Okay ladies and gentleloves…. The time has come. We’re gon’ talk about boobies! (YAAAAAAY!!!) I’ve never had big boobs and the subject of breasts was super taboo in my irish catholic family. My auntie had suffered through and ultimately passed away from breast cancer when I was young, making them an especially touchy subject. No, […]
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Sunday, November 1, 2015
Massive Scam Threatens Your Health — by Placing Toxic Chemicals on Land, Polluting Industries Are Allowed to Bypass Clean Air and Water Regulations
By Dr. Mercola
Eating nutrient-dense, real food is a primary key to staying healthy. Unfortunately, most of the food you buy is probably loaded with industrial toxins.
Ditto for the compost you buy for your garden — even if you opt for organic. What's worse, these toxic chemicals are put there on purpose, thanks to the use of biosolids as fertilizer.
Dr. David Lewis is a microbiologist with a PhD in Microbial Ecology who spent three decades working as an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist.
He got fired for blowing the whistle on the corruption and conflict of interest at the EPA that caused industrial waste and toxins to be stealthily inserted into the fertilizer applied to our farmlands, and sold to us in potting soil with biosolids.
A two-page commentary in Nature, published in1996, entitled "EPA Science: Casualty of Election Politics,"1 encapsulates his experience at the EPA.
He wrote a book about his experience called, Science for Sale: How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits.
The book elaborates on the enormous conflict of interest between industry and federal regulatory agencies that allows toxins to be quite literally spread all around us.
Beware of the Intellectual Elite...
This is an issue with tremendous implications for your health, and we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to Dr. Lewis for his pioneering work in exposing this massive fraud.
His experience really validates one of President Dwight Eisenhower's predictions as he was leaving his presidency.
Eisenhower not only warned us about the dangers of the military industrial complex, he also warned us of the danger of the intellectual elite, which have the potential to massively corrupt and influence governmental policies.
That is precisely what has occurred in this instance.
"Absolutely. In fact, I quote that at the beginning of my book. After my book was published, I got an email from David Eisenhower, President Eisenhower's grandson, saying how much he appreciated the book and how it highlighted what his grandfather warned us about," Dr. Lewis says.
The Problem, in a Nutshell
Dr. Lewis has done groundbreaking research on the biosolids topic. Beneficial use of sewage — human waste — could be a great system for recycling nitrogen and phosphorus back into the soil by using it as fertilizer.
The problem is, the sludge approved for use in fertilizer also contains industrial waste, which is loaded with toxins and heavy metals.
The EPA was created in 1970 as a result of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Congress and then-President Richard Nixon created the agency to regulate environmental pollutants.
This was a growing concern back in the days when Rachel Carson wrote her book, Silent Spring, and when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire in Cleveland.
"The public became concerned about traces of environmental pollutants at very low concentrations in water," Dr. Lewis explains. "Things that are not very soluble in water like pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial petrochemicals.
These types of chemicals at very low concentrations in water become biomagnified in the food chain, so they end up in bald eagles, human beings, and breast milk.
These same compounds that are very low in concentration in water become millions of times higher in concentration in human and other animal fats. That's the crux of the problem."
The Devil's in the Details: When Good Ideas Go Bad
In the early 1970s, scientists began to understand that even though these chemicals are present at very low concentrations in water, they still pose a very serious threat to public health and the environment, and must be removed.
Around the same time, President Jimmy Carter began the largest public works program in the history of the United States, building sewage treatment plants across the country.
To the EPA, it seemed logical that sewage sludge (the solid material) that settles out at wastewater treatment plants would be good to apply to farms, golf courses, and school playgrounds.
The problem is that the EPA also allows industrial wastes to be mixed in, and they contain highly toxic chemicals. But just how did that happen?
In 1970, after the Cuyahoga River caught on fire and the EPA was created, various industries were dumping bioproducts and pollutants straight into the river through a pipe.
The EPA began to regulate this waste, and it became very expensive for factories to comply with the Clean Water Act — and this applied to virtually all industries, not just pharmaceutical and chemical companies.
Today, city sewer lines run right to the factories, allowing them to dump their waste into the city's sewage treatment plants. This is now a standard part of our infrastructure, and it saves industries of all kinds a ton of money — billions of dollars — because once a regulated chemical or waste enters the sewer line, they're suddenly exempt from EPA regulation!
"None of the toxic organic chemicals are regulated in sewage sludge, not one of them," Dr. Lewis explains. "Only nine of the 27 toxic, heavy metals that are in the sewage sludge are regulated. The industry has incalculable vested interest in protecting this idea."
What the EPA created is a system in which chemicals we know to be problematic in part-per-billion and even part-per-trillion levels in water and in air, are concentrated millions of times higher in sewage sludge, and then applied to farmland, and other areas where we live and work.
"In 1970, you would have to work in a chemical plant or a petroleum refinery or something similar to get exposed to the hundreds of thousands of toxic chemicals... [at] higher levels. It would be mainly an occupational exposure.
Today, over 30 years later, everywhere we live and work it's being spread."
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished When Conflicts of Interest Rule the Day
Dr. Lewis detailed these problems in two papers published in Nature, one of the two most prestigious journals in the world, and it was these papers that led to his dismissal from the EPA.
"One of the two Nature articles that I was fired for was co-authored by Jerry Melillo who, at the time, was President Clinton's associate director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the White House," Dr. Lewis says.
"For that same paper, I was presented an award in Washington D.C. by the EPA administrator, Carol Browner. I was given the agency's highest award, the Science Achievement Award for biology and ecology, for that paper. But at the same time, I was fired for publishing it."
Dr. Lewis' story is a great illustration of the fact that many of the workers, the dedicated scientists and researchers employed by our regulatory agencies really do have integrity and seek to do the best job they can.
They frequently send warnings up the chain. The problem is that the head of these regulatory agencies, which are mostly politically appointed jobs, tend to come with a lot of conflict-of-interest baggage. To understand just how high up the corruption went, Dr. Lewis filed a number of whistleblower lawsuits, and was granted discovery to the highest levels of the agency.
"In a nutshell, what happened is that... the EPA turned around and began to work with the Water Environment Federation (WEF), which...at the time was the biggest trade organization for the wastewater industry...
What I learned was that in Washington, the staff there was going through the revolving door between government and the industry... The EPA in Washington, their headquarters, formed a cooperative agreement with the Water Environment Federation to use congressional earmarks, tens of millions of dollars, to fund land-grant universities, which are agricultural colleges, to publish... studies and scientific articles that would support the 503 sludge rule.
To make a long story short, the goal was to generate more scientific articles than I, or any scientists at the EPA who might have concerns, could ever do, and that's what happened. In 10 years they had hundreds of papers from agricultural colleges saying this is not a problem."
Important WARNING If You Purchase Potting Soil or Compost
Dr. Lewis, the EPA's own scientists, and other researchers looked at that body of science and realized it was just promoting the government's policies. Policymakers at EPA and USDA described the process by which toxins become harmless as "sludge magic," a nebulous and unscientific term if there ever was one, but this actually ended up being the official term EPA regulators use to support this insane idea that it's okay to spread toxic industrial waste on our lawns and crop fields.
In short, the EPA in collaboration with the wastewater industry custom-made an entire body of science that says it's perfectly safe to take chemicals that the EPA calls "priority pollutants," which by definition cause human health effects and by definition are persistent (they hang around for decades, centuries, or longer), put them into sewage sludge where they become massively concentrated, and then spread them out on farms, and around schools and playgrounds.
When you buy compost or potting soil, chances are it will have biosolids with these concentrated toxins in it. And yes, this includes organic fertilizer and organic mulch. Never-mind the fact that you're paying a premium for it thinking this is the way to avoid these toxins! These composted products can have the USDA organic label on them, and still be loaded with toxic biosolids. Most will not reveal the presence of biosolids, although some companies will include "milogranite" on the label, which is a term denoting biosolids from the City of Milwaukee-a national distributor.
As noted by Dr. Lewis:
"Thanks to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), no one has to label those bags when they contain high levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, toxic organic chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and all the bad stuff that the EPA worries about. Those bags can contain it, and almost all of them do, and they're being sold as organic fertilizer to concerned citizens who are looking for something to put on their home garden that doesn't have those things in it...
The USDA has worked hand-in-hand with the EPA. In fact, it is the USDA that created the body of science that's called sludge magic. Thanks to the USDA that that body of science exists because it's the USDA that funds agricultural colleges, the land-grant universities."
How This Nefarious Government Scam Works
The Water Environment Federation and others lobby Congress to earmark taxpayer money to the EPA to gain public acceptance of treated sewage sludge (biosolids). The EPA then takes those earmarks and sends them over to the Water Environment Research Foundation, which supports water quality laboratories at the University of Arizona and elsewhere. The Water Environment Research Foundation funnels millions of dollars into studies aimed at supporting EPA's sludge as safe, and publishes those findings in scientific journals.
That's how this scam is set up. According to Dr. Lewis,
"Everybody has a vested interest in making sure the pollutants that are going on land are not regulated. We have a Clean Water Act and a Clean Air Act, but we don't have a Clean Soil Act. That's where all the [worst] pollutants are going now."
Water Environment Federation Created a Science Organization Run by Inept Scientists to Do the Industry's Bidding
No wonder the typical consumer gets confused about what's what. But it's incredible to believe that a well-trained scientist in the field would buy into this nonsense. Surely they don't actually believe that toxic chemicals suddenly, by magic, become harmless when mixed into soil? So what's the motivation for going along with this horrid scheme?
"I'll give you my opinion to this based on my personal experience," Dr. Lewis says. "We have, in the EPA, two big players involved in this issue. One is the Office of Water, which comes up with regulations including the 503 sludge rule. You have a separate group that was created independently, originally in 1970, to oversee the science issues, called the Office of Research and Development (ORD). That's where I worked.
In the Office of Research and Development, in the early '70s and for probably a decade and a half or more, we had some of the best scientists in the world...These were not only technically cutting-edge leading scientists. They had no qualms about doing exactly what I did. They stood up to Washington and didn't take any crap from them. But the Office of Water is a different situation. They didn't need high caliber research scientists to write regulations. They needed PhDs in Chemistry, in Biology, and so forth.
This is where my opinion begins. The guy who came up with the idea of promoting the sludge rule at the EPA was a now-retired scientist named John Walker. He wrote a memo to his bosses at the Office of Water and said, 'Hey, there's no reason why we shouldn't apply low levels of toxic chemicals in sludge to farms.' He just rotated over from the USDA. That guy came up with the idea and it became his job to defend that rule.
I hired the best lawyers in the world to defend my whistleblower lawsuit. My attorneys, Steve Kohn and his brother, Mike Kohn... asked John Walker 10 questions in basic microbiology that anybody in junior high school could answer. He couldn't answer any of them. The problem is that the requirements for promotion in civil service for scientists in the Office of Water are the same as the Office of Research and Development...
When the guys at the Office of Water went in for their performance evaluation twice a year, like I did, they had to have scientific articles. They had to chair scientific symposiums. They had to do all the same things I did. How did they do that? Well, the Water Environment Federation created its own science organization and put them in charge of this scam. It's a whole shadow of what's in the scientific community. It is money-driven. It's the only way they could get promoted. It selected scientists, who, in my opinion, are not crooked, [but who] are not equipped with the knowledge of a worthy scientist. It is ignorance....
When Alan Rubin, who is another big player in the Office of Water, was deposed in one of my lawsuits, he was asked this question by my attorney, 'Why are you giving David Lewis such a hard time about these articles he's publishing?'... He said, 'My career is built on 503 sludge rule. If it's ever shown to be scientifically unsound, if he's disproving it, it reflects on my reputation.' These guys are looking out for their reputation."
How Can You Avoid Using Toxic Biosolids in Your Own Garden?
If the bag of compost you're looking at happens to include "milorgranite" on the label, avoid it like the plague. Aside from that, there's no way to tell whether the compost has toxic sludge in it or not. Your best alternative is to contact your local nursery and ask them if they use biosolids in their compost.
I happen to live close to a nursery that creates their own compost. I asked them about the presence of biosolids, and they said, "No, we do not use biosolids. We compost our own soil." They were very well informed about the toxic dangers inherent with the use of biosolids. So, it's vital that you discuss what is added to the compost with the person that is actually responsible for producing it. Another alternative is to make your own, using a composting bin or wood chips for example.
More Information
In 1996, after Dr. Lewis published his commentary in Nature, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts did a survey of the EPA's scientists in the Office of Research and Development, where he worked. Thousands of scientists filled out questionnaires, and over half of all these EPA scientists admitted that in the previous five years, they had been asked to change their results and conclusions because they conflicted with the EPA's policies...
This is the reality, and considering that was 20 years ago, the situation is probably even worse today. If you want to learn more about these issues, I highly recommend reading Dr. Lewis' book, Science for Sale: How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits. Dr. Lewis is Director of Research for the Focus for Health Foundation.
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Cumin Spiced Lettuce Roll Recipe
Cumin is a flavorful spice that will add character to any recipe, and is frequently used in Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Indian, and Mediterranean cuisines. Considered a warm spice similar to cinnamon, cardamom, caraway, or nutmeg, cumin has an earthy, sweet, yet slightly bitter and smoky taste. A member of the parsley family, cumin is also a key ingredient in chili and curry powder.
In this recipe, I’ll show you how a dash of cumin can take this simple lettuce roll dish to a whole new level.
Ingredients:
1 head leaf lettuce (butter or red leaf)
1 avocado, peeled and sliced into strips
2 scallions, minced
1 red bell[JLS1] pepper, minced
Alfalfa sprouts
Dressing:
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
¼ cup olive oil
Procedure:
- Cut out the lettuce cores. Separate leaves.
- Top with some minced scallions and a few pieces of red pepper.
- Add some sprouts and roll the leaf carefully. Secure with toothpick.
- Continue the process with the remaining lettuce roll ingredients.
- To make the dressing, whisk together lemon juice, honey, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt. Add olive oil.
- Serve lettuce rolls with dressing on the side.
This recipe makes four to five servings.
(From Healthy Recipes for Your Nutritional Type)
Cumin Spiced Lettuce Roll Preparation Tips
A popular salad staple, lettuce has several varieties you can choose from, such as butterhead, iceberg, and Romaine. Buying full heads of lettuce is more cost-effective, especially if you’re enjoying salads a great deal. But if you’re looking for convenience, you can also try salad mixes that come in bags.
To prepare your lettuce, tear off the leaves and wash them well. (Do not chop them using a knife to avoid bruising the sensitive leaves.) Dry them in a salad spinner or pat dry using clean paper towels. Lettuce is among the long list of vegetables that can be prone to a high pesticide load, so be sure you get locally grown, organic varieties.
Another superstar ingredient of this lettuce wrap recipe is avocado. This superfood not only tastes great, but it’s also very easy to incorporate into your diet. You can add avocado to salads, wraps, burritos, bruschettas, soups, smoothies – you name it!
To avoid ending up with a slimy, messy, and overripe avocado, here’s a tip: check under the stem or the cap on top of the fruit. If you pull off the stem and it’s green, you’ve got a good candidate that’s good enough to eat. But if it’s brown, this means the avocado is overripe and you’ll likely find nasty brown spots inside. However, if the stem won’t come off easily, this means the avocado is not yet ripe.
To preserve the area with the greatest concentration of antioxidants, peel your avocado as you would a banana. Here’s how:
- Cut the avocado lengthwise, around the seed.
- Holding each half, twist them in opposite directions to separate them from the seed.
- Remove the seed.
- Cut each half, lengthwise.
- Using your thumb and index finger, peel the skin off each piece.
Kitchen Hack: to prevent cut avocados from turning brown and keep them fresh for several days, put it with a half an onion in an airtight container and refrigerate. The sulfur compound from the onion (the same chemical that makes you cry) seems to do the trick, without having its overpowering flavor leach into the avocado. [i]
Choose bright yellow lemons that are smooth and heavy for their size. Veer away from lemons with streaks of green on the skin (which usually indicate higher acidity) or have rough, thick skin (which is a sure sign that they don’t have much juice in them).
Tip: rolling your lemons on the countertop for a few times before squeezing will help them produce more juice.
Meanwhile, spices like cayenne pepper and ground cumin should be stored in an airtight container or inside the freezer. Remember that a little goes a long way, so use these spices sparingly.
Why Are Cumin Spiced Lettuce Rolls Good for You?
Lettuce makes an ideal weight loss food because aside from being low in calories, it also contains fiber and cellulose that can make you feel full and improve your digestion. Apart from that, lettuce also provides:[ii]
- Vitamin C and beta-carotene, which work together to prevent the oxidation of cholesterol and the buildup of plaque in the heart
- Lactucarium, the white fluid you see when you break or tear lettuce leaves, has relaxing and sleep-inducing properties similar to opium, minus the side effects
- Omega-3 fatty acids
Cumin’s impressive repertoire of vitamins and minerals enables it to deliver healing benefits, such as:[iii]
- Increasing cognitive performance
- Improving digestion
- Preventing diabetes
- Dispelling phlegm and mucous
- Fighting viral infections
- Relieving anxiety and depression
- Boosting the immune system
- Preventing premature aging
Cayenne pepper and other members of the chili pepper family naturally have capsaicin, a chemical component known to have an extensive array of therapeutic properties. Basically, the hotter the chili, the more capsaicin it’ll have. Some of the benefits of cayenne pepper include: [iv]
- Relieving arthritic and rheumatic pain and inflammation
- Reducing cardiovascular disease risk
- Treating cold, cough, and congestion
- Preventing blood clotting in arteries
- Helping burn off calories
Avocados, which are one of the healthiest foods on the planet, provide close to 20 essential health-boosting nutrients, including potassium, vitamin E, B vitamins, and folic acid.
Sprouts, on the other hand, have higher vitamin content in the most absorbable form compared to their more mature versions. Alfalfa in particular contains vitamins A, B, C, D, E, F, and K.
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Saturday, October 31, 2015
Short Film Reveals the Lunacy of Water Fluoridation
By Dr. Mercola
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has hailed water fluoridation as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century.
Beginning in 1945, it was claimed that adding fluoride to drinking water was a safe and effective way to improve people's dental health. Over the decades, many bought into this hook, line and sinker, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
The featured film, "Our Daily Dose," reviews some of this evidence. As noted in the film's synopsis:
"Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert lays out the dangers of water fluoridation informatively and creatively, highlighting the most current research and interviewing top-tier doctors, activists, and attorneys close to the issue.
Through thoughtful examination of old beliefs and new science, the film alerts us to the health threat present in the water and beverages we rely on every day."
Share This Film With Those Still Sitting On the Fence on Fluoride!
The film may not offer many brand new revelations to those of you who are already well-informed about the history and documented hazards of fluoride.
It was primarily created as an educational vehicle aimed at those who may not be aware of these issues, or who might not yet be entirely convinced that drinking fluoride isn't a good thing.
So PLEASE, share this video with all of your friends and family who are on the fence on this issue, and ask them to watch it. It's only 20 minutes long, but it packs a lot of compelling details into those 20 minutes.
Understanding how fluoride affects your body and brain is particularly important for parents with young children, and pregnant women.
It's really crucial to know that you should NEVER mix infant formula with fluoridated tap water for example, as this may overexpose your child to 100 times the proposed "safe" level of fluoride exposure for infants!
If your child suffers with ADD/ADHD, drinking fluoridated water may also worsen his or her condition. Ditto for those with underfunctioning thyroid. So please, do share this video with your social networks, as it could make a big difference in people's health.
Fluoride Is Both an Endocrine Disruptor and a Neurotoxin
Scientific investigations have revealed that fluoride is an endocrine disrupting chemical,1 and a developmental neurotoxin that impacts short-term and working memory, and lowers IQ in children.2
It has been implicated as a contributing factor in the rising rates of both attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD)3,4 and thyroid disease.
Indeed, fluoride was used in Europe to reduce thyroid activity in hyperthyroid patients as late as the 1970s, and reduced thyroid function is associated with fluoride intakes as low as 0.05 to 0.1 mg fluoride per kilogram body weight per day (mg/kg/day).5
For over 50 Years, Fluoride Levels Were Too High, Government Admits
Children are particularly at risk for adverse effects of overexposure, and in April 2015, the US government admitted that the "optimal" level of fluoride recommended since 1962 had in fact been too high.
As a result, over 40 percent of American teens show signs of fluoride overexposure6 — a condition known as dental fluorosis. In some areas, dental fluorosis rates are as high as 70 to 80 percent, with some children suffering from advanced forms.
So, for the first time, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) lowered its recommended level of fluoride in drinking water7,8,9 by 40 percent, from an upper limit of 1.2 milligrams per liter (mg/L) to 0.7 mg/L.
The HHS said it will evaluate dental fluorosis rates among children in 10 years to assess whether they were correct about this new level being protective against dental fluorosis.
But just what is the acceptable level of harm in the name of cavity prevention?
A number of studies10,11,12,13 have shown that children who with moderate to severe dental fluorosis score worse on tests measuring cognitive skills and IQ than peers without fluorosis — a clear revelation highlighted in the film, as some still insist that dental fluorosis is nothing more than a cosmetic issue.
The Price We Pay for Cavity Prevention
According to the film, the CDC estimates water fluoridation decreases dental decay by, at most, 25 percent. Recent research14,15 however, suggests the real effect may be far lower.
Based on the findings of three papers assessing the effectiveness of fluoridation on tooth decay, the researchers concluded that water fluoridation does not reduce cavities to a statistically significant degree in permanent teeth.
If that's the case, then why are we still jeopardizing our children's long-term thyroid and brain health by adding fluoride to drinking water?
Fluoride — like many other poisons — was originally declared safe based on dosage, but we now know that timing of exposure can play a big role in its effects as well. Children who are fed infant formula mixed with fluoridated water receive very high doses, and may be affected for life as a result of this early exposure.
Fluoride can also cross the placenta, causing developing fetuses to be exposed to fluoride. Considering the fact that fluoride has endocrine-disrupting activity, this is hardly a situation amenable to the good health of that child. It's important to realize that fluoride is not a nutrient. It's a drug, and it's the ONLY drug that is purposely added directly into drinking water.
This route of delivery completely bypasses standard rules relating to informed consent, which is foundational for ethical medical practice. What's worse, there's no way to keep track of the dosage. And no one is keeping track of side effects.
Infants Are Severely and Routinely Overdosed on Fluoride
According to the recent Iowa Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the CDC, infants and young children are being massively overdosed on fluoride. This study, which is the largest US study conducted measuring the amount of fluoride children ingest, concluded that:
- 100 percent of infants receiving infant formula mixed with fluoridated tap water get more than the allegedly safe dose of fluoride. Some formula-fed infants receive 100 times the safe level on a daily basis
- 30 percent of 1-year-olds exceed the recommended safe dose
- 47 percent of 2- to 3-olds exceed the safe dose
Most Water Authorities Use Toxic Waste Product, Not Pharmaceutical Grade Fluoride
As stated, fluoride is a drug, and research into the health effects of fluoride is based on pharmaceutical grade fluoride.
However, a majority of water authorities do not even use pharmaceutical grade fluoride; they use hydrofluosilicic acid, or hexafluorosilicic acid — toxic waste products of the phosphate fertilizer industry, which are frequently contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, and other toxins.
This is a key point that many fluoride proponents fail to address when arguing for its use. Indeed, holding elected officials accountable for procuring proof that the specific fluoridation chemical used actually fulfills fluoride's health and safety claims and complies with all regulations, laws, and risk assessments required for safe drinking water, has been a successful strategy for halting water fluoridation in a number of areas around the US.
While the idea of hiding toxic industrial waste in drinking water would sound like a questionable idea at best to most people, it was welcomed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a 1983 letter, Rebecca Hanmer, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, wrote:
"... In regard to the use of fluosilicic acid as a source of fluoride for fluoridation, this Agency regards such use as an ideal environmental solution to a long-standing problem. By recovering by-product fluosilicic acid from fertilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized, and water utilities have a low-cost source of fluoride available to them..."
Data and Science Does Not Support Water Fluoridation
Ninety-seven percent of Western European countries do not fluoridate their water, and data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that non-fluoridating countries have seen the exact same reduction in dental cavities as the US,16 where a majority of water is still fluoridated. If fluoride were in fact the cause of this decline, non-fluoridating countries should not show the same trend.
Clearly, declining rates of dental decay are not in and of themselves proof that water fluoridation actually works. It's also worth noting that well over 99 percent of the fluoride added to drinking water never even touches a tooth; it simply runs down the drain, contaminating and polluting the environment.
Source: KK Cheng et.al. BMJ 2007.17 Rates of cavities have declined by similar amounts in countries with and without fluoridation.
Ending Fluoridation Will Be the Greatest Public Health Achievement of the 21st Century
Despite the fact that the scientific evidence does not support fluoridation, those who question or openly oppose it are typically demonized and written off as crazy conspiracy theorists. Many fluoride supporters claim the science of fluoridation was "settled" some 50 years ago — effectively dismissing all the revelations produced by modern science! To defend their position, they rely on outdated science, because that's all they have. You'd be extremely hard-pressed to find modern research supporting water fluoridation.
Indeed, as noted in the film, ending water fluoridation will be one of the greatest public health achievements of the 21st Century, and I for one will not stop until that happens. To learn more about why water fluoridation runs counter to good science, common sense, and the public good, please see the following video, which recounts 10 important fluoride facts.
The Best Cavity Prevention Is Your Diet
The best way to prevent cavities is not through fluoride, but by addressing your diet. One of the keys to oral health is eating a traditional diet or real foods, rich in fresh, unprocessed vegetables, nuts, and grass-fed meats. By avoiding sugars and processed foods, you prevent the proliferation of the bacteria that cause decay in the first place.
According to Dr. Francesco Branca, Director of WHO's Department of Nutrition for Health and Development:18 "We have solid evidence that keeping intake of free sugars to less than 10 percent of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay."
Other natural strategies that can significantly improve your dental health is eating plenty of fermented vegetables, and doing oil pulling with coconut oil. Also make sure you're getting plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats, as research suggests even moderate amounts of omega-3 fats may help ward off gum disease. My favorite source is krill oil.
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Nobel Prize in Medicine for Parasite-Fighting Therapies
By Dr. Mercola
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to three doctors whose work has fundamentally changed the treatment of parasitic diseases around the globe.
What is perhaps most notable is that their discoveries are derived from natural products, once again showing that nature can be a powerful source of medicine. The majority of new drugs (70 percent) introduced in the US are derived from natural products, primarily plants.1
So while the fact that the Nobel Prize was awarded to the discovery of natural-based medicines isn't exactly shocking, it's important to recognize the healing potential found in nature. As noted by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health:2
"The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to Drs. Youyou Tu, William C. Campbell, and Satoshi Ōmura for their discoveries of the natural products artemisinin and avermectin.
Dr. Tu received the award for her work on artemisinin, an anti-malarial agent from Artemisia annua, a plant that has been used in reducing fevers for centuries and is well documented in traditional Chinese medicine.
Drs. Campbell and Ōmura discovered the antibiotic avermectin when they screened streptomycetes, microorganisms commonly found in soil, for natural products with anti-infectious activity. Both natural products have had a profound effect on the treatment of parasitic diseases."
Avermectin to Fight River Blindness Comes from Soil Bacteria
William Campbell from Duke University in the US and Satoshi Ōmura of Kitasato University, Japan, are sharing half of the $960,000 Nobel Prize award for their work to develop Avermectin.
Avermectin has essentially eradicated river blindness and greatly reduced cases of lymphatic filariasis, which are two diseases caused by parasitic worms.
River blindness, which leads to chronic inflammation in the cornea, leads to blindness, while lymphatic filariasis causes chronic swelling and disabling symptoms, including "elephantiasis," which is disfiguring swelling in the lower body.Dr. Omura, a microbiologist, isolated strains from a group of soil bacteria called Streptomyces in the 1970s. The bacteria were known to have antimicrobial properties, and Dr. Omura focused on about 50 out of several thousand cultures, which he believed to be the most promising.
The Nobel Committee praised Dr. Omura for his "extraordinary skills in developing unique methods" for characterizing natural products in the soil bacteria, but he downplayed his work stating, "I merely borrowed the power of microbes."3
Dr. Campbell, an expert in parasite biology, obtained the cultures from Dr. Omura and found one (taken from a golf course in Japan) that worked to eradicate parasites in animals.
The purified version was named Avermectin and was later developed into the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin used in both animals and humans to treat a variety of parasites.
Artemisinin to Fight Malaria Inspired by Traditional Chinese Medicine
Youyou Tu, a pharmacologist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing, received the other half of the Nobel Prize for developing the anti-malarial drug Artemisinin in the 1960s and '70s.
At that time, malaria was typically treated with chloroquine or quinine, but its effectiveness was waning and malaria was on the rise. Dr. Tu turned to traditional Chinese herbal medicine and screened for herbs that seemed helpful in treating malaria-infected animals.
An extract from the plant Artemisia annua seemed promising but led to inconsistent results. According to a Nobel Prize press release:4
"… Tu revisited the ancient literature and discovered clues that guided her in her quest to successfully extract the active component from Artemisia annua. Tu was the first to show that this component, later called Artemisinin, was highly effective against the Malaria parasite, both in infected animals and in humans."
In a clinical trial conducted in the 1970s, Artemisinin had startling effects on malaria patients; all 18 patients given the herb felt better within hours and recovered within days.5 Malaria is caused by a parasite of the species plasmodium, which is spread from person to person by infected mosquitoes.
Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are necessary to control this disease and to save the lives of those afflicted. Artemisinin is able to rapidly kill malaria parasites at an early stage of development, which explains how it's so effective at treating even severe malaria.
When used in combination therapy, Artemisinin is estimated to reduce malaria deaths by more than 20 percent overall and more than 30 percent in children. This amounts to more than 100,000 lives saved each year in Africa alone.6 The press release added:
"The discoveries of Avermectin and Artemisinin have revolutionized therapy for patients suffering from devastating parasitic diseases. Campbell, Ōmura, and Tu have transformed the treatment of parasitic diseases. The global impact of their discoveries and the resulting benefit to mankind are immeasurable."
Parasitic Diseases Kill More Than 1 Million People Every Year
Parasitic infections are responsible for a staggering number of deaths worldwide every year. Malaria is one of the most well known. Every year, malaria results in about 1 million deaths.
It is such an enormous problem in Africa that each African child has, on average, between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever every year.Further, the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which include parasitic diseases like lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, and Guinea worm, kill about 500,000 people each year, primarily in rural areas of low-income countries.
Even in developed countries, parasites can contribute to disease like irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive issues, and possibly even cancer. Signs and symptoms that you've been infected with an intestinal parasite of the non-beneficial variety (some parasites may actually be beneficial) include:
Subcutaneous nodules Eye inflammation (conjunctivitis and retinitis) Blindness Dysentery Hives (urticaria) Diarrhea Coughing or wheezing Enlargement of liver and spleen (hepatosplenomegaly) Fever and abdominal Pain Many of these symptoms can be caused by other conditions as well, so if you suspect you're infected, seek the help of a knowledgeable natural health care practitioner for proper diagnosis and treatment.
For instance, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, one of the leading authorities on Lyme disease, addresses parasitic infections first, as part of the treatment. The "Klinghardt antimicrobial cocktail," which includes wormwood (Artemisinin), phospholipids, vitamin C, and various herbs, is an integral part of this treatment.
In the meantime, eating raw garlic (smashing the cloves first to activate their beneficial properties) and raw pumpkin seeds may help you to get rid of them. Maintaining a healthy gut by eating naturally fermented foods (like fermented vegetables) and/or taking a high-quality probiotic may also help prevent and eradicate parasitic infections.
How to Harness the Power of Medicinal Plants
It's no surprise that the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to treatments derived from nature, including plants. Ancient civilizations relied on plants to treat illnesses. The ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, a scroll from 1550 BC that's over 100 pages long, details 700 medicinal herbs and how to use them. The Greek Corpus Hippocraticum from the 16th century BC also details the use of herbal medicine.7
Later, during the 1800s and early 1900s, the knowledge of herbal medicine was passed down from one generation to the next. Typically, the woman of the house was well versed in the use of herbs for healing, and would act as the family's physician not only to treat illnesses, but also to prepare various herbal wellness tonics and other remedies.
Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of the world's population still uses traditional remedies, including plants, as their primary health care tools.8
In the past, I have regarded herbs, in many cases, as a safer alternative to drugs, useful for treating various symptoms but not to treat the underlying cause. I have since revised my opinion on this quite significantly, and now realize that herbs can help support your health from a very basic level, just as foods do. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, you could walk into a drug store and find hundreds of herbal extracts for sale. Upwards of 90 percent of the population at that time knew how to use the medicinal plants growing in their backyards to treat common illnesses and injuries; they had to, as this was virtually the only "medicine" available.
With the rise of what is now known as conventional allopathic medicine shortly before World War I, herbalism slowly fell out of favor and began to be thought of as folk medicine. Rather than viewing nature as the source of healing, as had been done for centuries, people began to view drugs and other "modern" healing methods as superior. If you would like to start using medicinal plants more often, here are nine tips to do so:9
- Learn to identify three medicinal plants you don't already know that grow in your region and learn their uses.
- Add at least one of these herbs to your garden or to pots on your windowsill.
- Make a tincture, tea, syrup, or salve. Or make one of each!
- Harvest and dry mint, lemon balm, calendula, nettles, or any other plant growing in your region.
- Find a plant to sit with quietly each morning for a week; draw the plant.
- Identify one healing skill you would like to have but don't, and find a way to learn it — perhaps by taking an herb or aromatherapy class.
- Make an herbal first aid kit.
- Organize local healers for emergency response in your community.
- With medicinal plants grown in your region, learn how to treat one condition that you and/or someone in your family struggles with.
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