they're recurrent) you should also be on the watch for other symptoms of Candida overgrowth, such as:
Chronic fatigue Weight gain
Food allergies Irritable bowel syndrome
Migraines PMS



As with all yeast-related problems, the infection occurs because your system has become run down or out of balance, allowing the Candida that already exists in your body to multiply out of control, causing illness. You may also fall into the trap of treating the infection with an over-the-counter anti-fungal cream, and then assuming that when the symptoms disappear the problem is cured. However, these creams only treat the symptoms and do nothing about the underlying yeast overgrowth that caused the problem to begin with.

How to Harness Your Gut Bacteria for Better Health

Do you suffer from gas and bloating? Constipation or diarrhea? Fatigue? Headaches? Sugar cravings? All of these are signs that unhealthy bacteria of one type or another have taken over too much real estate in your gut, which is actually quite common considering how vulnerable your gut bacteria are to environmental insults. It's important to realize that your lifestyle can and does influence your gut flora on a daily basis. Therefore, to protect your microflora, you'll want to avoid:

Antibiotics
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution

Poor diet is another enemy to healthy gut bacteria. Sugar is enemy number one, as it actually nourishes the bad or pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and fungi in your gut. Hence, dramatically limiting or eliminating sugar and fructose is an essential step to optimize your gut health. Processed foods also promote bad bacteria – partly due to the high fructose content in most processed foods, but also because of the processing, which essentially "kills" the food.

One of the major side benefits of eating a healthy diet like the one described in my nutrition plan is that it helps your beneficial gut bacteria to flourish. A critical part of a healthful diet is fermented foods, as they will actively "reseed" your body with good bacteria, and can do so far more effectively and inexpensively than a probiotic supplement. It's unusual to find a probiotic supplement containing more than 10 billion colony-forming units.

But when my team tested fermented vegetables produced by probiotic starter cultures, they had 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Literally, one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic! So clearly, you're far better off using fermented foods. Again, when choosing fermented foods, steer clear of pasteurized versions, as pasteurization will destroy many of the naturally-occurring probiotics. Examples of traditionally fermented foods include:

Fermented vegetables
Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Fermented milk, such as kefir (like fermented vegetables, a quart of unpasteurized kefir also has far more active bacteria than you can get from a probiotic supplement)
Natto (fermented soy)

Learn to Make Your Own Fermented Vegetables

Fermented vegetables are my favorite as they're both easy to make, and one of the tastiest types of fermented food. To learn how to inexpensively make your own, review the following interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional Program. In addition to the wealth of information shared in this interview, I highly recommend getting the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, which provides all the necessary details for Dr. McBride's GAPS protocol.

Although you can use the native bacteria on cabbage and other vegetables, it is typically easier to get consistent results by using a starter culture. Caroline prepares hundreds of quarts of fermented vegetables a week and has found that she gets great results by using three to four high quality probiotic capsules to jump start the fermentation process. If you're not quite ready to make your own, Caroline also prepares the vegetables commercially. I used hers for a month before I started making my own batches. You can find her products on http://www.CulturedVegetables.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or http://www.CulturedNutrition.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Download Interview Transcript

How to Reduce Chances of "Healing Crisis"

There is one precaution that needs to be discussed here, and that is the potential for a so-called "healing crisis," provoked by the massive die-off of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other harmful pathogens by the reintroduction of massive quantities of probiotics. It can significantly worsen whatever health problem you're experiencing, before you get better.

The reason for this is because when the probiotics kill off the pathogens, those pathogenic microbes release toxins. These toxins are what's causing your problem to begin with; be it depression, panic attacks, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or any other symptom. When a large amount of toxin is suddenly released, your symptoms will also suddenly increase. So, if you've never had fermented foods before, you need to introduce them very gradually.

Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends starting off with just ONE TEASPOON of fermented vegetable, such as sauerkraut, with ONE of your meals, and then wait for a couple of days to see how you react. If it's manageable, you can have another helping, and gradually increase your portion. If you feel worse, stop. Let the side effects subside, and then have just a tiny amount again. Some may even need to start with just a teaspoon of the juice ferment to start. Then move on to two teaspoons per day, and so on.

It's important to realize that besides containing massive amounts of beneficial bacteria, fermented foods also contain many active enzymes, which act as extremely potent detoxifiers. As Dr. Cambell-McBride explains:

"Healing goes through two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, and one step back. But you will find that the next layer is smaller. The die off and the detox will not last as long as the previous one... We live in a toxic world, and many of us have accumulated layers and layers of toxicity in our bodies. The body will clean them out, but you will find that each layer will last shorter and not be as severe... Eventually, you will come to complete, radiant health. You will feel 100 percent healthy, no matter how ill you were before."

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 13th, 2012, 10:28 am
by BroJones
Today's topic: Lyme disease.

PS-- Lezlee and I are visiting Adam-ondi-Ahman today. Limited computer contact for another two weeks about.

In about a week, I'll give a fireside here in Northern Missouri on "Newton's religious views."

By Dr. Mercola

Unrelenting pain. Headaches, muscle aches, swollen joints, rashes. Loss of coordination and muscle spasms. Intermittent paralysis. Cycles of disabling symptoms that persist for years, causing ceaseless suffering and frustration for patients and their families.

This is the picture of chronic Lyme disease. And yet, many physicians tell their patients there is "no such thing," referring them to psychiatrists, misdiagnosing them, or even accusing them of fabricating an illness or simply seeking attention.

An award-winning documentary called "Under Our Skin" exposes the hidden story of Lyme disease, one of the most serious and controversial epidemics of our time.

Each year, thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, often told their symptoms are all in their heads. This film brings into focus a troubling picture of a health care system that is far too willing to put profits ahead of patients.

The History and Discovery of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease rates are escalating at breakneck speed, among humans as well as animals. Today, Lyme disease the most common vector borne disease in the U.S., far more common and dangerous to the average American than West Nile virus. In fact, there were almost 40,000 reported cases of Lyme in 2009,1 which by all accounts is a gross underestimate.

The CDC estimates the real number of cases may be up to 12 times higher, suggesting as high as 480,000, making Lyme far more prevalent than AIDS. The number of Lyme cases reported annually has increased nearly 25-fold since national surveillance began in 1982.2

Lyme disease was named after the East Coast town of Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first identified in 1975.3 The disease was first referred to as "Lyme arthritis" due to the presentation of atypical arthritic symptoms. By 1977, the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick) was linked to transmission of the disease.

Then in 1982, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, discovered the bacterium responsible for the infection: Borrelia burgdorferi. The bacteria are released into your blood from the infected tick, while the tick is drinking your blood.

We now know there are five subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi, more than 100 strains in the U.S. and 300 worldwide, many of which have developed resistance to our various antibiotics. Although many still attribute transmission exclusively to ticks, according to Dr. Deitrich Klinghardt, one of the leading authorities on Lyme disease, the bacteria can also be spread by other insects, including mosquitoes, spiders, fleas, and mites. This may be the reason so few Lyme sufferers recall being bitten by a tick.

Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete,4 a cousin to the spirochete bacterium that causes syphilis. In fact, they look very similar under a microscope. B. burgdorferi's corkscrew-shaped form allows it to burrow into and hide in a variety of your body's tissues, which is why it causes such wide-ranging multisystem involvement.

The Invisible Illness

Many Lyme patients who battle this disease on a daily basis appear healthy, which is why Lyme disease has been called "the invisible illness." They often "look good," and their blood work appears normal, but their internal experience is a far different story. Patients struggling with Lyme disease usually become adept at hiding their pain from others as a way to cope and restore some degree of normalcy to their lives.

Part of the problem with diagnosing and treating Lyme disease is that it is so easy to misdiagnose.

Lyme disease is called "the great imitator,"5 mimicking other disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ALS, ADHD and Alzheimer's disease. In some cases, Lyme patients can even develop paralysis or slip into a coma. The only distinctive hallmark unique to Lyme disease is the "bulls eye" rash, but this is absent in nearly half of those infected. Laboratory tests are notoriously unreliable.

Fewer than half of Lyme patients recall a tick bite. In some studies, this number is as low as 15 percent. So, if you don't recall seeing a tick on your body, that doesn't rule out the possibility of Lyme disease. According to TBDA:

"Although the bulls eye red rash is considered the classic sign to look for, it is not even the most common dermatologic manifestation of early Lyme infection. Atypical forms of this rash are seen far more commonly. It is important to know that the Erythema Migrans rash is a clear, unequivocal sign of Lyme disease..."

Besides the rash, some of the first symptoms of Lyme disease may include a flu-like condition with fever, chills, headache, stiff neck, achiness and fatigue. For a complete list of symptoms, refer to the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance6 (TBDA), but some of the more frequent symptoms include the following:

Muscle and joint pain
Neurological problems
Heart involvement
Vision and hearing problems
Migraines

The "Lyme Paradox"

Dr. Klinghardt believes one of the factors that's led to increased Borrelia virulence is the dramatic increase in electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and microwave radiation from cell phones and towers, wireless Internet, power lines, household electrical wiring, etc. Reduction of exposure to these fields is a key part of his Lyme treatment protocol, which I'll be discussing shortly.

One of the reasons blood tests are so unreliable as indicators of Lyme infection is that the spirochete has found a way to infect your white blood cells. Lab tests rely on the normal function of these cells to produce the antibodies they measure.

If your white cells are infected, they don't respond to an infection appropriately. And the worse your Borrelia infection is, the less likely it will show up on a blood test. In order for Lyme tests to be useful, you have to be treated first. Once your immune system begins to respond normally, only then will the antibodies show up. This is called the "Lyme Paradox" – treatment before diagnosis.

Dr. MacDonald's Syphilis Model

The behavior of Borrelia may be more similar to its cousin Treponemapallidum, the spirochete responsible for syphilis. Both take different forms in your body (cystic forms, granular forms, and cell wall deficient forms), depending on what conditions they need to accommodate. This clever maneuvering helps them to hide and survive.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence for Borrelia as a far greater player than previously thought comes from the work of Alan MacDonald, MD, who's been studying parallels between Lyme disease and syphilis for the past 30 years. MacDonald found the DNA of Borrelia in seven out of ten brain specimens from people who died of Alzheimer's disease.7

Astonishingly, the DNA was "fused" with human DNA, into one molecule! Syphilis is well known for causing symptoms across multiple body systems, including neurosyphilis, the psychiatric form of the illness.

Syphilis remains relatively easy to treat, as long as it's diagnosed early. But its cousin Borrelia seems to be upping the ante. Dr. Klinghardt stated in one of our interviews that he's never had a single patient with Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis who tested negative for Borrelia. Those are all diseases with no known cause. Could Lyme disease be the missing link? And if it is, why hasn't there been a stampede of researchers in pursuit of the truth?

Attorney General Finds IDSA Lyme Guidelines Flawed and Panel Corrupted

A handful of people are the gatekeepers for information about Lyme disease. Most of those occupy positions within the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), which publishes guidelines for a number of infectious diseases, one of which is Lyme.

The IDSA's most recent clinical practice guidelines for Lyme disease8 they claim Lyme is easily cured with, typically, two weeks of antibiotics, requiring 28 days in rare cases. They also claim there is no scientific evidence for chronic Borrelia infection. However, the literature choices they list in their reference section clearly reflect their bias. Of the 400 references they cite, half are based on articles written by their own people.

Their literature review in no way represents the total body of science related to the study of Lyme disease.

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has long been a strong advocate for people with Lyme disease.9 While he was Connecticut, Attorney General Blumenthal conducted an investigation into the IDSA's panel members and 2006 Lyme disease guidelines.

These guidelines have sweeping impacts on Lyme disease medical care. They are commonly applied by insurance companies to restrict coverage for long-term treatment and strongly influence physicians' treatment decisions. Insurance companies have denied coverage for long-term treatment, citing these guidelines as justification that chronic Lyme disease is a myth. Blumenthal's investigation found conflicts of interest were rampant in the IDSA, with numerous undisclosed financial interests among its most powerful panelists.

The IDSA agreed to create a new panel to review the ethics of the 2006 IDSA panel, overseen by Blumenthal's office. But this ended up being nothing more than a pacifier. The end result was a Final Report published on the IDSA site10 finding the original guidelines "based on the highest-quality medical/scientific evidence available," stating the authors "did not fail to consider or cite any relevant data." Senator Blumenthal continues to fight the establishment, however, and has taken his battle to the Senate.

Other Resources

The International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) is by far the best and most responsible group.The following are some other resources you might find helpful:

Turn the Corner Foundation
Tick-Borne Disease Alliance (TBDA)
Lyme Diseases Association, Inc.
Leading Lyme disease expert Joseph J. Burrascano, MD, wrote what is essentially a manual for managing Lyme disease, entitled "Advanced Topics in Lyme Disease," which is worth adding to your resource files. Realize that his treatment focus is long-term antibiotics, which I believe should not be your first choice. Nevertheless, there is some good information in this publication.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 18th, 2012, 4:08 am
by BroJones
Buttered Popcorn Flavoring Linked to Alzheimer’s
October 18 2012 | 33,448 views |

By Dr. Mercola

If you like to snack on the occasional bag of microwave popcorn, it's probably the buttery flavoring that you crave.

This comes from an artificial flavoring called diacetyl, which is a natural byproduct of fermentation found in butter, beer and vinegar... and also a chemical made synthetically by food companies because it gives foods that irresistible buttery flavor and aroma.

Many companies who manufacture microwave popcorn have already stopped using the synthetic diacetyl because it's been linked to lung damage in people who work in their factories.

But now a new study at the University of Minnesota shows that diacetyl is not only a risk to workers' lungs... it may also pose a risk to your brain.

Microwave Popcorn Chemical Linked to Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers conducting test-tube studies revealed that diacetyl has several concerning properties for brain health. Not only can it pass through the blood-brain barrier, which is intended to help keep toxins out of your brain, but it can also cause brain proteins to misfold into the Alzheimer's-linked form known as beta amyloid. It also inhibits mechanisms that help to naturally clear the dangerous beta amyloid from your brain.1

It's not known at this time whether eating diacetyl-containing foods (it's used not only in microwave popcorn but also in other snack foods, baked goods, pet foods, some fast foods and other food products) increases your risk of Alzheimer's, but the finding that it may contribute to brain plaques linked to Alzheimer's at very low concentrations is concerning, to say the least.

How many other synthetic chemicals have we been told are perfectly safe, only to find out over time that they aren't. MSG and aspartame come to mind... but there are countless others as well.

Removing Diacetyl from Microwave Popcorn Doesn't Make it Safe...

As mentioned, diacetyl is known to cause serious, sometimes life-threating respiratory illness in microwave popcorn-plant and flavoring plant workers. Many companies therefore began to stop using the chemical in their products, replacing it with another ingredient called 2,3-pentanedione (PD), which is also used to impart a buttery flavor and aroma.

Now researchers have revealed that PD, too, can lead to respiratory toxicity similar to that caused by diacetyl.2 The chemical was also capable of pathologically altering the gene expression in rat brains, leading to neurotoxicity. The study's lead researcher noted:

"Our study is a reminder that a chemical with a long history of being eaten without any evidence of toxicity can still be an agent with respiratory toxicity when appropriate studies are conducted."

Not to mention, perfluoroalkyls (PFCs), which are chemicals used to keep grease from leaking through food wrappers, are widely used in microwave-popcorn packaging. These chemicals migrate into your food and are processed by your body, where they can disrupt your endocrine system and affect your sex hormones. PFCs have been linked to infertility, thyroid disease, cancer, immune system problems, and more.

Most US Corn is Genetically Modified

About 86 percent of all corn crops grown in the United States are genetically modified (GM), which brings a new set of health concerns to your microwave popcorn. Interestingly, none of the popcorn is genetically engineered, however just about all the other corn is, which is a great reason to avoid it. Additionally, as a grain it will typically not promote good health for most people.

So-called "Bt corn" is equipped with a gene from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which produces Bt-toxin – a pesticide that breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them. This pesticide-producing corn entered the food supply in the late 1990's, and over the past decade, the horror stories have started piling up.

Monsanto and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore that the toxin would only affect insects munching on the crop. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and would not have any impact on animals and humans.
The biotech companies have doggedly insisted that Bt-toxin doesn't bind or interact with the intestinal walls of mammals, and therefore humans.

However, the corn's Bt-toxin has been detected in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in non-pregnant women. Specifically, the toxin was identified in 93% of pregnant women, 80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of non-pregnant women tested.3 And there's plenty of evidence showing that the Bt-toxin produced in genetically modified Bt crops like corn is toxic to humans and mammals and triggers immune system responses. For example, in government-sponsored research in Italy, mice fed Monsanto's Bt corn showed a wide range of immune responses, such as:4

Elevated IgE and IgG antibodies, which are typically associated with allergies and infections
An increase in cytokines, which are associated with allergic and inflammatory responses. The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were found to be elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders, from arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, to MS and cancer
Elevated T cells (gamma delta), which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

Rats fed another of Monsanto's Bt corn varieties called MON 863, also experienced an activation of their immune systems, showing higher numbers of basophils, lymphocytes, and white blood cells.5 These can indicate possible allergies, infections, toxins, and various disease states including cancer. There were also signs of liver and kidney toxicity.

How is Popcorn Popped?

If you've ever wondered how a corn kernel turns into popcorn, the video above may give you a clue. A kernel of corn contains both moisture and oil, along with a hard, dense starch inside. As the kernel is heated, the moisture in the kernel gets turned into steam, which is held inside of the strong hull.

This turns the dense starch into a soft, pliable material, and as the steam continues to build pressure and heat, the hull ruptures suddenly and the starch expands into an airy foam that sets into the popcorn you're familiar with.

If you love popcorn and can't imagine giving it up, make your own at home using organic popping corn and coconut oil or butter. Place the oil or butter in a large pot, turn it on to medium heat and add your kernels. When the popping slows to one or two "pops" every few seconds, you're all done. Add your own natural seasonings like grass-fed, raw butter and Himalayan salt for a natural popcorn snack without all the artificial ingredients and chemicals that are inevitable with the microwave variety.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 21st, 2012, 3:34 pm
by BroJones
Notes on Niacin and Vitamin B3!



By Dr. Mercola

As mass killings occur around the nation by obviously disturbed perpetrators at increasing frequency, there's plenty of blame to go around. The medical system gets blamed for not identifying these killers in time; the gun lobby gets blamed for fighting stricter gun regulations; and producers of violent video games along with incessant and glorified violence on TV certainly does nothing to combat despondency and desensitization.

But what if the solution could be found in one's diet, or in more extreme cases, in an inexpensive supplement bottle? Blogger Kimberly Hartke1 offers some ideas that are truly food for thought― and it's something that processed food manufacturers may not want to admit.

"What if our heavy reliance on processed and fast foods is leading to widespread nutrient imbalances?" she writes. "Dr. Weston A. Price, a researcher in the 1930′s found that primitive tribes eating a whole foods, natural diet high in animal foods and animal fat had no need for prisons. The moral character of these isolated people was strong. They were not incapacitated mentally or physically..."

One nutritional deficiency in particular that may have the potential to wreak havoc on your psyche is niacin (vitamin B3). Pellagra2 is a condition caused by niacin deficiency, and is clinically manifested by the 4 D' s:

Photosensitive dermatitis
Diarrhea
Dementia, and
Death

Pellagra's Violent Side Effects

The disease originates in your gut, with GI tract symptoms preceding dermatitis, and the condition is well known to be associated with malnourishment and the "poor man's diet" consisting primarily of corn products. Pellagra was epidemic in the American South during the early 1900's, and we just might be dealing with a similar epidemic of malnutrition today. A quote from the book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats reads:

"The clinical description of the typical poor Southerner, any time between about 1900 and 1940, comes alive in the novels of William Faulkner–the brooding sullenness, suddenly shattered by outbursts of irrational anger, persecution, mania, the feeling of people living in a cruel and demented world of their own…Doctors knew very well that diet was at the bottom of all the misery they saw around them, and that disease could be kept at bay by a balanced food supply…"

Hartke continues:

"... Barbara Stitt3, an author who once worked as a probation officer... found that changing the diet of ex-offenders eliminated the hostility and other symptoms that would lead them to act out in a criminal fashion. Her book is aptly titled, Food & Behavior: A Natural Connection and her work seems to confirm the findings of Dr. Weston A. Price on nutritional injury and the role it plays in juvenile delinquency and adult crimes.

A review of Barbara's book mentions her concern about reactive hypoglycemia, sub-clinical pellegra and vitamin B deficiencies being at the root of violent criminal's actions. Check out this revealing quote from the review4: "The startling part of sub-clinical pellagra, like hypoglycemia, is that the symptoms also mirror those of schizophrenia, a problem so widespread that those who suffer from it occupy one out of every four hospital beds in the United States."

Dr. Stitt's book also discusses other vitamin B deficiencies, such as B1, B2, B6 and B12—all of which have an uncanny ability to produce symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders.


Credit: Food and Behavior by Barbara Stitt

Niacin as a Treatment for Schizophrenia

I recently interviewed Dr. Andrew W. Saul on the topic of niacin. Dr. Saul has over 35 years of experience in natural health education and is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. He's authored over 175 publications and 11 books, and has been named as one of the seven health pioneers by Psychology Today. He's also featured in the movie Food Matters, which I'm sure many of you have seen.

Dr. Saul is co-author of the excellent book, Niacin: The Real Story, along with one of the leading niacin researchers, Dr. Abram Hoffer. Niacin, Dr. Hoffer found, may indeed be a "secret" treatment for psychological disorders, including schizophrenia, which can be notoriously difficult to address.

"Dr. Hoffer is probably the world authority on therapeutic use of niacin. He started doing tests, studies, and research into niacin back in the early 1950s. And by 1954, Abram Hoffer had performed the first double-blind, placebo-controlled nutrition studies in the history of psychiatry," Dr. Saul says.

"Now, the early 50s were an odd time. Drugs were on the move; more were coming along. But they hadn't developed to the point where they are today, to put it mildly. Dr. Hoffer had a PhD in biochemistry, and he specialized in cereal biochemistry, which means the study of the vitamins and nutrients in grain. He was also a medical doctor. He was also a board-certified psychiatrist, and head of psychiatric research for one of the provinces in Canada... Dr. Hoffer observed that schizophrenia had symptoms that were very similar to those of pellagra.

Pellagra is extreme or total niacin deficiency. Pellagrins also – in addition to skin problems and many other things – have mental illness symptoms.

When vitamin B3 or niacin was first added as an enrichment or as a fortification to flour, about half of the people in mental institutions went home. This is not a well-known fact. They were there not because they were mentally ill – because of genetic, environment, or social reasons – but because they were malnourished... He wondered about the half that didn't go home.

What about the people that had a little bit of niacin, but didn't get better? ... [H]e started giving what at the time were preposterously high doses of niacin: 3,000 milligrams a day. And he was curing schizophrenia in 80 percent of the cases.

This is astonishing. The cure rate for schizophrenia with drug therapy is not particularly good. Dr. Hoffer saw again and again that niacin worked. Then he studied it, did the placebo-controlled, double-blind test, and started writing paper after paper on this. At that point, the American Psychiatric Association literally blacklisted him."

According to Dr. Saul, other researchers have since confirmed Dr. Hoffer's findings, and found that niacin can also be successfully used in the treatment of other mental disorders, such as:

Attention deficit disorder
General psychosis
Anxiety
Depression
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Bipolar disorder

Anger and Behavioral Issues "Miraculously" Solved with High-Dose Vitamin B3

Dr. Saul offers a powerful example of how niacin can help address violent behavioral problems and/or attention deficit disorders:

"I knew a neighbor who had a boy who was really, really in trouble – constantly in trouble at school, constantly in trouble at home. He was violent. This was really serious. This was more than ADHD. I'm calling it ADHD, because that's what the boy's doctors called it. But the fact is it was far beyond that. Nevertheless, they gave him one of the usual drugs for attention deficit disorder, and it made him worse.

So now he was even more violent and even more psychotic. The parents were in a state as you can imagine; the kid's only 13, everything's falling apart at home. They learned about Dr. Hoffer's niacin approach. And because it was a child, they figured, "Well, we'll start him at a lower level." They gave him 1,500 milligrams a day of niacinamide.

Now, niacinamide and niacin have the same psychiatric benefits. They both work. The difference is niacin will cause a flush in almost everyone who takes it in quantity, especially for the first couple of weeks...

... The parents noticed an immediate improvement. Within days, the child was less angry. He was less troubled at school. He was less oppositional. He was less violent. They immediately figured that if a little helped, maybe more would help more. They wouldn't know unless they tried, and they had no other options. Again, medication was making him worse not better.

They took him totally off of his medication, and they increased his niacin to ultimately about 5,000 milligrams a day. They even got the boy's psychiatrist to prescribe niacin, so he could take it at school. The school nurse was giving the boy niacinamide twice a day at school, as well as at home. All of a sudden, calls were coming from the teachers, saying, "The kid was just transformed. He was doing great." At home, everything was better.

This young teenager was taking nearly 5,000 milligrams a day of niacinamide. Now, this is an important caution for people thinking of doing this. Niacinamide has a disadvantage, and that is it's more likely to cause nausea at very high doses. And the boy did start experiencing nausea at around 5,000 milligrams a day. So, what they did was cut back the niacinamide quantity and started giving him more niacin. He got used to the flush. Then he was able to take the full high dose."

Niacin—Potentially the Best Therapy for Many Forms of Mental Illness

A key point Dr. Saul brings up in the full interview is that certain people have what Dr. Hoffer referred to as niacin dependency, meaning they need more niacin on a regular basis. Essentially, they're beyond deficient—they're dependent on high-doses of niacin in order to remain well. This particularly appears to be the case with mental disorders.

"Dr. Hoffer said that drug therapy alone has a cure rate of 10 percent. He added to that, "Drugs make a well person sick. How can drugs make a sick person well? "He saw this over and over and over and over again... Dr. Hoffer's experience was buttressed by Dr. Humphrey Osmond and a number of other researchers who have confirmed in practice that niacin is the best therapy for many forms of mental illness. And not only that, drug therapy is making people worse...

People would be better off – in many forms of mental illness – if they had no medication. But with niacin, we're not just negating, we're affirming. Niacin is a way that the person can tell within a few hours if it's going to help. If someone has anxiety, depression, psychosis, or schizophrenia, if they take high doses of niacin, they'll notice two things right away. The first is: they're going to flush like crazy. And the second is: they're going to feel better.

Now, as far as the "flush like crazy" thing goes, people are more concerned with the niacin flush than they need to be. But if you just can't contain the idea of having a niacin flush, take inositol hexaniacinate, and that will work just fine. Dr. Hoffer said, "The best cure for the niacin flush is more niacin." If you keep taking the niacin, the histamine flushes out of the body and the vasodilation stops. It takes, perhaps, a couple of weeks."

Vitamin B3 a Potential Weapon Against Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs

In related news, a new study5 suggests vitamin B3 may be able to combat superbugs that modern medicine is finding it harder and harder to fight, including antibiotic-resistance staph infections. The research showed that high doses of the vitamin boosted the immune system by 1,000 times, giving the researchers hope that they may have found a new―and possibly better―way to fight infection.

According to BBC News6:

"B3 increases the numbers and efficacy of neutrophils, white blood cells that can kill and eat harmful bugs. The study, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to a "major change in treatment", a UK expert said."

One of the researchers is quoted as saying:

"This could give us a new way to treat Staph infections that can be deadly, and might be used in combination with current antibiotics. It's a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural immune response."

More Information

Dr. Hoffer founded and produced the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine back in 1968. Its archives are online at orthomolecular.org, and they're free access. For more information about niacin, you can search Dr. Saul's website DoctorYourself.com.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 28th, 2012, 9:27 am
by BroJones
Notes on brain health!

By Dr. Mercola

One of my own recent interests has been brain plasticity - the ability of your brain to recover, repair, and regain functionality that had previously been lost. This idea conflicts with the conventional view that once you lose brain function, it's permanently lost.

Dr. Daniel Amen is a physician and board-certified psychiatrist. He's written five New York Times bestselling books, and is the medical director of the Amen Clinics in Newport Beach in San Francisco, California; Bellevue, Washington; Reston, Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia; and New York City.

He's also one of the foremost experts on brain imaging science, which is the topic of discussion in this interview. Brain plasticity features heavily in Dr. Amen's work with SPECT imaging.

"About 10 years ago, I wrote a book called Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. It's based on the imaging work that we've done," Dr. Amen says.

"We can actually see the damage in your brain done by a wide variety of things. But on what I call a brain-smart program, you can literally improve the function of your brain, which is happening through neuroplasticity. Your brain can actually look and feel younger, or look and feel more repaired. Very few people know that."

SPECT Imaging - An Invaluable New Tool for Psychiatry

That the human brain has a tremendous amount of 'plasticity' was demonstrated in one of Dr. Amen's studies on active and former NFL players. Football players may have been hit in the head upward of 10,000-20,000 times in their lifetime, and this results in a significant amount of brain damage for many. On Dr. Amen's program, 80 percent of them showed significant improvement, including boosting function and blood flow to the prefrontal cortex.

"We've had this rash of NFL suicides, which just breaks my heart, because what they don't know is that there is help available to them," Dr. Amen says.

Brain SPECT imaging is different from the anatomical MRI or CT scans. SPECT measures blood flow and activity patterns. It looks at how the brain works. It's similar to positron emission tomography (PET) scans, which looks at glucose metabolism. When using SPECT imaging, physicians look for three things:

Areas of your brain that work well
Areas of your brain that are low in activity, and
Areas of your brain that are high in activity

The job then becomes balancing the different areas of your brain. The Amen Clinics have performed over 74,000 scans on people from 90 different countries. Dr. Amen estimates they have more experience with this technology than anyone else in the world.

"It's very exciting," Dr. Amen says. "I often say psychiatrists are the only medical doctors that never look at the organ they treat. And when you never look at it, you miss brain trauma, you miss seizure activity, and you miss toxicity...

I'm a classically trained psychiatrist... I was taught to use psychotherapy and medications, and that's pretty much it. Some of the medications I was taught to use like Xanax, Ativan, or Valium for anxiety disorders, when I first started ordering SPECT scans, I saw that they made the brain look like [it had been exposed to] alcohol, and that they were really toxic to brain function. That horrified me, and it was the imaging work that led me to look for natural ways to decrease anxiety."

... When we make a diagnosis, for example of depression, it's a symptom. It shouldn't be a diagnosis. Making the diagnosis of depression, I tell people, is like making the diagnosis of chest pain. And doctors don't give people the diagnosis of chest pain, because it doesn't tell you what's causing it, and it doesn't tell you what to do it for. Depression is the same way.

If you don't get any physiological data on their brain, how would you target [the treatment] to their brain? It becomes – what's happening in psychiatry today – guesswork and multiple shots in the dark. I just argue with my colleagues that that's just not smart. We can do better."

Common Causes of Depression and Anxiety

Dr. Amen's work shows that most cases of depression and anxiety are really symptoms of underlying brain dysfunction. For example, depression can arise if brain activity is too low in your frontal lobes. This inactivity means you cannot inhibit your negative feelings. Depression can also be a symptom of heightened or excessive activity in your frontal lobes, as this leads to an inability to stop thinking the bad thoughts in your head.

A traumatic brain injury can also result in symptoms of depression. In fact, according to Dr. Amen, this is very common.

Other brain-related factors include toxic exposures, and/or a combination of poor lifestyle habits such as a poor diet and lack of exercise. Dr. Amen's treatments to optimize brain function focus on the four-pronged approach of diet, exercise, nutritional supplements, and correcting negative thought patterns.

How Brain Toxicity Alters Your Behavior

One of the major benefits of SPECT imaging is the ability to identify damage caused by toxic exposures. Dr. Amen explains just how significant such findings can be for the proper treatment:

"I had a patient recently who is diagnosed with ADD. He saw the best ADD doctor in the country. He made the diagnosis basically after 10 minutes of listening to his story. When we scanned him, he had a totally toxic-looking brain. Of course, you have ADD symptoms if you know there's damage to the front part of your brain. It turned out he had arsenic poisoning. He needed a detoxification program, not more Adderall."

He also describes a much more personal case where SPECT imaging turned out to be a veritable lifesaver. Four years into his SPECT imaging work, his sister-in-law called him about her then nine-year-old son, Andrew. The boy had attacked a little girl on the baseball field that day for no particular reason.

"I was horrified, and said, "What else is going on with Andrew?" She said, "Danny, he's different. He's mean. He's surly. I went into his room today, and I found two pictures he had drawn. One, he was hanging from a tree. The other one, he was shooting other children." I've been doing imaging long enough to go, "You need to bring him to see me." What we found was he had a cyst the size of a golf ball occupying the space of his left temporal lobe. It's an area we've subsequently really tagged to violent behavior. When they took out the cyst, his behavior went back to normal.

Still, sometimes when I tell the story, I'll cry, because I think about all the people we're throwing away like Andrew as "bad," when in fact, they may be sick.

Optimizing the brains of people who struggle, suffer, or even do bad things is not popular. But it's the right thing to do. If someone has problems with aggression, let's scan them and see if they've not had a brain injury. We actually uncovered 20 different brain cysts over the past 2 decades. I had a case last year of a teenage boy who wanted to cut his mother up into little pieces. He had a cyst the size of a tennis ball occupying the space of his left temporal and frontal lobe. We need to look at what we do before we start changing people's brains. It's logical... but the profession is very slow to change. I always argue that there's no downside to looking."

How Brain Dysfunction Can Cause Psychiatric Disorders

In his work, Dr. Amen has identified seven types of anxiety and depressions, six types of ADD, five types of overeaters, and six types of addicts. As an example, he reviews some common types of overeaters and the recommended treatment for them:

Compulsive overeaters, people who just can't stop thinking about food.

Here the front part of their brain works too hard. According to Dr. Amen, that is typically related to a deficit in the neurotransmitter serotonin. When serotonin levels go low (serotonin is, in large part, inhibitory to your brain), your brain starts to over-fire. To address this, Dr. Amen recommends intervention that boosts serotonin. While this can be done using one of the SSRI's – Prozac, Paxils, Zoloft, Lexapros, and Celexa - you can also boost your serotonin levels naturally, using 5-HTP, L-tryptophan, St. John's Wort, or saffron.

"There are multiple studies now with saffron, showing it has equal efficacy to antidepressants, and there are virtually no side effects to taking higher doses of saffron," Dr. Amen says. "A compulsive person leads us to a serotonin intervention. Exercise is also a serotonin intervention. It boosts serotonin in your brain. Head to head comparisons of exercise to Zoloft [show] they're equally effective at 12 weeks, but in 10 months exercise beats the socks off Zoloft."

Impulsive overeaters. Here, SPECT scans usually show low activity in the prefrontal cortex, indicating they cannot inhibit their behavior. They don't really think about food all the time, but as soon as they smell it, they feel the urge to eat. Low prefrontal cortex activity is generally associated with poor impulse control. It's also associated with attention-deficit disorder (ADD).

"Please don't put them on a serotonin drug or a serotonin intervention, because you'll lower their prefrontal cortex more and ultimately make them more impulsive," Dr. Amen warns. "That's why you have the research that came out in the early 90s about Prozac making you kill your mother. Well, in fact, it can disinhibit people, because of what it's doing in your brain. In impulsive people, we want to raise dopamine."

You can raise dopamine with drugs like Phentermine, an appetite suppressant, or Ritalin, Adderall, or similar stimulants. But you can also do it with green tea and with L-tyrosine. "We've actually seen Rhodiola do something very similar in the brain," Dr. Amen says.

Using Food as Medicine

Certain foods also raise serotonin, such as simple carbohydrates. This is another explanation for why you can become addicted to sugar, wheat, and pasta. According to Dr. Amen, carbohydrate foods such as sweet potato, brown rice, and oatmeal will also raise serotonin, but not in the same powerful way that will get you addicted, so clearly these are better options.

"A high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet is very good for impulsive people, because it helps them focus," Dr. Amen says. "But it's a disaster for our compulsive people, because they start to focus on the things that upset them."

Another dietary factor of great importance is probiotics, ideally in the form of traditionally fermented foods. According to Dr. Amen, as much as 95 percent of the serotonin in your body is produced in your gut, so strategies designed to optimize gut production of serotonin could certainly go a long way toward optimizing your mental health. I've become truly passionate about teaching people to massively increase the amount of fermented foods they're eating - specifically fermented vegetables, as these are some of the most palatable fermented foods for most people - to replenish the beneficial bacteria that produce serotonin.

Dr. Amen agrees:

"I've really been thinking a lot about gut health. Your gut is really the second brain. They're totally interconnected... If you have a leaky gut or an overgrowth of poor gut bacteria, you are not producing serotonin and the other neurotransmitters that you need to stay healthy.

In the last seven or eight years, my last couple of books have been about the connection between physical health and emotional health, and how people can use food as medicine.


If you look at the spices that have specific brain-optimization qualities –for example, saffron and your mood; cinnamon, it's a natural aphrodisiac that also helps to balance blood sugar and helps people focus; and oregano and rosemary that have been shown to boost blood flow to the brain – really what you eat is either helping your brain function better or it's hurting it."

How to Decelerate the Aging Process in Your Brain

Dr. Amen's book Use Your Brain to Change Your Age is based on his lectures over the last 15 years. In it, he discusses a study done with 8,000 people. What he found was that over time, the blood flow to your brain decreases.

"It's sort of like how your skin falls off your face as you age. The same process is happening in the brain. You can – with your behavior – accelerate the aging process, or you can decelerate it.

... We can actually prove you can improve your brain through the imaging work that we do. There's a whole chapter in the book about reclaiming your brain. Say you've been bad to your brain. You've been overweight. You've drank too much. You didn't exercise. You're one of our NFL players, and you've been hit in the head multiple times. If you adopt a brain-smart program... you can slow or even in many cases reverse the aging process in your brain."

He describes his brain-smart program as six words:

Brain Envy:"You have to care about your brain, because it controls everything you do: how you think, feel, and act, and how you get along with other people," Dr. Amen says.
Avoid Bad: "You need to avoid anything that hurts your brain – drugs obviously, brain injuries, obesity, but also sleep apnea. Anything that damages blood vessels damages the brain. Same for hypertension, cardiovascular disease, negative thinking, untreated depression, the standard American diet, and alcohol."
Do Good: This includes optimizing your diet, getting physical- and mental exercise, along with taking helpful supplements. It also includes learning to think in more positive ways.

A couple of years ago, Dr. Amen wrote a home study course for anxiety and depression. When they tested it on participants around the country, a significant percentage of them reported losing 20-30 pounds without trying.

"That got me very excited, because what I realized is with a better brain, you get a better body," he says. "Because ultimately, your health is driven by all of the decisions that you've made in your life, and those decisions come directly from the health of your brain."

More Information

You can learn more about the work at the Amen Clinics at http://www.amenclinics.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The clinics performed brain SPECT imaging in the context of a full clinical evaluation. They also provide a wide variety of treatment options. The online community, The Amen Solution at Home was developed by Dr. Amen to be a sophisticated coaching program to help people optimize their brains and bodies.

It starts with a neuropsychological assessment tool, which, in about 35-minutes, will test your memory, reaction time, focus, level of stress, and mood. Based on how you score, it gives you personalized games to strengthen your weak areas. It also has brain healthy recipes, relaxation exercises, and teaches participants how to eliminate negative thinking patterns.

"It's one of the tools that our NFL players used," he says. "We're very excited, because as we saw their scores go up, the blood flow to their brain improved.

Working out your brain in a regular way is important... The important thing is to learn something that you don't know anything about. Because if I just kept learning about vitamin D, for example, that would be useful, but it's really not stretching my brain. So I learn about gardening, I learn about cooking, I learn a new language, I go to a new place, or learn a new way to move my body, which I think is incredibly important. But the orthodoxy in my profession is pretty rigid. And I'm saddened by it, because it needs to change. Now it became a mission for me."

While getting a SPECT scan can be expensive, it may save you tons of money in the long run. According to a recent study by Dr. Amen and his colleagues, getting a SPECT scan will change what your doctor does 79 percent of the time.

"He'll give you a different diagnosis or a different treatment plan based on what the scans add to the clinical evaluation," Dr. Amen explains.

"We have a new outcome study that we're publishing on 500 consecutive patients that came to the Amen Clinics who were complicated. After six months, 85 percent showed significant improvements in their quality of life. We are very excited about our work. And we have been teaching our colleagues about it for decades. We're not trying to be proprietary with it at all. There's a whole group in Vancouver that does it based on my work and a whole group in Toronto, Florida, Texas, and Chicago.

But it's horrifying what's happening overall in psychiatry. I would be very cautious about seeing a psychiatrist that is not gathering data on your brain before he or she puts you on multiple medications."


You can also pick up any of Dr. Amen's books, to learn more:

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
Change Your Brain, Change Your Body
Use Your Brain to Change Your Age
Unleash the Power of the Female Brain is his latest book, which will be released in February 2013

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: October 31st, 2012, 8:35 am
by BroJones
Do you live in Calif? Please vote "YES" on Prop 37, requiring labeling of GMO foods. -- Dr Jones

Dr Mercola under attack for pushing for labeling of GMO foods
By Dr. Mercola

We all know that labeling genetically engineered foods is a common sense right that is enjoyed by over 50 other countries, including China, India, and Russia.

But for Americans, that right has been taken away from us. The chemical companies and the junk food companies have done everything possible to hide the truth from Americans for the sake of their profits.

I knew going into this battle, that it would be a significant challenge and risk to me personally. You see, when you fight against major chemical companies like Monsanto, you're sure to get a little dirty along the way.

The processed food and chemical companies have paid over $40 million to hide the science experiment that has secretly ended up on the dinner plates of hundreds of millions of unknowing Americans. These multinational corporations are worried, and will do anything to keep you in the dark.


Keep in mind that the top six funders of "No on 37" are also the six largest pesticide companies in the world! That alone should tell you that their stance has nothing to do with your health and well-being.

This was just one of the ads that Monsanto & company have been sending voters to discredit me with lies. This is no surprise, considering how many people - inlcuding farmers, Monsanto has attacked in the past.

Prop 37's Sponsors Stand to Profit

False Claims and Misrepresentations Used to Mislead Voters

The "No on 37" campaign has been caught misinforming voters again and again over the past several months. For example, on October 18, the "California Right to Know Yes on 37" campaign requested the U.S. Department of Justice conduct a criminal investigation of the "No on 37" campaign "for possible fraudulent misuse of the official seal of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." According to the press release:1

"The Justice Department should investigate this fraudulent dirty trick perpetrated by the 'No on 37' campaign," said Gary Ruskin, campaign manager of 'California Right to Know Yes on 37'. "They are running a campaign of lies, deceit and trickery, and some of it may be criminal."

The 'No on 37' campaign affixed the FDA's seal to one of the campaign's mailers. Section 506 of the U.S. Criminal Code states: "Whoever... knowingly uses, affixes, or impresses any such fraudulently made, forged, counterfeited, mutilated, or altered seal or facsimile thereof to or upon any certificate, instrument, commission, document, or paper of any description... shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."

The letter also provides evidence that the 'No on 37' campaign falsely attributed a direct quote to the FDA in the campaign mailer. The quoted attribution, which appears below, is entirely false and fabricated. The FDA did not make this statement and does not take a position on Prop 37."

FDA on Prop 37

Other unethical transgressions employed to confuse voters who are still on the fence include:

The repeated misrepresentation of their lead spokesman, the long-time front man for the tobacco industry, Dr. Miller. In campaign advertisements, Dr. Miller has been presented as being affiliated with Stanford University, when in fact he has NO such affiliation. The misrepresentation is in direct violation of the University's policy, and when Stanford learned about the false use of its name, they demanded that the 'No on 37' campaign change the ad.
According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the world's largest organization for food and nutrition professionals), No on 37 misled the public about the Academy's stance on genetically engineered foods in the Secretary of State's Official California Voter Information Guide. The press release2 issued by the Academy reads in part:

"...the California Official Voter Information Guide regarding Proposition 37... inaccurately states that the Academy 'has concluded that biotech foods are safe.' The statement is false... We are concerned that California voters are being misled... Voters need accurate information in order to make an informed choice."


Fuzzy Logic Used to Confuse You on the Basic Issues

The anti-choice campaign likes to claim that Prop 37 was written by trial lawyers in order to hit small grocers and growers with lawsuits. The truth is that the "Yes on Prop 37" is a grassroots effort, started by a concerned California grandmother who saw that there was no way of avoiding genetically engineered foods even if we wanted to, since they didn't have to be labeled.

The labeling campaign is about having the right to know what's in your food – just like you're informed about the nutritional content, and the presence of peanuts (important for those with allergies) and other food additives. Whether genetically engineered ingredients are good or bad for your health is really beside the point. Aspartame is not good for you, yet it's on the label, and people have the right to consume it as they please. That's all this is about – just state what it is on the label.

The Monsanto campaign claims Prop 37 is "anti-science" and would ban safe foods. This is nonsense, as Prop 37 doesn't ban anything. It simply requires the label to state whether the food contains genetically engineered ingredients or not. You're still free to sell it and buy it.


The only thing it prohibits is the mislabeling of GE foods as "all natural," a term that many tend to associate with more organic standards – which GE crops cannot comply with. You're currently paying a premium for "all-natural" foods that actually use GE ingredients, thinking you're getting something better than conventional! THAT'S hurting your wallet. Accurately labeling these foods will not.

As for their argument that genetically engineered foods have been around for many years without health problems, this is another nonsensical claim, as there's no way of tracing any potential health problems back to the food without labelling! The potential truthfulness of their claim in fact hinges on GE foods remaining unlabeled. Without labeling there's simply no way to know, because there's no way to track or trace side effects like people can now do with aspartame, or any other food allergy.

It's "Do or Die" Time...

While these chemical companies claim their genetically engineered seeds will one day feed the world, they lie to us and create massive amounts of patented genetically engineered sugar beets, soy, and corn for high fructose corn syrup.

These crops are not fit to feed cattle, much less humans. How can anyone ignore the fact these companies are producing products that are devastating human health while monopolizing our entire agriculture and food system?

The junk food grocery association has indicated Prop 37 is their #1 initiative to stop, and they are spending tens of millions to prove it. You'd think if they would be using genetically engineered foods to save the starving people around the world, labeling them should be a great way to advertise. So why do they want to prevent labeling genetically engineered foods so badly?

The LA Times has just reported the "Yes On 37" campaign still narrowly leads in the polls 44 percent to 42 percent.

We are at the crossroads and a win is within reach, but we cannot ignore the fact these chemical companies are buying votes with tens of millions of dollars by spreading lies.

So now is the time for the final push to win the Right To Know Genetically Engineered Foods by simply labeling them like over 50 other countries around the world including Russia and China.

We need to reach many Americans who don't know these genetically engineered foods have been introduced into our food supply.

Our message is simple, just like Prop 37. A few words on a label to inform consumers if products contain genetically engineered ingredients. Let's allow consumers to decide, and not the chemical companies or junk food industry.

Prop 37: Right to Know

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: November 8th, 2012, 7:55 am
by BroJones
Prop 37 was VOTED DOWN in California. The right to know about GMO in your foods -- the requirement to label GMO-adding, was voted down. Monsanto and other GMO-promoters pumped millions into the campaign to not require labeling of GMO foods. Monsanto won.

Nov 6 was a sad day in many ways. But I'm heartened by the HUGE influx of missionaries with the lowering of the age required to so serve. It's like a "final harvest" before the missionaries are called home, I think.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: November 8th, 2012, 8:31 am
by BroJones
http://naturalsociety.com/anti-gmo-labe ... dium=email" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
After previously enacting numerous dirty tricks to deceive voters into voting against the labeling of genetically modified foods through California’s Prop 37 GMO labeling bill, the No on 37 campaign has now sunk to a new low. While previously being caught fraudulently using the FDA seal along with a fabricated quote attributed to the FDA in order to propel their campaign, Infowars.com reports the the latest scam involves using phony front groups to push their agenda.

Sending out flyers that are labeled as ‘voter guides’ for democrats and police officers, it has come out that these organizations are actually headed by No on 37 campaign members. The best part? None of them are actually qualified, with the head of the ‘COPS voters guide’ group being listed as a ‘political consultant’ — not a police officer. And as for the ‘Coalition for Literacy’? It turns out this is the same front group used by Big Tobacco several months ago to avoid the tobacco tax presented in Proposition 27.

See the flyers below for yourself:

noon37copsguide Anti GMO Labeling Campaign Poses as Cops, Democratic Party to Deceive Voters

noon37democratsguide Anti GMO Labeling Campaign Poses as Cops, Democratic Party to Deceive Voters

The reason for this deception is the simple fact that the No on 37 campaigners simply could not sell the public on the reality of the bill. Upwards of 95% of the United States public is in favor of labeling genetically modified organisms present in food. If the public were aware what this bill would really do, it would have no problem getting passed. You will notice all of the No on 37 campaign ads and materials never actually mention GMOs. Instead, they spit the rhetoric that it will ‘cost you big’ and that many ‘prominent’ members of society are opposed to it.

They would never tell you that GMOs have been linked to tumors, organ damage, and much more. That would be telling the truth. The only way these individuals can draw voters is through literal fraudulent behavior and outright deception.
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/anti-gmo-labe ... z2Be5BTKlu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: November 9th, 2012, 8:57 pm
by BroJones
Research shows the value of exercising hard, in spurts:

By Dr. Mercola

One of the biggest barriers many people face in sticking with a regular exercise program is the time it takes to do it.

Carving out an hour or two to hit the gym can seem daunting, and on some days might be completely unrealistic.

This doesn't have to be your excuse for not exercising, because a growing body of research shows you can get fit in a fraction of the time compared to the "old standard" recommendations of exercising 30 minutes to an hour most days of the week by using high-intensity interval training (HIIT) such as Peak Fitness.

How Does High-Intensity Interval Training Work?

The most recent research shows that alternating relatively short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise – even if done only a total of a few minutes each week.

You don't need a gym to perform high-intensity interval exercises. They can be performed with virtually any type of exercise -- with or without equipment. You can just as easily do interval training by walking or running outdoors as you can using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine.

While it's theoretically possible to reap valuable results with as little as three minutes once a week, it might be more beneficial doing them two or three times a week for a total of 4-6 minutes of intense exertion, especially if you are not doing strength training, as recommended in my Peak Fitness workout (I'll explain this in detail below).

You do not need to do them more often than that however. In fact, doing it more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between sessions. The key to making interval training work is, in a word, intensity.

Fat Loss, Aerobic Boosts and More: The Research Speaks for Itself

For the past couple of years, I've encouraged the use of high-intensity interval training as a key strategy for improving your health, boosting weight loss, promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, and improving strength and stamina. I've been doing it myself since April 2010, after meeting fitness expert Phil Campbell (author of Ready Set Go), so I can also vouch for its effectiveness from personal experience.

Of course, the research on HIIT is just pouring in as well, and it's showing phenomenal results.

One study published in the Journal of Obesity1 reported that 12 weeks of HIIT not only can result in significant reductions in total abdominal, trunk, and visceral fat, but also can give you significant increases in fat-free mass and aerobic power. In this study, in which young overweight males were randomly assigned to either HIIT exercise or a control group, the following health benefits were achieved by the exercising group doing just 20 minutes of high-intensity exercises (only a fraction of the 20 minutes is done at high intensity, the rest is recovery) three times a week for three months:

Aerobic power increased by 15 percent
Reduction of total fat mass: Nearly 4.5 pounds
Visceral fat reduced by 17 percent

Other research published in the journal Cell Metabolism,2 showed that when healthy but inactive people exercise intensely, even if the exercise is brief, it produces an immediate change in their DNA. While the underlying genetic code in the muscle remains unchanged, exercise activates important structural and chemical changes associated with DNA expression within the muscles, and this contraction-induced gene activation appears to lead to the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength, lending a molecular biological explanation for some of the well-known structural and metabolic benefits of exercise.

Several of the genes affected by an acute bout of exercise are genes involved in fat metabolism. Specifically, the study suggests that when you exercise, your body almost immediately experiences genetic activation that increases the production of fat-busting (lipolytic) enzymes.

Improve Your Heart Health and Your Insulin Sensitivity

Peak Fitness type exercises appear to be better than conventional cardio at burning fat and promoting weight loss, but it also offers additional astounding benefits to your heart and risk of chronic diseases, like diabetes. A Canadian research team gathered several groups of volunteers, including sedentary but generally healthy middle-aged men and women, and patients of a similar age who had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.3

The participants were asked to undertake a program of cycling intervals as their exclusive form of exercise.

After several weeks on the program, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness. Most remarkably, the cardiac patients showed "significant improvements" in both heart and blood vessel functioning. And, contrary to what popular belief might dictate, the intense exercises did not cause any heart problems for any of the cardiac patients.

The conventional widely held belief is that the short exposure of the exercise actually helps insulate your heart from the intensity!

Equally remarkable were the results of yet another study, in which unfit but otherwise healthy middle-aged adults were able to improve their insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation after just two weeks of interval training (three sessions per week).4 A follow-up study also found that interval training positively impacted insulin sensitivity. In fact, the study involved people with full-blown type 2 diabetes, and just ONE interval training session was able to improve blood sugar regulation for the next 24 hours!5

This truly is amazing, and while aerobic fitness and fat loss is indeed important, improving and maintaining good insulin sensitivity is perhaps one of the most important aspects of optimal health. The fact that you can improve your insulin sensitivity significantly with a time investment of less than one hour a month really should send people straight to the gym en masse...

A Simple to Follow HIIT Approach: Peak Fitness

If you are using exercise equipment I recommend using a recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill, or sprint anywhere outdoors. You can also sprint outside but must be very careful about stretching prior to sprinting. Also, unless you are already an athlete, I would strongly advise against sprinting, as several people I know became injured doing it the first time that way. For a demonstration using an elliptical machine, please see the following video.

Here are the core principles:

Warm up for three minutes
Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate
Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
Repeat the high-intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times**
Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent

**When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high-intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you're doing eight during your 20-minute session. By the end of your 30-second high-intensity period you will want to reach these markers:

It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt.
You will start to sweat. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
Your body temperature will rise.
Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn."

If you have a history of heart disease or any medical concern please get clearance from your health care professional to start this. Most people of average fitness will be able to do it though; it is only a matter of how much time it will take you to build up to the full 8 reps.

The remarkable effectiveness of interval training makes logical sense when you consider that this type of exertion mimics how our ancestors lived. This is also how animals and young children behave naturally (long-duration exercise really isn't "natural"). By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health, and that includes the production of growth hormones, the burning of excess body fat, and improved cardiovascular health and stamina.

Rounding Out Your Exercise Program

It is wise to use a wide variety of exercises in addition to Peak Fitness in order to truly optimize your health. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:

Interval (Anaerobic) Training: As explained, this is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
Strength Training: You can actually "up" the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high-intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.

You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild. Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: November 10th, 2012, 8:01 am
by BroJones
I have been doing the "exercise in spurts" method, typically before breakfast. My thigh muscles are definitely growing and my waist trimming...

Today, Dr Mercola talks about chiropractics.

Mercola.com and the Producers of this film are PROUD to offer a FREE Viewing of this Documentary for a LIMITED TIME. Please share this documentary with all of your friends and family!



By Dr. Mercola

Did you know that while the United States makes up only five percent of the world's population, we consume over 50 percent of all the world's pharmaceutical drugs?

This sobering statistic and much more is revealed in Jeff Hays' documentary film, Doctored.

The primary focus of the film is on the chiropractic profession and its long-standing struggle to be recognized as authentic health professionals. In the 1980's, chiropractors were still by and large viewed as quacks whose treatments were unscientific and potentially dangerous. Worse yet, chiropractors were also derided as 'cultists' at a time when Charles Manson and his cult followers wrought terror in California, and Jim Jones persuaded his followers to drink the Kool-Aid spiked with deadly poison.

Yes, chiropractors were tossed in with this charming lot!

However, this bizarre consensus reality in which chiropractors were deemed "unscientific cultists" on par with some of the most heinous criminals in US history was, as the evidence shows, doctored by the medical industry at the behest of Big Pharma. As stated in the beginning of the film:

"There's been a deliberate campaign to label anybody who doesn't sell or distribute drugs, surgery or radiation as a quack."

Supreme Court Found AMA GUILTY of Conspiracy to Destroy Chiropractic Industry

The modern medical system is committed to branding virtually all serious competition to their flawed model by labeling it 'quackery.' But what most people fail to realize is that this effort is rather like the witch hunts of old, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of men and women in possession of priceless knowledge and understanding of the healing powers of the natural world. That extermination of ancient wisdom no doubt helped drive mankind deep into ignorance, setting the people of the West on a path that would quickly sever our innate connection with Nature.

The results of this separation from time honored ancient healing practices and our ignorance of our symbiotic place within the natural world are clearly evident today...

The film includes the groundbreaking and historical case of Wilk vs. The American Medical Association (AMA) – a case in which the AMA was ultimately found guilty of an illegal conspiracy to "contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession," in 1984. The Supreme Court ordered the AMA to cease their illegal treatment of the chiropractic profession, and in the years since, chiropractic has slowly but surely established its usefulness and scientific merit.

Still, there's plenty of room for improvement.

Doctored includes eye-opening interviews not only with chiropractic and osteopathic doctors (including myself), it also talks to surgeons, MD's, pharmaceutical sales reps, and high-profile patients like Olympic Gold Medalist Picabo Street and John Stockton from the NBA Hall of Fame who regularly challenged my favorite player Michael Jordan, as well as regular patients who went looking for a better way to achieve health.

All in all, the testimony spells out the point of the film, which is that conventional medicine, backed and ruled by the pharmaceutical industry, is corrupt to the core and frequently does more harm than good, while simultaneously protecting their business and hiding its ineffectiveness by suppressing legitimate, safe, and effective alternative or complementary practices such as chiropractic.

What is the Solution?

Doctored clearly spells out the solution to the problem:

The public must have the right to learn the truth about what health really is
You need to take more personal responsibility for your health

This is the very core of my personal mission. Virtually every article on this site is focused on how to optimize your health by embracing a few basic tenets of truth. Health is about much more than the masking of symptoms! True health is a state of optimal functioning, physically, mentally, emotionally, and you could even throw in spiritually, if you really want to achieve the highest pinnacle of health and inner harmony and well-being.

Clearly, conventional medical science has its place. If you're in a car accident, your nearest trauma center is a blessing that can save your life. However, to believe that you can create good health by taking drugs to mask your symptoms is a dangerous pipe dream. It simply won't happen.

What DOES Make You Healthy?

While science can and will discover techniques and strategies that can be profoundly beneficial for your health, there are certain foundational basics that are unlikely to ever change, and these include:

Optimize insulin and leptin levels through minimizing your sugar, processed food and grain carbohydrates and replacing them with healthy fats such as butter, animal fat, coconut oil, avocados, seeds and nuts.
Eat a healthy diet of whole organic foods, and pay careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down by avoiding sugar/fructose and grains. I make this easy with my recently updated and free Nutrition Plan.


Drink plenty of clean water.
Manage your stress.
Exercise regularly and correctly by incorporating high intensity exercises, which is how your body was designed to perform.
Get safe and appropriate sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D.
Limit exposure to toxins of all kinds.
Consume healthy fats and avoid processed fats like nearly all commercial vegetable seed oils that are high in omega-6 fats.
Eat plenty of raw food.
Get plenty of sleep.
The pharmaceutical industry, the food industry, and even government itself, will not make it easy for you to avoid the garbage that ruins your health, but remember, leading a common sense, healthy lifestyle is your best bet to produce a healthy body and mind, and increase your longevity. And best of all, YOU have the power to change your own lifestyle to make sure the 10 foundational basics listed above are covered.

Re: Dr. MERCOLA --> alternative health and fitness

Posted: November 14th, 2012, 12:44 pm
by BroJones
Your Waist Size Can Be a Powerful Predictor of Hypertension and Other Chronic Diseases
November 14 2012 | 71,291 views

By Dr. Mercola

The size of your waistline may be the key to a long life, according to an observational study conducted by the Mayo Clinic1, involving nearly 13,000 Americans who were followed for about 14 years.

In a presentation in August at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, senior author Francisco Lopez-Jimenez said that people who are of normal weight, but who have a high waist-to-hip ratio (i.e. belly fat), have an even higher risk of death than people who are considered obese, based on BMI alone.

The risk of cardiovascular death was 2.75 times higher, and the risk of death from all causes was 2.08 times higher in people of normal weight with central obesity, compared with those with a normal body mass index and normal waist-to-hip ratio. According to Dr. Lopez-Jimenez:

"We knew from previous research that central obesity is bad, but what is new in this research is that the distribution of the fat is very important even in people with a normal weight. This group has the highest death rate, even higher than those who are considered obese based on body mass index. From a public health perspective, this is a significant finding."

The increased mortality risk accompanying higher ratios of visceral fat — the fat that accumulates around your internal organs — is likely due, at least in part, to increased insulin resistance. As I've stated in many previous articles, insulin and leptin resistance or signaling impairment, is one of the foundational problems underlying virtually all disease, and visceral fat is associated with insulin resistance and other risk factors. Insulin resistance also accelerates the aging process itself.

Your Waist Size May Also Help Assess Your Hypertension Risk

In related news, the importance of your waist-to-hip ratio was again highlighted in a study2 showing that your waist size may also be a more effective measure for assessing obesity-related hypertension risk.

Normally, your blood pressure will drop 10-20 percent during nighttime sleep, compared to your daytime values. A lack of nighttime dipping has previously been observed in overweight and obese populations, suggesting a correlation between non-dipping nighttime blood pressure and an increased risk of hypertension.

The goal of the study was to evaluate the predictive ability of waist-to-hip ratio on nighttime blood pressure dipping, relative to BMI, and while both BMI and waist-to-hip ratio were significant predictors of nighttime dips in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, the waist measurement was more telling. So, if you have a high waist-to-hip ratio, i.e. you carry more fat around your waist than on your hips, you may be at greater risk for obesity-related hypertension, indicated by a reduction in nighttime blood pressure dipping.

Are You Carrying Dangerous Fat Around Your Midsection?

Unfortunately, two out of three people in the U.S. are overweight and one out of three is obese, and the rest of the world is not far behind. It has been my experience that many people are in denial about being overweight, as being "large" has become more or less the norm. But just because something is common does not mean it's a "healthy normal." And we're not talking about aesthetics here.

Certain body compositions do tend to increase your risk of chronic disease, and carrying extra inches around your midsection has been repeatedly shown to increase cardiovascular health risks. Your waist size is also a powerful indicator of insulin sensitivity, as studies clearly show that measuring your waist size is one of the most powerful ways to predict your risk for diabetes.

Waist circumference is far better than BMI for evaluating whether or not you may have a weight problem, as BMI fails to factor in both how muscular you are, and your intra-abdominal fat mass. You can go about measuring your waist in two different ways.

The two featured studies used waist-to-hip measurement. This is done by measuring the circumference of your hips at the widest part, across your buttocks. Then measure your waist at the smallest circumference of your natural waist, just above your belly button. Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement to get the ratio. (The University of Maryland offers an online waist-to-hip ratio calculator3 you can use.) The Mayo Clinic used the following waist-to-hip ratio designations:

Another even simpler method to figure out if you have a weight problem is to measure only your waist circumference (the distance around the smallest area below the rib cage and above your belly button). Waist circumference is the easiest anthropometric measure of total body fat. A general guide for healthy waist circumference is as follows:

How's Your Blood Pressure?

According to the CDC, high blood pressure is the second greatest public health threat in the US. Insulin resistance and elevated uric acid levels are significantly associated with hypertension, so any program adopted to address high blood pressure needs to help normalize these two factors.

Fortunately, this can actually be easier than you might think, but it does require you to make some lifestyle changes. The good news is, if you're carrying a little more weight around your midsection than might be good for your health, and you struggle with high blood pressure and/or elevated uric acid levels, altering your diet will address all of these issues simultaneously.

I recently updated my nutrition plan, which will help guide you step-by-step toward normalizing your insulin and leptin levels, which in turn will help normalize your blood pressure and help you shed excess weight. My plan summarizes all I have learned from treating over 25,000 patients and reviewing tens of thousands of articles on natural health. It's a free resource that can help you and your family radically improve your health, or take it to the next level if you've already started making changes.

Ideally your blood pressure should be about 120/80 without medication. If you are on medication, you will be delighted to know that this nutrition plan tends to normalize elevated blood pressures in the vast majority of people to the point you may no longer need your blood pressure medication. According to the most recent report (issued 2003) by the Joint National Committee (JNC) on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, the following guidelines apply for determining whether you might suffer from hypertension:
Blood Pressure Classification Systolic Diastolic
Normal <120 and <80
Pre-hypertension 120-139 or 80-89
Stage 1 Hypertension 140-159 or 90-99
Stage 2 Hypertension ≥160 or ≥100

per JNC 7 Express, December 2003

How to Avoid a False Hypertension Diagnosis

Keep in mind that your blood pressure readings can vary significantly from day to day – even from morning to evening, and often within the same hour, so don't panic if you get one high reading here or there. It is when your blood pressure remains consistently elevated that significant health problems can occur. The following variables can also affect the va­lidity of your blood pressure reading:

If you're overweight, a size 'average' blood pressure cuff can lead to a falsely elevated blood pressure reading, so make sure your doctor or health care professional is using the right size cuff for your size.
Incorrect arm position: If your blood pressure is taken while your arm is parallel to your body, your reading can be up to 10 percent higher than it really is. Blood pressure readings should always be taken with your arm at a right angle to your body.
White coat hypertension, which is an elevation in blood pressure caused by the stress or fear associated with visits to doctors and other medical personnel, can be a transient but serious concern. Stress reduction in this situation is key. To decrease your risk of being falsely diagnosed with hypertension in this situation, I'd encourage you to take a moment to calm down, then breathe deeply and relax when you're getting your blood pressure taken.

Although elevated insulin levels are one of the most potent contributors to elevated blood pressure, it's also common for chronic stress, tension or anxiety to contribute to this problem. After you begin my nutrition plan and follow it for several months, if you don't see an improvement in your blood pressure I'd recommend seeking out a health care professional who is well-versed in using stress-relief methods, such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for example.

How to Take Control of Your Blood Pressure AND Your Waist Size

To address both of the issues covered in this article: a greater than ideal waist size and high blood pressure, first thing you need to do is remove all grains and sugars, particularly fructose, from your diet until both your weight and your blood pressure have normalized. Again, following my comprehensive nutrition plan can help you take control of your diet in an incremental manner.

To emphasize how important this one action can be, consider the following: According to a 2010 study4, those who consumed 74 grams or more per day of fructose (the equivalent of about 2.5 sugary drinks) had a 77 percent greater risk of having blood pressure levels of 160/100 mmHg. Consuming 74 grams or more of fructose daily also increased the risk of a 135/85 blood pressure reading by 26 percent, and 140/90 by 30 percent.

This is significant because the average American now consumes about 70 grams of fructose EVERY day! Worse yet, about 25 percent of all Americans consume over 134 grams of fructose a day, according to research by Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the division of kidney disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado, and author of two books on the dangers of fructose, The Sugar Fix, and The Fat Switch.

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. However, for most people – especially if you struggle with high blood pressure and insulin resistance – it would be wise to limit your fructose to 15 grams or less, as it is virtually guaranteed that you will consume "hidden" sources of fructose from most beverages and just about any processed food you might eat.

Fructose — the Primary Trigger of Your "Fat Switch"

To learn more about how fructose impacts your weight and health, I highly recommend reading Dr. Richard Johnson's new book The Fat Switch. In it, he reviews groundbreaking new research showing that eating too much and exercising too little are NOT solely responsible for why you keep gaining weight or have trouble shedding those excess pounds.

His research shows that metabolic syndrome (characterized by central obesity or increased waist circumference, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance) is actually a normal condition that animals undergo to store fat. Animals' ability to gain "hibernation fat" appears to be regulated by a switch in the mitochondria that is turned on and off by a common food that no longer provides survival advantage to humans living in contemporary society, namely fructose.

Fructose-containing sugars cause weight gain not by the calories they contain, but by triggering this "fat switch," which tells your body it's time to store fat, just as if you were an animal preparing for hibernation. Furthermore, uric acid is increased by fructose, and also causally contributes to obesity and insulin resistance. Effective treatment of obesity therefore requires turning off your fat switch — by avoiding fructose, which is the trigger — and improving the function of your cells' mitochondria.

According to Dr. Johnson:

"Those of us who are obese eat more because of a faulty "switch," and exercise less because of a low energy state. If you can learn how to control the specific "switch" located in the powerhouse of each of your cells – the mitochondria – you hold the key to fighting obesity."

I highly recommend picking up a copy of Dr. Johnson's book, The Fat Switch which has been described as the "Holy Grail" for those struggling with their weight.