Tuesday, June 30, 2009

What's that Valerian?

VALERIAN - THE SMELL OF SLEEP

Are you stressed out? Try Valerian.

Are you unable to sleep at night? Try Valerian.

In the original version the Pied Piper was also a herbalist who used Valerian to hypnotize both the rats and the children.

This reflects the effect on the nervous system that we now know Valerian to possess. While the sedative effects of the herb have already really only featured in the last millennium, as long as 2000 years ago, the Greeks and Romans used Valerian for a range of purposes.

Valerian was known as phu.
Valerian root has a strong odour described by some unkind souls as likely sweaty socks. When you recognized the smell and phu literally means 'yuck'.

Despite this Valerian was used as a pain reliever, decongestant and antidote to poisons.

Valerian is ' of a special virtue against plague'. It is hard to imagine what the special virtue could have been, except perhaps to calm people who would have been severely distressed and maybe relax spasms in the body.

The true secret of Valerian, it is a tranquilizer and sleep aid.

Valerian was recognized as a nervous system herb. Then during World War 1, Valerian was used for many soldiers afflicted with 'over-wrought nerves' from things, we may imagine, such as constant artillery bombardment. Today the news daily headline about H1N1 growing updates also increased the distressed cases among the citizens. Today Valerian is recognized as a leading treatment for insomnia.

Every night, before going to sleep, drink 20 % of your own daily water quota, which is 31.42 (ml) multiply with your own body weight (kg), and put a pinch of sea-salt on your tongue and let it there and go to slumber land, naturally. Result ensured.

Not animal milk for human infants? Why?

The common killing diseases, which are directly traceable to arteriosclerosis include, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, as well as liver and kidney failures. Four fairly recent studies have shown that this high protein consumption is the reason for osteoporosis being at epidemic proportions in America. The excess protein causes an acidic leaching of the calcium out of the bones regardless of how much calcium one ingests. So the "drink your milk and get you calcium" works backwards. The blacks in Africa are 98% lactose intolerant, and we see them following the example of America with numerous milk products having been introduced. Americans are about 20% lactose intolerant — having adapted over the years. The body was not designed to digest lactose and the majority of the world’s population can’t. Cow’s milk, and the products made from it, are surprisingly a poison to the human system; whereas, mother’s milk is ambrosia to an infant, and it digests perfectly in most cases.

Looking back, we now know that the recommended use of meat and dairy everyday on the food charts in our schools was encouraged by the America Cattleman’s Association, and the American Dairyman’s Association with ulterior motives. These food charts promoted by the US education system have found there way into our suggested foods and into our welfare manuals. One of the biggest revenue makers for the power and gain, conspiratorial set, is from banking and financing all aspects of putting meat and dairy on our plates.

At the same time, the coffers of the power and gain community are filled and refilled at our expense. No thank you!

Fortunately, now, with the studies stacking up so conclusively for the benefits of a plant based diet, food charts and diet recommendations are being revisited and revised. In 1995, our oldest son, Sterling, was involved with a project at the University of Arizona at Tucson which revealed the significantly increased probability of carcinogenic run-away in the DNA replication process when it takes place in a more acidic environment. Interestingly, meat and dairy products are, on the average, acid forming foods in the body, while a plant-based diet moves the body to a basic or alkaline state of being. Not only are meat and dairy consumption the main contributors to our biggest killer in America -- arteriosclerotic diseases -- but also to the big "C," causing cancer in a large number of cases (see Robbins, DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA)[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0915811812/allanstimetime00]. For example, prostate cancer -- the biggest cancer killer of men in America -- is 1,300% more likely in the U.S. than in the Philippines, which correlates directly with meat and dairy consumption. The numbers are even more extreme for breast cancer, which is almost a non-existent disease in Thailand.

Again, a plant based diet tends to move the body’s chemical pH factor toward basic. In other words, a Word of Wisdom diet can greatly decrease the probability of cancer — exactly the findings across the world population for many different kinds of cancer. During a May 1999 BYU forum given by Professor Kim O-Neil, he stated the conclusion that 60% of cancer could be avoided and he mentioned both meat and dairy as part of that which needs to be greatly reduced from our diets. My own personal data base indicates that it may be more than 80%.

One can get all the fat and protein one needs from a plant based diet without getting any cholesterol.
A plant based diet has zero cholesterol in it, and the body needs to ingest zero. It manufactures all that it needs. Plants have only phyto-esterol; animals and human have cholesterol for hormones production while under the sunlight.\

The brain is about 2% of our body weight, yet it uses about 20% of the circulatory oxygen . Of course, arteriosclerosis affects the whole circulation system, plugging it up. This plugging triggers a wide variety of serious side-effects, ranging from memory loss to impotency. You can imagine what it does in the tiny capillaries in the brain with 10 times the amount of blood flowing through it as compared to the average across the rest of the body. I believe that a significant cause of memory loss happens as the synapse process in the brain is impeded by being starved of oxygen -- especially in the near-term memory as we see occur in our older folks. I have seen a significant improvement in my ability to remember and to deal with complex issues in the last few years .


A gentleman, Thomas Rodgers,(http://www.lifesave.org/) who had been pulled back from death having been given some new insights. I felt impressed to hear his story. His near-death experience in June of '91 was brought on by his dietary habits. He was a dairy farmer. He made a most remarkable recovery following the guidelines given. During the summer of 1995, at age 55, he ran a marathon. He was also instructed to share his message. Thousands have heard his story and have chosen to follow a plant-centered diet. These people have seen wonderful changes that have occurred in their lives. His subsequent studies have also shown that the bodies pH level is very important and that avoiding meat and dairy products is one of the best ways to bring proper balance. Some worry about acids in fruits and vegetables, but these along with all of the rest obtainable in a plant based diet bring about the desired balance and the greatly reduced risk of all kinds of diseases by strengthening the bodies immunity system. Fresh and raw are best. Fruit juices are marvelous cleansers and immunity system builders.

That dairy products are culprits was a surprise to me. Studies have shown that they are major contributors to arteriosclerosis as well as meat. My wife loved cheese, and I was a great fan of yogurt and ice cream. When one feels so good, you loose the desire for that which makes you feel bad.

First, you feel so much better. Second, your immunity system is working to continually ward off diseases .

A few other statistics you might find interesting. For every minute a person smokes, he or she takes about 8 minutes off of his or her life; for every minute a person eats meat, he or she takes about 12 minutes off of his or her life. About half of the water in the United States is used to put meat and dairy on our plates. The earth is about 10 times more efficient in its ability to provide a plant based diet versus a meat and dairy based diet. Knowing these things, we see an excellent opportunity to extend our love towards all of our neighbors throughout the world by cutting most, if not all, the meat and dairy from our diets. By so conserving and showing respect for our environment, we also show increased love for ourselves, as well as our neighbor.

To drink and grow sicker? Coffee-aDDICTION

COFFEE - THE WORLD BEAN

Perhaps we are too careless about those cups/glasses of coffee drinks. Everywhere you go, people are 'meeting for a coffee' to discuss business matters or simply for a chat. Many of us measure out our lives with coffee spoons. But the burning question becomes, is coffee good for you? If you are a coffee addict, you may not like some of the answers. Stop reading and delete this study right now.

Coffee , the magic beans?
After oil, coffee is the world's second most traded commodity and it is grown by about 7 million farmers in 80 countries around this world. The global coffee crop is worth 8 billion dollars (year 2000 figures) and for some countries it represent nearly 75% of their entire export earning.

What is it about the coffee bean of this tree that makes it so popular> It is probably the little "lift" that comes with each cup. Right?

When you ingest coffee you also take in the 1-2 per cent of caffeine that it contains. When it comes from coffee caffeine is quickly absorbed into your blood stream. caffeine is known to stimulate the brain areas associated with conscious mental processes. Thoughts become clearer and fatigue decreases.

The problem is, these "benefits" last only a short time, from 15 to 45 minutes, so you have to go back for more cups/glasses of coffee. Unfortunately, te negative effects of coffee consumption can last much longer.

In the long term coffee can actually cause anxiety, insomnia and depression. The caffeine binds to receptors in your brain that are normally occupied by a brain chemical known as 'anandamine.'

Anandamine is a feel-good chemical and, when caffeine blocks it, the lack of good feelings can result in depression. So despite short-term stimulation, or artificial stimulation at that, coffee when consumed chronically can actually cause depression of mood.

Those stimulating actions of coffee can also lift blood pressure, and coffee consumption above two to three cups per day may raise cholesterol levels. This is due to the dehydrating effects of caffeine, hence the body will protect itself from cells premature death by producing more cholesterol to safeguard those affected cells by surrounding them. The blood tests with high blood cholesterol or high blood pressure were mistakenly interpreted as high bad cholesterol. The fact is this, those cholesterol were used by the body to salvage those cells from further dehydration due to the caffeine overdose-dehydration effects .

Coffee is also a diuretic, meaning that it increase urination. This physiology is due to the body's function to detox itself and to prevent overstay of caffeine in the system. As a result excessive coffee consumption causes the loss of many vital nutrient through the kidneys, including calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorous. Additionally, coffee reduce absorption of iron. Underweight people are to avoid all caffeine products, coke and sodas.

For pregnant women it seems that caffeine consumption above 600 milligrams a day is linked to lower birth weight. (Source: American Journal of Epidemiology, 157, 2003, pp.456-66, M.B. Bracken et al.)

There are also suggestions that caffeine can increase the risk of miscarriage for pregnant women who are not cigarette smokers but drink 100 milligram or more caffeine per day. (Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 343(25), 21 December 2000, pp.1839-45, S. Cnattingius et al.)

Caffeine content of coffee and tea:
Beverage (Caffeine content,per cup (237ml/8 oz))
Drip filter coffee (123-160 mg)
Brewed coffee (85-144 mg)
Instant coffee (43-70 mg)
Tea (3-minute brew) (56 mg)
Tea (1-minute brew) (32 mg)
Instant decaf coffee (3-5 mg)

Source: Adapted from M.Murray, Stress,Anxiety and Insomnia, prima, Rocklin,USA, 1995.

However, testing at a Seattle lab in the USA indicated that 1 & 3/4 ounces of an espresso brewed for 27 seconds contained 230 mg of caffeine.

COFFEE HARDENS THE HUMAN HEART


Coffee is no lover of your heart. It seems that the amount of caffeine in just one cup of coffee is enough to harden a person's arteries by reducing artery responsiveness for several hours after consumption. (www.jpscoffee.com/Caffeine, 15 March 2003). hardened arteries, or atherosclerosis, put extra pressure on the heart and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. You must be careful with caffeine, especially if you are having high blood pressure now. Quit coffee and drink water following the water-cure protocol formula to bring your blood pressure back to normal.

It has been shown that after drinking a cup of coffee, blood pressure can rise up to 5 or even 10 millimetres of mercury. (Source;(C.Vlachopoulos et al., European Society of cardiology Congress, September 2001, reported in Reuters Health Information, 4 September, 2001.)

In one study, 10 healthy volunteers were given either inactive placebo capsules or capsules containing 100 milligrams of caffeine ( the equivalent to one cup of plunger coffee). On another day the volunteers received the opposite capsule from their previous dosage. They found that this amount of caffeine increased wave reflection, which is a measure of arterial stiffness, for at least two hours. The researchers concluded that regular impacts like this would significantly increase risk of stroke or heart attack. If this news has you coffee lovers in mourning, there's more bad news to come. Quit reading now, if you don't plan to quit caffeine or any coffee for your body's sake.

A study in Norway, has found that coffee drinkers who quit the habit cut their blood levels of cholesterol and a chemical called homocysteine. Both substances are known risk factors for heart disease. It is known that some compounds in coffee, called terpenoids, increase cholesterol levels but there has been some debate until now as to whether coffee increases heart disease risk. (Source: B.Christensen et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 74, 2001, pp.302-7).

This study found that filtered and unfiltered coffee affects both cholesterol and homocysteine levels.

The researchers took blood samples from 191 non-smoking coffee drinkers aged between 24 and 69. The otherwise healthy volunteers were split into three groups - one group consumed no coffee, another had one to three cups per day and the third group drank more than four cups of coffee each day.

After six weeks participants abstaining from coffee showed a 10 per cent decrease in homocysteine levels and a decrease in cholesterol levels of 0.28 millimoles per litre. Result: that coffee consumption may be associated with low folic acid intake or affect metabolism of this vitamin, therefore raising homocysteine levels.
Also, when coffee is abstain, the dehydration effects had been greatly reduced , hence the body need not produce more cholesterol which is used to "protect" other fragile cells from premature death.

REMEDIES FOR THE COFFEE ADDICT

Without doubt the best alternative to coffee is a dandelion root beverage. By having a cup of dandelion in preference to coffee you are skipping your caffeine hit and getting a tonic for your liver - which, incidentally, has to work harder when you drink coffee.

Even though many drinkers drink coffee and enjoy not only the taste (addiction) but also the social aspects and ambience's that surround this charismatic beverage, there is a long term perspecive they have to face in reality: the body health. Still ,in puritanical sense, your best health option is to give up coffee altogether.

For those of you who just can't face that terrifying prospect, at least support your body wisely. replace your third and fourth cups of coffee each day with beverage like dandelion. You will be glad you do it now.

Additionally, take a good mineral supplement contains the mineral chromium, which helps with sugar metabolism, and also take a good vitamin B supplement.

Try a calming herb like Valerian to get the good night's sleep your coffee-hyped system may be denying you. Use a liver support like dandelion or milk-thistle herb to support your hard-working liver.

To lower the excess cholesterol that coffee raises try to increase your water intake and intake of fresh fruit and green vegetables. You may not fancy them, but your body need them badly now. For each cup of coffee intake , replenish your system with another three cups of plain water daily.

Finally , drink plenty of water to replace what is going out through the kidneys.

Of course, coffee's partner in crime against your body is the deliciously naughty chocolate. Although chocolate of late has a bad-boy reputation among foods, some people claims are being made also lately that chocolate may actually be good for you. 'Could this possibly be so?'

CHOCOLATE - DARK MOTHER OR HEALING ANGEL?

Cured himself :Confession of a Mamikaze Cowboy

Dirk Benedict, film and TV star, Broadway actor and author wrote: I’ve had at one time or another, all of the following ailments: falling hair, arthritis, acne, lower back pain, impotence, weight problems, excessive drinking habits, and finally at age THIRTY, the really Big One … the disease that keeps the wheels of Corporate Medicine well oiled and spinning … cancer … tumour in my prostate gland.

He cured himself of his health problem. He wrote the true story of his recovery in Confession of a Mamikaze Cowboy.

For more click this link:

http://cacare.com/index.php?option=com_easyfaq&task=view&id=282&Itemid=39

CA Care(www.cacare.com)



More news … Friday, June 26, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor



NaturalNews --- That Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett both died …but it's not nearly as surprising as the fact that they were both killed by Big Pharma's toxic drugs.

Michael Jackson, we now know, died from an injection of Demerol given by his doctor. There is little question that the injection of Demerol -- a potent pharmaceutical -- caused Jackson 's death.

Demerol, by the way, is a highly-potent opioid drug that's also highly addictive. And yet it's being prescribed (and injected) by doctors with the full support of the FDA, the pharmaceutical industry and the conventional medical community. It is nothing less than amazing that mild drugs like marijuana remain outlawed while potentially deadly painkiller drugs like Demerol are openly injected into people by doctors.

Farrah Fawcett's death was far less sudden than Jackson's, but no less innocent. She was killed by chemotherapy -- a toxic cocktail of chemicals pushed onto patients by oncologists who deceptively call it "treatment."

To read more click this link:

http://www.NaturalNews.com/026511_cancer_chemotherapy_doctors.html

My Son with FIGHTING SPIRIT

5. WITHIN THE ARMED FORCES drives them to boldly execute their mission with courage , tenacity and resilience. As a dedicated member of a formidable armed force, together, they engage their hearts, minds and bodies with conviction, no matter what the risk. Whether facing fear and uncertainty or everyday ordinary task, they motivate one another to press on and never give up, neither surrender.

Hope you take some time to appreciate what my son the National Service Man is doing for this nation, what it means for us as Singaporeans, and through this post, what it is we stand for in Total Defence - Citizens for Soldiers and Soldiers for Citizens.

Thank you for your time and support.

With 7 core values my son is transformed and duty bound to willing lay down his life in defence for his NATION and his beloved beings.

1.LOYALTY TO COUNTRY expresses his commitment to defend the sovereignty of our nation and to protect all that he loves : our families and loved ones, way of life, homeland, and national interests.

2.LEADERSHIP requires his highest character, confidence and authenticity from all National Service Men at all levels. Leading by example, inspiring, motivating and developing people are the foundation of his strength and security.
Every soldier, or sailor, or airman like my son is expected to be ready and willing to take the initiative to influence and motivate his fellowmen to carry out their mission confidently and to the best of their abilities. As leaders in their respective service, my son need to be flexible and adaptive, to survive, and willing to take responsibility for his actions and decisions.

3.DISCIPLINE ENSURES THE RESPONSIBLE OBEDIENCE OF ORDERS and the readiness to respond to emerging threats. My son the discipline National Service man requires a respect for and appreciation of the military system and the role the military plays in defence of the nation. My son the discipline NS Man is built through tough training and self control; reinforced by mental stamina, inner strength, physical endurance, and a constant concern for safety.

4.PROFESSIONALISM
demands the highest standards of excellence and competence from my son and every fellow soldier, sailor & airman of the Singapore Armed Forces. This means projecting a respectable image, knowing his roles and responsibilities, giving his best in all that he does, and learning and improving continuously through creativity and the sharing of ideas to sustain operational readiness.

4.PROFESSIONALISM in National Servicemen

demands the highest standards of excellence and competence from my son and every fellow soldier, sailor & airman of the Singapore Armed Forces. This means projecting a respectable image, knowing his roles and responsibilities, giving his best in all that he does, and learning and improving continuously through creativity and the sharing of ideas to sustain operational readiness.

3.DISCIPLINE ENSURES THE RESPONSIBLE OBEDIENCE OF ORDERS and the readiness to respond to emerging threats. My son the discipline National Service man requires a respect for and appreciation of the military system and the role the military plays in defence of the nation. My son the discipline NS Man is built through tough training and self control; reinforced by mental stamina, inner strength, physical endurance, and a constant concern for safety.

Hope you take some time to appreciate what my son the National Service Man is doing for this nation, what it means for us as Singaporeans, and through this post, what it is we stand for in Total Defence - Citizens for Soldiers and Soldiers for Citizens.

Thank you for your time and support.

With 7 core values my son is transformed and duty bound to willing lay down his life in defence for his NATION and his beloved beings.

1.LOYALTY TO COUNTRY expresses his commitment to defend the sovereignty of our nation and to protect all that he loves : our families and loved ones, way of life, homeland, and national interests.

2.LEADERSHIP requires his highest character, confidence and authenticity from all National Service Men at all levels. Leading by example, inspiring, motivating and developing people are the foundation of his strength and security.
Every soldier, or sailor, or airman like my son is expected to be ready and willing to take the initiative to influence and motivate his fellowmen to carry out their mission confidently and to the best of their abilities. As leaders in their respective service, my son need to be flexible and adaptive, to survive, and willing to take responsibility for his actions and decisions.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Big News...

BIG NEWS FROM SWITZERLAND

From them I learned a very interesting fact. On May 17, 2009, the people of Switzerland voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that supports the use of complementary medicine (CAM). A total of 67 percent of the population voted in favor.

Thus Switzerland becomes the first country in Europe to set out in its constitution authority for the national government and its constituent states to take CAM into consideration in its health services. It is an astonishing victory and may set the model for other countries as well. I hope to go to Switzerland at some point in the future to see how this change is affecting medical care, particularly the treatment of cancer.

Is Chasing Away Evil Spirit ..

Dear reader,
Is Chasing Away Evil Spirit As Good As Taking Chemo-drug?

Radiation and chemotherapy are dangerous placebos. And placebos sometimes work~ Dr. Julian Whitaker

Lina (not real name) is a 36-year old female. She was diagnosed with CML (chronic myeloid leukemia) in August 2008. The doctor at the Singapore General Hospital prescribed an oral chemo – Glevec (Imatinib) – for her condition. This medication cost S$3,500 per month. Initially Gleevec was good for her but after 6 months she suffered a relapse. The consumption of Gleveec was stopped.

The doctor suggested Lina undergoes a bone marrow transplantation. This procedure would cost approximately S$50,000 to S$100,000. Lina declined. She said: I would rather die than undergoing this procedure and go bald.

If you wish to read this story, please click:

http://cacare.com/index.php?option=com_easyfaq&task=view&id=223&Itemid=39

Happy Reading .

Constipation and hemorrhoids; Heartburn; Cold Feet and hands.....

Used water-cure to cure my health problems, constipation and hemorrhoids; heartburn; cold feet and hands; foul urine smell; depression:

I was drinking two or more pots of coffee and a few sodas every day. No water. I am retired about three years now. While working I would drink some water from the water-cooler at work. Now that I am home I don't have a cooler and don't like tap water, so I drank none at all.

Symptoms:
1. My urine was getting very strong. I thought I would need to see a doctor soon for a possible infection.

2. My constipation was so bad I was using hemorrhoid preparation 2 to 3 times a week.

3. My stomach burned sometimes so I used Tums a few times a month.

4. Also I seemed to have some sort of bronchial problem, a deep cough, soreness and very thick phlegm.

During the winter it was necessary to wear long johns for the first time in my life. At night I needed socks, long johns and T-shirt and I would cover up with a sheet and two blankets. I was so cold in the morning I would use a blow dryer to warm my feet, then after putting socks on I would warm the socks on my feet. lastly, I would heat the shoes I was going to wear. it was common to be cold enough I could hardly function. it was painful. if I tried to go for a walk I would wear two pairs of gym pants.

I went to the gym and used the treadmill and cross trainer. i stated feeling depressed when I got to the gym, didn't know why. My numbers had been slowly decreasing, that is the speed and inclination settings. I always hold the sides.

When I walked freely at the shopping mall my sides would hurt so badly it brought me to tears. My feet would hurt but the side pain overwhelmed this.

My karate lessons have been getting harder and harder. The number of moves, like kicks I could do, has been dropping regularly. The instructor wanted 25 to 50 kicks and we have been reducing this to 10 to 15, kept saying I was getting old, disregarding how fast I was aging in just a few years.

I had been trying to lose weight but if I cut back my food intake I would get cold and achy much like getting cold. I was getting so uncomfortable I did not like to get up in the morning, just didn't feel good to sit or stand. i can understand how lack of enthusiasm or lethargy or even depression could set in.

One curious thing I noticed was on the skin of my hand. When I held my hand out, the skin seemed like mummy skin, very dry. My hand was flat. I was starting to worry about my health, maybe diabetes. I have always tested fine for this and my web research did not seem to support anything I could find.

I know doctors tell you to drink water when ill so the strong urine caused me to start drinking water to flush my system. About the same time a friend sent me an email about dehydration. I was shocked to to learn a few percent dehydration could cause a 10 to 20 percent drop in athletic output. This email led me to do research on the web. www.watercure.com I decided to look for books and eventually found your book Your Body's Many Cries for Water at amazon.com. I have been following the regime of 2 or more glasses of water first thing in the morning, one glass of water one-half hour before each meal, one glass of water two and a half hours after each meal and one glass of water at night. During the day I drink a little more, a glass or two. Also the coffee intake has been reduced.

Results:
1.My urine no longer smells and the constipation has almost completely disappeared. I didn't know bowel movements were this easy, it's almost pleasant. My stomach is fine now and the bronchial discomfort is gone.

2. I now sleep in just underwear just like years ago. I have had many nights when my legs felt so warm they almost felt sweaty. It's amazing how far off my body's temperature regulation had gotten. When I am exposed to cold it just feels cold, it doesn't hurt anymore. Core temperature of the body is controlled by the availability of fresh water.

3.When i get up in the morning I feel fine. Sometimes I just enjoy sitting because I feel so good, no discomfort.

4. When I drink 2 or 3 glasses of water when i first get up I get a lift from it similar to what we get from coffee. But without any side effects like dehydration from coffee. If I go on the computer in the morning the screen is brighter, seems to sparkle. I don't understand this but it happens.

5. When I cut on my eating to lose weight I just get hungry, not sick. i actually smile at this because I feel I have control. A little hunger but I can stand it.

6.Regarding my hand. Now when I hold my hand out the blood vessels show and there are little muscle bumps all over. Before my hand was flat.

7.I never feel depressed any more. I attribute this to just feeling better, Slight pain and/or discomfort slowly grind away at one's attitude.

Only 500 of 1000 (total of 1400) clinics in Singapore are ready?

But only half meet the criteria — that is, they have been trained to deal with a flu pandemic, and have Internet access.

Experts say the lack of Internet access will hinder the ministry’s pandemic response plan.

Dr Chong Yeh Woei, president of Singapore Medical Association, said: "The broadband connection is necessary for them to check the system; there will be a health—stats system to check if the patient had already been prescribed Tamiflu in the last few days. I think this is to prevent doctor—hopping; we certainly don’t want patients moving from clinic to clinic, picking up boxes of Tamiflu."

What are GPs main concern? Profitability or public health protection?

Since 1954, the ostensible mission of Plum Island's Animal Disease center has been to protect America's $100 billion livestock industry and defend it from foreign viruses, like the foot-and-mouth disease virus epidemic that ravaged Europe in 2001. After September 11, 2001, its mission returned to biological warfare. Michael Christopher Carroll spent seven years researching and writing LAB 257 . He is now general counsel of a New York-based finance company. He lives on Long Island and in New York City.

Helping people to learn and know the human body physiology is the better way to stay in sanity than to just take any drug-based medication. See and learn more again, recommend http://theinnozablog.blogspot.com to friends again.

WARNING :before taking Tamiflu vaccine read this link
This article may save your life if you have the flu. http://www.brojon.org/frontpage/the_tamiflu_myth.html

Wednesday, June 17


SINGAPORE : Medical practitioners have warned that the next wave of the H1N1 flu is already here, with the Southern hemisphere experiencing cooler months.
And in Singapore, they predict the country could move away from its containment strategy to the mitigation phase — that is, caring for those who are ill — as early as in a week or two.

In a span of just under three weeks, Singapore has detected some 50 confirmed H1N1 flu cases. And the numbers are expected to surge with the rapid movement of the virus brought about by travel patterns during Singapore’s traditional mid—year school holidays.
Health experts said Singapore’s current strategy of containment — that is, quarantining H1N1 cases — may no longer be sustainable.

The Health Ministry has said it will move to the mitigation stage only when there is sustained community spread. So far there has only been one local H1N1 transmission in the country.

Dr Chong Yeh Woei, president, Singapore Medical Association, said: "We will be going into the mitigation phase sooner rather than later. I say this because I think that the resources of contact tracing, and quarantining people and isolating people — all these resources, I believe are being stretched to the limit right now.
"We have 74 countries that have the H1N1 virus, we have 10 countries that are put on the hot list. I think it is a matter of time before our resources are overwhelmed and we will have to go to the mitigation phase. Coupled by the fact the we have the school holidays, and the children coming back from holidays will be coming back to school."

The infection rate for H1N1 is relatively high — for every confirmed case, the virus may infect another 2.2 or 3 patients.

Mortality rate is about double that of seasonal flu. So death occurs in about two in every 1,000 patients.

So as a precautionary measure, doctors said it may be practical to keep schools closed for at least another week.

Dr Lee Yik Voon, family physician, said: "This may be based on what is experienced by other countries when the students come back from school holidays...you have a very high infection rate, like Japan, like Australia.

"For flu to spread, it requires close proximity. School is a place where kids get together. If you can prevent that for two weeks, I think you can break the chain of infection."

And since Home Quarantine Orders will no longer be enforced once mitigation sets in, experts said the onus is on the individual to act responsibly — meaning voluntary home quarantine if you are infected.

Dr Chong said: "The onus will be on the individual. He will have to make sure that if he is unwell, he will be getting early treatment, he will be looking after his loved ones and family members. He will make sure that he isolates himself, he will not infect his family members and he waits till he is completely well before he goes back to work."

Dr Philippe Barrault, group medical director, Asia, International SOS, said: "We need to remember this is very much an unknown virus with the ability to mutate very rapidly, to catch the patterns of virus it may meet in the process of going from, for example, one hemisphere to the other one.

"So far the severity is not one of the main issues, but it may become a big problem."

Doctors said they would be looking out for certain groups of vulnerable patients, including pregnant women, those between the ages of 30 and 50, and those with respiratory and cardio diseases. Also at risk are immuno—compromised patients such as those undergoing chemotherapy.

Dr Lee said: "You no longer have the fear of being ferried or pushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital anymore. What happens is that you will probably be tested in that clinic. We will probably do a swab to test to see whether you are Influenza positive, and if you are, and you belong to a high risk group, we start treating you with Tamiflu."

Doctors here said that as soon as the alert button is pushed and Singapore moves to the mitigation stage, the Health Ministry will issue a stockpile of Tamiflu to all 900 or so Pandemic Preparedness Clinics. Already, the clinics have been issued Personal Protection Gears by the the Ministry, in an exercise conducted about two weeks ago.

Some virologists are warning of a potentially more lethal and stronger spread of the virus when the Northern hemisphere experiences winter at the end of the year.
They are watching to see how the virus mutates and reacts. But doctors said the hope could really lie in the development of a vaccine to counter—act against the effects of the H1N1 flu. — CNA/ms

My Son The Discipline NS Man

3.DISCIPLINE ENSURES THE RESPONSIBLE OBEDIENCE OF ORDERS and the readiness to respond to emerging threats. My son the discipline National Service man requires a respect for and appreciation of the military system and the role the military plays in defence of the nation. My son the discipline NS Man is built through tough training and self control; reinforced by mental stamina, inner strength, physical endurance, and a constant concern for safety.

Hope you take some time to appreciate what my son the National Service Man is doing for this nation, what it means for us as Singaporeans, and through this post, what it is we stand for in Total Defence - Citizens for Soldiers and Soldiers for Citizens.

Thank you for your time and support.

With 7 core values my son is transformed and duty bound to willing lay down his life in defence for his NATION and his beloved beings.

1.LOYALTY TO COUNTRY expresses his commitment to defend the sovereignty of our nation and to protect all that he loves : our families and loved ones, way of life, homeland, and national interests.

2.LEADERSHIP requires his highest character, confidence and authenticity from all National Service Men at all levels. Leading by example, inspiring, motivating and developing people are the foundation of his strength and security.
Every soldier, or sailor, or airman like my son is expected to be ready and willing to take the initiative to influence and motivate his fellowmen to carry out their mission confidently and to the best of their abilities. As leaders in their respective service, my son need to be flexible and adaptive, to survive, and willing to take responsibility for his actions and decisions.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Appreciating My Son:The NS Man

Hope you take some time to appreciate what my son the National Service Man is doing for this nation, what it means for us as Singaporeans, and through this post, what it is we stand for in Total Defence - Citizens for Soldiers and Soldiers for Citizens.

Thank you for your time and support.

With 7 core values my son is transformed and duty bound to willing lay down his life in defence for his NATION and his beloved beings.

1.LOYALTY TO COUNTRY expresses his commitment to defend the sovereignty of our nation and to protect all that he loves : our families and loved ones, way of life, homeland, and national interests.

2.LEADERSHIP requires his highest character, confidence and authenticity from all National Service Men at all levels. Leading by example, inspiring, motivating and developing people are the foundation of his strength and security.
Every soldier, or sailor, or airman like my son is expected to be ready and willing to take the initiative to influence and motivate his fellowmen to carry out their mission confidently and to the best of their abilities. As leaders in their respective service, my son need to be flexible and adaptive, to survive, and willing to take responsibility for his actions and decisions.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Hope you take some time

to appreciate what my son the National Service Man is doing for this nation, what it means for us as Singaporeans, and through this post, what it is we stand for in Total Defence - Citizens for Soldiers and Soldiers for Citizens.

With 7 core values my son is transformed and duty bound to willing lay down his life in defence for his NATION and his beloved beings.

1.LOYALTY TO COUNTRY expresses his commitment to defend the sovereignty of our nation and to protect all that he loves : our families and loved ones, way of life, homeland, and national interests.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

EVIL IS BORING

Evil is boring.

Picture yourself sitting in the forest gazing upon an old tree dies and topples over, it takes a long time to decompose. As it does, it becomes host to new saplings that use the decaying log for nourishment.

How do you describe it?
Would you dwell on the putrefaction of the fallen tree while ignoring the fresh life sprouting out of it?

If you did, you'd be imitating the perspective of many modern storytellers, especially the journalists and novelists and filmmakers and producers of TV dramas.

EVIL is BORING.


They devoutly believe that tales of affliction and mayhem and corruption and tragedy are inherently more interesting than tales of triumph and liberation and pleasure and ingenuity.

Using the machinery of the media and entertainment industries, they relentlessly propagate this covert dogma. It's not sufficiently profound or well thought out to be called nihilism. Pop nihilism is a more accurate term. The mass audience is the victim of this inane ugliness, brainwashed by a multi billion-dollar propaganda machine that in comparison makes Himmler's vaunted soul-stealing apparatus look like child's backyard puppet show.

EVIL IS BORING.

Here we believe that stories about the rot are not inherently more captivating than stories about the splendor. On the contrary, given how predictable and omnipresent the former have become, they are actually quite dull. Obsessing on evil is boring.

Evil is boring.

Rousing fear is a hackneyed shtick. Wallowing in despair is a bad habit. Indulging in cynicism is akin to committing a copycat crime.

Most modern storytellers go even further in their devotion to the rot, implying that breakdown is not only more interesting but far more common than breakthrough.

Evil Is Boring

We reject this assumption as well. We don't believe that entropy dominates the human experience. Even factoring in the prevailing misery in the Middle East and Africa, we doubt that the Global Bad Nasty Ratio even exceeds 50 percent. And here in the West, where most of you reading this live, the proportion is lower.

Still, we're willing to let the news media fill up half their pages and airwaves and bandwidths with poker-faced accounts of decline and degeneration. We can tolerate a reasonable proportion of movies and novels and TV dramas that revel in pathology. But we also demand EQUAL TIME for stories about integrity and joy and beauty and bliss and renewal and harmony and love. That's all we ask : a mere 50 percent.

While perusing the front page of my local daily newspaper, I found a tiny oasis of redemptive news amidst the usual accounts of reeling turmoil.It reported that inner cities were undergoing a profound renaissance: the poorest sections of town were becoming markedly safer, new businesses were opening, capital was flowing in, neighbourhood clean-ups were proliferating, drug sales were decreasing, and people were more relaxing on their daily errant.

I was amazed that such an uplifting story had cracked the media's taboo against good news. And yet its anomalous presence as an exception to the rule proved that the rule is virtually ironclad.

Evil is Boring.

At this late date in the evolution of pop nihilism, the problem is not merely the media's relentless brainwashing. We of the mass audience have become thoroughly converted unknowingly to the sadomasochistic vision of the world: so much so that we've almost lost the power even to perceive
evidence that contradicts that vision. The good news is virtually invisible.

Even those of us whose passion it is to champion the cause of life beauty and real truth are in the early stages of fighting our blindness. We are retraining our eyes to see the emancipating truth about the nature of reality.

What would it be like to fight tenderly for life beauty and real truth and pure love without despising those who spread ugliness and lies and division?

It is a waste of time to spend much time on ho-hum data, "two thousand planes took off yesterday and all landed safely." We leave that to others with more patience. Our preferred evidence emphasizes the triumphs that have entertainment value equal to the bad nasty stuff.

We celebrate the family of the deceased Israeli girl who gave her heart to be transplanted into a sick Palestinian boy, but we also want a front-page story about physicist Paul Ginspang, who has revolutionized scientific communication by creating a free service for publishing and reading research reports on the Internet.

Respected reader, healthy or afflicted with health problems, I invite you to share with us here the interesting good news you come across in your travels. Not sentimental tales of generic hope; not "Chicken Soup for the Soul;" not life imitating the faux Hollywood/Bollywood art of contrived happy endings; but rather crafty, enigmatic, lyrical eruptions of the sublime; unpredictable outbreaks of soul that past Emily Dickinson's test for poetry : She said she always knew when she was reading the real thing because it made her feel like the top of her head was about to come of.

Evil Is Boring

Feel free, too, to take up the cause of zoom and boom as you resist the practitioners of doom and gloom in your own sphere. Demand equal time for news about integrity and joy and life beauty and pleasure and renewal and harmony and pure love. In your personal life, be alert for stories that tend to provide evidence for the fact that all of creation is conspiring to give us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.

We've been charged with the job of creating the good news that's coming, beside the task to hunt down and identify the interesting good news that's going on now.

Happy Father Day?

When you were born, your father's fatherhood begins as your son ship/daughter ship
commerce until one of you die.

As you learn the things and meaning of existence, you enquire 'why?', 'what is that?', 'why?', what is that?, why?, what is that? patiently he answered and hugged you with his hands and heart.

Though you may not quite learn the history of "Father Day" , as long as your father is alive, your son-ship / daughter-ship sails on. Whatever your experiences with your father may be, just let him know that you are thankful for him in your life and existence here on earth. Just a call to say your heartfelt "thank you for all things" is the best gift any father can receive.

Gratitude is the mother of all virtues in life.

Happy Father Day is just another day to renew and rekindle your son-ship or daughter-ship, till death do we part.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Trakr Revised Editions: clones

Thursday, June 18

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - - Five clones of a search and rescue dog which helped locate people trapped in the rubble of the 9/11 attacks were formally presented to their ancestor's former handler.
James Symington, a former Canadian police officer, choked back tears as he formally took possession of the five descendants of his beloved German shepherd named Trakr, who died in April.

Symington was presented with Trakr's offspring after winning a competition organized by California firm BioArts International -- the "Golden Clone Giveaway" -- to find the world's most "cloneworthy" dog.

Symington said he hopes the puppies -- Trustt, Valor, Prodigy, Solace and Deja Vu -- will go on to follow in Trakr's footsteps.

"We're here to celebrate that Trakr's legacy lives on in these five beautiful puppies," he told reporters. "If they have the same attributes Trakr did, then hopefully they'll develop into world class search and rescue dogs."

Symington and Trakr arrived at the site of the World Trade Center collapse, commonly referred to as Ground Zero, on September 12, 2001 and were one of the first K9 search and rescue teams on the scene.

After working nearly non-stop for 48 hours, Trakr located the last human survivor found in the rubble of the twin towers.

"Trakr was an extraordinary search and rescue dog. His work at Ground Zero was the culmination of his career," Symington said.

BioArts International, which says it offers the world's first commercial dog cloning service, partnered with South Korea's SooAm Biotech Research Foundation to clone Trakr under the direction of scientist Hwang Woo-Suk.

BioArts International chief executive Lou Hawthorne said canine cloning would remain beyond the reach of ordinary pet lovers, with cloned dogs costing an average 144,000 dollars each.

Hawthorne defended the right of people to clone their dogs instead of obtaining new pets from rescue shelters.

"I think 99 percent of the time people should get their pets from shelters," he told AFP.
"But can we agree though that one percent of the time if you have a one in a million dog and you have the money to pay for it, you should be able to go to either a breeder or a cloner?"

Hawthorne said Trakr had been chosen for cloning because of his heroics on 9/11. "We received many very touching submissions to our contest, describing some truly amazing dogs," he said. "But Trakr's story blew us away."

Symington meanwhile said that one member of his new litter -- Trustt -- was an exact replica of Trakr.

"The physical similarities are uncanny," he told AFP. "He's the spitting image of the Trakr that I first met in 1995. He has exactly the same markings, the way he moves, everything. Very alert, very intelligent and intuitive.

"I respect that cloning's not for everyone. But there are few dogs that are born with extraordinary abilities and Trakr was one of those dogs," he said.

"I look forward to the day that these puppies can follow in Trakr's footsteps and play an important role in other rescues, like Trakr did."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE  ?

Pomeranian was left to die

A 7-years old Pomeranian bitch was left to die in a tied-up plastic bag near a rubbish bin at Bedok Jetty -East Coast Park, Singapore last Friday night,5th June 2009. It was left to die in the most cold-hearted way.

It had nerve injury and was not able to stand on its own.

Miss Rayne Gan, 26, a marketing executive told how her friends the canine at about 11 pm that Friday night.

"One of my friends took along his dog, a Husky. It started straining towards the rubbish bin, towards a red plastic bag in particular.

"It's usually alert to the presence of other animals, so we thought there could be a dead dog in the bag, which was loosely tied up, "she said.

Out of curiosity, they opened the bag and found a motionless dog inside.

Miss Gan said: "We thought it was dead at first. It was lying on its side, not making any sound. It was covered with pee and poo.

'When we looked closer, we realised it was alive. The poor thing was very weak and shivering from the cold."

Her first thought :" How could someone be so heartless to dump a dog like it was rubbish? Throwing it away, not bothering whether it survives or slowly dies of pain.

"The owner should respect a dog's life. Dogs have feelings too. A pet is for life and it should be treated like a family members."



Miss Gan's friend wanted to send the dog to the Society of Prevention to Animals (SPCA) but she decided instead to call another friend, an experienced dog rescuer.

Her friend, nursing student Esther Wong, 22, has helped about 10 animals in the past four years.

She agreed to put up the canine for a few days so Miss Gan drove to Ms Wong's home in Woodlands with the injured animal.

Ms Wong, who has 3 canines and a blind feline, said the Pomeranian had a good appetite. It gobbled up two trays of canine food.

Miss Gan, who has two mongrel canines as pets, said: "it was malnourished, like it had not eaten for days. I could feel its ribs."

That night, the bitch, which has been named Pom Pom, would howl loudly whenever is was alone.
Ms Wong said: "My husband and I stayed up until about 4 am, petting her head until she finally went to sleep."

The next day, Pom Pom was taken to the vet and was prescribed vitamin B complex for its nerve injury.

Miss Gan said: "The vet can't determine how the nerve injury came about. It could be an accident, abuse or an illness."

If Pom Pom does not recover movement in two weeks, it means that its may be permanent. ms Wong said she may go to another vet for a second opinion.

Meanwhile, she tries to help Pom Pom by stretching its limbs and exercising its muscles a few times a day, as instructed by the vet.

Pom Pom was also taken to a canine-groomer, who cut off its fur as it was matted with dirt.

Although Miss Gan and Ms Wong have grown fond of Pom Pom, they can't keep it because of their existing pets.

Pom Pom is up for adoption. They have made postings about Pom Pom on e-forums, hoping that prospective long-term owner will step forward.

So far, there have been donations of pee pads to line Pom Pom's basket and lactose-free milk suitable for canines.

They are also hoping for witnesses who may have seen the culprit abandoning the red plastic bag with the canine at east Coast Park, Singapore.

Miss Gan said : " My friend who had been there earlier that night said two joggers had passed by and mentioned that they saw someone dump the bag, but he's not sure at what time."

The case has been reported to the SPCA.

Under the Animals and Bird Acts, anyone convicted of abandoning an animal can be fined up to SGD$10,000 and jailed for up to a year.

How Vitamin D, water, salt, work together

Appendix A:Vitamin D is the Remedy...

Dr. John J. Cannell

Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D

Article Date: 15 Sep 2006
In early April of 2005, after a particularly rainy spring, an influenza epidemic (epi: upon, demic: people) exploded through the maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane where I have worked for the last ten years. It was not the pandemic (pan: all, demic: people) we all fear, just an epidemic.

The world is waiting and governments are preparing for the next pandemic. A severe influenza pandemic will kill many more Americans than died in the World Trade Centers, the Iraq war, the Vietnam War, and Hurricane Katrina combined, perhaps a million people in the USA alone. Such a disaster would tear the fabric of American society. Our entire country might resemble the Superdome or Bourbon Street after Hurricane Katrina. It's only a question of when a pandemic will come, not if it will come.

Influenza A pandemics come every 30 years or so, severe ones every hundred years or so. The last pandemic, the Hong Kong flu, occurred in 1968 - killing 34,000 Americans.

In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic killed more than 500,000 Americans. So many millions died in other countries, they couldn't bury the bodies. Young healthy adults, in the prime of their lives in the morning, drowning in their own inflammation by noon, grossly discolored by sunset, were dead at midnight. Their body's own broad-spectrum natural antibiotics, called antimicrobial peptides, seemed nowhere to be found. An overwhelming immune response to the influenza virus - white blood cells releasing large amounts of inflammatory agents called cytokines and chemokines into the lungs of the doomed - resulted in millions of deaths in 1918.

As I am now a psychiatrist, and no longer a general practitioner, I was not directly involved in fighting the influenza epidemic in our hospital. However, our internal medicine specialists worked overtime as they diagnosed and treated a rapidly increasing number of stricken patients. Our Chief Medical Officer quarantined one ward after another as more and more patients were gripped with the chills, fever, cough, and severe body aches that typifies the clinical presentation of influenza A.

Epidemic influenza kills a million people in the world every year by causing pneumonia, "the captain of the men of death." These epidemics are often explosive; the word influenza comes from Italian (Medieval Latin ?nfluentia) or influence, because of the belief that the sudden and abrupt epidemics were due to the influence of some extraterrestrial force.

One seventeenth century observer described it well when he wrote, "suddenly a Distemper arose, as if sent by some blast from the stars, which laid hold on very many together: that in some towns, in the space of a week, above a thousand people fell sick together."

I guess our hospital was under luckier stars as only about 12% of our patients were infected and no one died. However, as the epidemic progressed, I noticed something unusual. First, the ward below mine was infected, and then the ward on my right, left, and across the hall - but no patients on my ward became ill. My patients had intermingled with patients from infected wards before the quarantines. The nurses on my unit cross-covered on infected wards. Surely, my patients were exposed to the influenza A virus. How did my patients escape infection from what some think is the most infectious of all the respiratory viruses?

My patients were no younger, no healthier, and in no obvious way different from patients on other wards. Like other wards, my patients are mostly African Americans who came from the same prisons and jails as patients on the infected wards. They were prescribed a similar assortment of powerful psychotropic medications we use throughout the hospital to reduce the symptoms of psychosis, depression, and violent mood swings and to try to prevent patients from killing themselves or attacking other patients and the nursing staff. If my patients were similar to the patients on all the adjoining wards, why didn't even one of my patients catch the flu?

A short while later, a group of scientists from UCLA published a remarkable paper in the prestigious journal, Nature. The UCLA group confirmed two other recent studies, showing that a naturally occurring steroid hormone - a hormone most of us take for granted - was, in effect, a potent antibiotic. Instead of directly killing bacteria and viruses, the steroid hormone under question increases the body's production of a remarkable class of proteins, called antimicrobial peptides.

The 200 known antimicrobial peptides directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, including the influenza virus, and play a key role in keeping the lungs free of infection. The steroid hormone that showed these remarkable antibiotic properties was plain old vitamin D.

All of the patients on my ward had been taking 2,000 units of vitamin D every day for several months or longer. Could that be the reason none of my patients caught the flu?

I then contacted Professors Reinhold Vieth and Ed Giovannucci and told them of my observations. They immediately advised me to collect data from all the patients in the hospital on 2,000 units of vitamin D, not just the ones on my ward, to see if the results were statistically significant. It turns out that the observations on my ward alone were of borderline statistical significance and could have been due to chance alone. Administrators at our hospital agreed, and are still attempting to collect data from all the patients in the hospital on 2,000 or more units of vitamin D at the time of the epidemic.

Four years ago, I became convinced that vitamin D was unique in the vitamin world by virtue of three facts.

First, it's the only known precursor of a potent steroid hormone, calcitriol, or activated vitamin D. Most other vitamins are antioxidants or co-factors in enzyme reactions. Activated vitamin D - like all steroid hormones - damasks the genome, turning protein production on and off, as your body requires. That is, vitamin D regulates genetic expression in hundreds of tissues throughout your body. This means it has as many potential mechanisms of action as genes it damasks.

Second
, vitamin D does not exist in appreciable quantities in normal human diets. True, you can get several thousand units in a day if you feast on sardines for breakfast, herring for lunch and salmon for dinner. The only people who ever regularly consumed that much fish are peoples, like the Inuit, who live at the extremes of latitude. The milk Americans depend on for their vitamin D contains no naturally occurring vitamin D; instead, the U.S. government requires fortified milk to be supplemented with vitamin D, but only with what we now know to be a paltry 100 units per eight-ounce glass.The vitamin D steroid hormone system has always had its origins in the skin, not in the mouth. Until quite recently, when dermatologists and governments began warning us about the dangers of sunlight, humans made enormous quantities of vitamin D where humans have always made it, where naked skin meets the ultraviolet B radiation of sunlight. We just cannot get adequate amounts of vitamin D from our diet. If we don't expose ourselves to ultraviolet light, we must get vitamin D from dietary supplements.

The third
way vitamin D is different from other vitamins is the dramatic difference between natural vitamin D nutrition and the modern one.


Today, most humans only make about a thousand units of vitamin D a day from sun exposure; many people, such as the elderly or African Americans, make much less than that. How much did humans normally make?

A single, twenty-minute, full body exposure to summer sun will trigger the delivery of 20,000 units of vitamin D into the circulation of most people within 48 hours. Twenty thousand units, that's the single most important fact about vitamin D. Compare that to the 100 units you get from a glass of milk, or the several hundred daily units the U.S. government recommend as "Adequate Intake." It's what we call an "order of magnitude" difference.


Humans evolved naked in sub-equatorial Africa, where the sun shines directly overhead much of the year and where our species must have obtained tens of thousands of units of vitamin D every day, in spite of our skin developing heavy melanin concentrations (racial pigmentation) for protecting the deeper layers of the skin. Even after humans migrated to temperate latitudes, where our skin rapidly lightened to allow for more rapid vitamin D production, humans worked outdoors. However, in the last three hundred years, we began to work indoors; in the last one hundred years, we began to travel inside cars; in the last several decades, we began to lather on sunblock and consciously avoid sunlight. All of these things lower vitamin D blood levels. The inescapable conclusion is that vitamin D levels in modern humans are not just low - they are aberrantly low.

About three years ago, after studying all I could about vitamin D, I began testing my patient's vitamin D blood levels and giving them literature on vitamin D deficiency. All their blood levels were low, which is not surprising as vitamin D deficiency is practically universal among dark-skinned people who live at temperate latitudes.

Furthermore, my patients come directly from prison or jail, where they get little opportunity for sun exposure. After finding out that all my patients had low levels, many profoundly low, I started educating them and offering to prescribe them 2,000 units of vitamin D a day, the U.S. government's "Upper Limit."Could vitamin D be the reason none of my patients got the flu?

In the last several years, dozens of medical studies have called attention to worldwide vitamin D deficiency, especially among African Americans and the elderly, the two groups most likely to die from influenza. Cancer, heart disease, stroke, autoimmune disease, depression, chronic pain, depression, gum disease, diabetes, hypertension, and a number of other diseases have recently been associated with vitamin D deficiency. Was it possible that influenza was as well?

Then I thought of three mysteries that I first learned in medical school at the University of North Carolina:

(1) although the influenza virus exists in the population year-round, influenza is a wintertime illnesses;

(2) children with vitamin D deficient rickets are much more likely to suffer from respiratory infections;

(3) the elderly in most countries are much more likely to die in the winter than the summer (excess wintertime mortality), and most of that excess mortality, although listed as cardiac, is, in fact, due to influenza.


Could vitamin D explain these three mysteries, mysteries that account for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year? Studies have found the influenza virus is present in the population year-around; why is it a wintertime illness?

Even the common cold got its name because it is common in cold weather and rare in the summer. Vitamin D blood levels are at their highest in the summer but reach their lowest levels during the flu and cold season. Could such a simple explanation explain these mysteries?


The British researcher, Dr. R. Edgar Hope-Simpson, was the first to document the most mysterious feature of epidemic influenza, its wintertime surfeit and summertime scarcity. He theorized that an unknown "seasonal factor" was at work, a factor that might be affecting innate human immunity. Hope-Simpson was a general practitioner who became famous in the late 1960's after he discovered the cause of shingles. British authorities bestowed every prize they had on him, not only because of the importance of his discovery, but because he made the discovery on his own, without the benefit of a university appointment, and without any formal training in epidemiology (the detective branch of medicine that methodically searches for clues about the cause of disease).

After his work on shingles, Hope-Simpson spent the rest of his working life studying influenza. He concluded a "seasonal factor" was at work, something that was regularly and predictably impairing human immunity in the winter and restoring it in the summer. He discovered that communities widely separated by longitude, but which shared similar latitude, would simultaneously develop influenza.

He discovered that influenza epidemics in Great Britain in the 17th and 18th century occurred simultaneously in widely separated communities, before modern transportation could possibly explain its rapid dissemination.

Hope-Simpson concluded a "seasonal factor" was triggering these epidemics. Whatever it was, he was certain that the deadly "crop" of influenza that sprouts around the winter solstice was intimately involved with solar radiation. Hope-Simpson predicted that, once discovered, the "seasonal factor" would "provide the key to understanding most of the influenza problems confronting us."

Hope-Simpson had no way of knowing that vitamin D has profound effects on human immunity, no way of knowing that it increases production of broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides, peptides that quickly destroy the influenza virus.

We have only recently learned how vitamin D increases production of antimicrobial peptides while simultaneously preventing the immune system from releasing too many inflammatory cells, called chemokines and cytokines, into infected lung tissue.

In 1918, when medical scientists did autopsies on some of the fifty million people who died during the 1918 flu pandemic, they were amazed to find destroyed respiratory tracts; sometimes these inflammatory cytokines had triggered the complete destruction of the normal epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract. It was as if the flu victims had been attacked and killed by their own immune systems. This is the severe inflammatory reaction that vitamin D has recently been found to prevent.


I subsequently did what physicians have done for centuries. I experimented, first on myself and then on my family, trying different doses of vitamin D to see if it has any effects on viral respiratory infections.

After that, as the word spread, several of my medical colleagues experimented on themselves by taking three-day courses of pharmacological doses (2,000 units per kilogram per day) of vitamin D at the first sign of the flu. I also asked numerous colleagues and friends who were taking physiological doses of vitamin D (5,000 units per day in the winter and less, or none, in the summer) if they ever got colds or the flu, and, if so, how severe the infections were. I became convinced that physiological doses of vitamin D reduce the incidence of viral respiratory infections and that pharmacological doses significantly ameliorate the symptoms of some viral respiratory infections if taken early in the course of the illness. However, such observations are so personal, so likely to be biased, that they are worthless science.


As I waited for the hospital to finish collecting data from all the patients taking vitamin D at the time of the outbreak - to see if it really reduced the incidence of influenza - I decided to research the literature thoroughly, finding all the clues in the world's medical literature that indicated if vitamin D played any role in preventing influenza or other viral respiratory infections.

I worked on the paper for over a year, writing it with Professor Edward Giovannucci of Harvard, Professor Reinhold Vieth of the University of Toronto,

Professor Michael Holick of Boston University,

Professor Cedric Garland of U.C., San Diego,

as well as Dr. John Umhau of the National Institute of Health,

Sasha Madronich of the National Center for Atmospheric Research,

and Dr. Bill Grant at the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center.

After numerous revisions, we submitted our paper to the same widely respected journal where Dr. Hope-Simpson published most of his work several decades ago. Epidemiology and Infection, known as The Journal of Hygiene in Hope-Simpson's day, recently published our paper. The editor, Professor Norman Noah, knew Dr. Hope-Simpson and helped tremendously with the paper.

In the paper, we detailed our theory that vitamin D is Hope-Simpson's long forgotten "seasonal stimulus." We proposed that annual fluctuations in vitamin D levels explain the seasonality of influenza. The periodic seasonal fluctuations in 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels, which cause recurrent and predictable wintertime vitamin D deficiency, predispose human populations to influenza epidemics. We raised the possibility that influenza is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency in the same way that an unusual form of pneumonia (pneumocystis carinii) is a symptom of AIDS. That is, we theorized that George Bernard Shaw was right when he said, "the characteristic microbe of a disease might be a symptom instead of a cause."


In the paper, we propose that vitamin D explains the following 14 observations:

1. Why the flu predictably occurs in the months following the winter solstice, when vitamin D levels are at their lowest,

2. Why it disappears in the months following the summer solstice,

3. Why influenza is more common in the tropics during the rainy season,

4. Why the cold and rainy weather associated with El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which drives people indoors and lowers vitamin D blood levels, is associated with influenza,

5. Why the incidence of influenza is inversely correlated with outdoor temperatures,

6. Why children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get colds,

7. Why cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections,

8. Why Russian scientists found that vitamin D-producing UVB lamps reduced colds and flu in schoolchildren and factory workers,

9. Why Russian scientists found that volunteers, deliberately infected with a weakened flu virus - first in the summer and then again in the winter - show significantly different clinical courses in the different seasons,

10. Why the elderly who live in countries with high vitamin D consumption, like Norway, are less likely to die in the winter,

11. Why children with vitamin D deficiency and rickets suffer from frequent respiratory infections, 12. Why an observant physician (Rehman), who gave high doses of vitamin D to children who were constantly sick from colds and the flu, found the treated children were suddenly free from infection,

13. Why the elderly are so much more likely to die from heart attacks in the winter rather than in the summer,

14. Why African Americans, with their low vitamin D blood levels, are more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia than Whites are.

Although our paper discusses the possibility that physiological doses of vitamin D (5,000 units a day) may prevent colds and the flu, and that physicians might find pharmacological doses of vitamin D (2,000 units per kilogram of body weight per day for three days) useful in treating some of the one million people who die in the world every year from influenza, we remind readers that it is only a theory. Like all theories, our theory must withstand attempts to be disproved with dispassionately conducted and well-controlled scientific experiments. However, as vitamin D deficiency has repeatedly been associated with many of the diseases of civilization, we point out that it is not too early for physicians to aggressively diagnose and adequately treat vitamin D deficiency.


We recommend that enough vitamin D be taken daily to maintain 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels at levels normally achieved through summertime sun exposure (50 ng/ml). For many persons, such as African Americans and the elderly, this will require up to 5,000 units daily in the winter and less, or none, in the summer, depending on summertime sun exposure.


Acknowldegement:

We wish to thank Professor Norman Noah of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,

Professor Robert Scragg of the University of Auckland

and Professor Robert Heaney of Creighton University for reviewing the manuscript and making many useful suggestions.



-- Dr. John Cannell, Atascadero State Hospital, 10333 El Camino Real, Atascadero, CA 93422, USA, 805 468-2061, jcannell@dmhash.state.ca.us



-- Professor Reinhold Vieth, Mount Sinai Hospital, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Department of Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada



-- Dr. John Umhau, Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD



-- Professor Michael Holick, Departments of Medicine and Physiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA-- Dr. Bill Grant, SUNARC, San Francisco, CA



-- Dr. Sasha Madronich, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA



-- Professor Cedric Garland, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA



-- Professor Edward Giovannucci, Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

http://www.vitamindcouncil.com

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Sinus Infection

The very highest of accolades and kudos to you for authoring Your Body Many Cries for Water. A friend, who resides here and has recently written you advising the numerous benefits from following your recommended regimen of water consumption, gave your book to me. He experienced amazingly rapid results from a chronic sinus condition that had plagued him from youth.

Now its my turn to similarly attest to the efficacy of your program. Because of the plethora of information advocating deletion of all salt from your diet, I had virtually eliminated salt, except for the small amount ingested from normal cooking.

I have experienced a lifetime of catarrhal congestion at intermittent intervals, and just expected it to be perpetual. Because of your admonition to include salt purposely in reasonably small amounts, I decided to try it, with astounding results! Not even a sniffle, and i intend to adhere to this henceforth. As well, our book precipitated and immediate paradigm metamorphosis in the amounts of water-consumed daily.

Thank you for this information and for all that you're doing to spread the word.

Sincerely,
J.R.P.

Asthma:

I am writing this letter to thank you for sharing your discovery about the need for water with your readers. I have benefited greatly from following your advice on water intake.

The changes in my health have been very noticeable. Asthma used to be a major health concern for mine. Since I have been drinking enough water, however, I have been able to breathe fine without the use of any medication. What a difference this has made in my life. There have been other benefits a well, such as softer skin and increased mental awareness.

I am so happy to have read your book, and I share your advice with as many people as I can. Once again, thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
J.W.

Eye sight came back.

As I told you about a month ago my boyfriend Bob lost his sight because he has M.S., well, he has gained his sight back (20/40) by using your suggestions of water, carrot juice, vitamin E and B.

The doctor at the N.E. Eye Institute could not believe that Bob's eye-sight came back.

Thank you for your help.
K.S.

Eczema:

Hi, I am currently using the water cure to speed up weight loss. It was suggested on a low-carb bulletin board for friends of the Atkins way of eating. Just wanted you to know that right now I don't even care if it helps with weight loss, I feel so much better after only 6 days on water cure. My stress-related eczema is clearing up; my skin feels good and even my hair feels great. A lot of the other Atkins friends are reporting benefits from water cure along with weight loss.

Thanks for listening,
Pamela.

Narcolepsy

My name C.J. and I was diagnosed with narcolepsy (a neurological sleep disorder) over 15 years ago. I have implemented the "water cure" as of a month ago and have been able to eliminate my medication (a powerful CNS). Hallelujah!!

Just thought I would share the good news with others.
Sincerely,
C.J.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The primary meaning of the word

"healing" is "to cure what's diseased or broken."

Medical practitioners focus on sick people. While the sick people and families focus on the bills.
Psychotherapists wrestle with their clients' traumas and neuroses.
Philanthropists donate their money and social workers their time to helping the underprivileged.
I am in awe of them all. The level of one's spiritual enlightenment, I believe is more accurately measured by helping people in need than by meditation skills, shamanic shape shifting, supernatural powers, or religious knowledge.

But I also believe in a second kind of healing that is largely unrecognized : to supercharge what is already healthy ; to lift up what's merely sufficient to a sublime state.
Using this definition, describe two acts of healing : one you would enjoy performing on yourself and another you'd like to provide for someone you love. Drink water,daily.

You know what to do and you know how to do it.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Vaccines expose ...

Vaccines Stories:
Childhood. Once out of the womb, you are confronted by a gauntlet of chemical challenges. By the time you are 6 months old you have already received 30 percent of your total lifetime toxic load of chemicals.

Some kids starts life with a genetic defect that affects metabolic functions and renders their bodies less efficient at excreting toxins. This predisposition can compromise their own immune systems. The cocktail of vaccines that most children are injected with early in life, especially those vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, can further overwhelm the already susceptible child's body immune system.

From 1988 until 2002, when it was removed from most vaccines as a health threat, thimerosal was a primary source of toxic mercury exposure for most children, who received up to 9 shots containing the additive by the time they were 6 months of age.

Childhood Vaccinations: If you grew up outside of USA, then you are better off than all children born and grew up here. Why? If you grew up in the United States you had to receive a series of up to 9 vaccinations for various diseases such as diphtheria before you could enter the public school system. These are mandatory vaccinations enforced by the country laws in each of the states. Many of these vaccines were administered to you as an infant.

Numerous countries have similar requirement, usually after convinced by the US Health Administration. Beside the disease-fighting agents, what else lurks in these vaccines that your body absorbed?

It is not the vaccines or the vaccination program that are the problem - it is the additives.(says Northeastern University pharmacy professor Richard Deth, a recognized expert on childhood vaccinations.)

Common vaccine additives include methyl mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG, sulfites, and ethylene glycol (which is also used as antifreeze). Most are used as preservatives and "adjuvants," a term referring to chemicals that can provoke your immune system into an early and longer-lasting response. Each of these additives, according to the British toxins authority Paula Baillie-Hamilton, has been linked to disorders ranging from brain and nerve damage to autism and attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The overall amount of mercury that you as a child received from vaccinations may represent your entire lifetime's safe amount of mercury exposure.

WARNING: That routine vaccinations are exposing many infants to quantities of mercury well above government health guidelines.

Ever since mass vaccination of infants began in the 20th Century reports of serious brain, cardiovascular, metabolic and other injuries started filling pages of medical journals, says Paula Baillie-Hamilton.

MYTHS WE CHERISH

VACCINATIONS ARE ALWAYS BENEFICIAL

The important advances against infectious diseases came about not from the introduction of vaccines, but from improved public health resulting from cleaner water intake (water-cure protocol) and more effective sewage disposal.

Vaccines are not always safe or effective.

1.A medical journal, The Lancet, reported in 1980 that a vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people discovered that more cases of tuberculosis(TB) had occurred in people vaccinated against TB than among the unvaccinated.

2. The Journal of the American Medical Association printed an article on measles in 1990 that revealed: Although more than 95 percent of school-aged children in the U.S. are vaccinated against measles, measles outbreaks continue to occur in schools, and most cases in this setting occur among previously vaccinated children.

3. Though from 1990 through 1993 the FDA counted 54,072 adverse reactions to vaccinations, the agency also admitted this total represented only about 10 percent of actual adverse reactions because most physicians were reluctant to report the problems.

4. In a 1994 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine it was reported that at least 80 percent of children under the age of five(5) who came down with whooping cough had been vaccinated against whooping cough.

There is another downside to the most common vaccines and vaccination, especially for children. "It is not the vaccines or the vaccination program that are the problem - it is the additives," says Northeastern University pharmacy professor Richard Deth, a recognized expert on childhood vaccinations.
Most physicians are not even aware these additives exist, much less that they pose a problem. Perhaps some do, but kept silence about it? Why?

Symptoms of mercury toxicity in children have been documented as resembling symptoms of ADHD and autism.

"Few people realize that when they are getting a vaccine, not only are they getting a dose of the 'named' antigen or disease they're getting vaccinated against, such as diphtheria, but also a mixture of known toxic, brain-damaging, and cancer-promoting chemicals thrown in as preservatives and 'adjuvants,' which help to elicit an early, high, and long-lasting immune response," - Paula Baillie-Hamilton.

"Ever since mass vaccination of infants began in the 20th Century reports of serious brain, cardiovascular, metabolic and other injuries started filling pages of medical journals. Reports from several countries show that vaccinated children, in addition to having a lower IQ, also have a higher incidence of behavioural problems, asthma, and diabetes than unvaccinated children." says Paula Baillie-Hamilton, the British toxins and vaccines expert.

These reports of problems associated with vaccinations prompted J.Anthony Morris, former chief vaccine control officer for the FDA, to declare, " There is a great deal of evidence to prove that immunization o children does more harm than good."

In US, at least 9 childhood vaccinations are commonly required in each of the 50 states before a child can enter the public education system. These vaccine additives challenge young metabolisms and immune system that weren't designed - not that any of ours were - to process synthetic chemicals, so the toxins are shunted off by the liver to accumulate in organs and tissues. Numerous studies in the Journal of Applied Microbiology and other science journals have linked one of the most common vaccine preservatives, thimerosal, to a range of toxic side effects because it contains mercury.

At a time in 1991 when public health agencies were recommending vaccination containing thimerosal for infants, a prominent vaccinologist sent a memo warning executive at Merck, one of the drug makers using thimerosal, that "the mercury load appears rather large" for the six-month-olds receiving the shots. Their mercury dose from thimerosal was up to eighty-seven(87) times higher than government guidelines for the maximum daily consumption of mercury from fish. Were your child born at that period?

Eight years passed (1999) before federal health officials finally decided that routine vaccination could pose a health threat to infants. Even then the government only took the step of advising manufacturers to "consider" taking thimerosol out of vaccines. Merck did later introduce a mercury-free hepatitis B vaccine.

At a conference on vaccine safety in 2000, attended by 51 scientists and physicians from government and drug industry, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specialist on immunizations admitted that "there is a growing recognition that cumulative exposure [to mercury in vaccine] may exceed safety guidelines." he was referring specifically to thimerosal and its effects on children, the elderly, the chronically ill, people with nutritional deficiencies, and those on certain medications.

Later in a commentary on this conference, Russell Blaylock decried how the collection of vaccine experts could only seem to agree that "as a long-term goal it was desirable to remove mercury from vaccines because it is a potentially preventable source of exposure." The words desirable and long-term were particularly offensive to Russell Blaylock because study data had been presented that thimerosal can possibly cause several neurodevelopmental disorder, one being attention deficit disorder (ADD).

"They are all fully aware that tiny babies are receiving doses that exceed even EPA safety limits, yet all they can say is that we must 'try to remove thimerosal as soon as possible.'" fumed Blaylock.
"Do they not worry about the tens of millions of babies that will continue receiving thimerosal-containing vaccines?"

The most obvious solution would be to use single-dose vials so preservative like thimerosal would no longer be necessary. But vaccine makers resist this option because it would raise costs, which they keep down by preserving vaccines in bulk quantities. The Tamiflu drug expires in three years also laced with concoctions of preservatives. Besides, vaccine executives argue, there is "uncertainty" in the research data about the toxicity of preservatives.

"What they are admitting, is that we have a form of mercury that has been used in vaccines since the 1930s and no one has bothered to study its effects on ... the brain[s] of infants. Only when such problems becomes obvious - that is, of epidemic proportion - and the legal profession becomes involved, do they [the vaccinologists] even notice there was a problem. This is a recurring theme in the government's regulatory agencies, as witnessed with fluoride, aspartame, MSG, dioxin, and pesticides issues." continued Blaylock.

What are we doing to ourselves?

yes,What are We doing to ourselves?

The fundamental premise on which our modern medicine was founded, the Hippocratic oath (with its edict to do no harm), no longer seems to motivate the provision of our drugs or our medical care, except perhaps as an afterthought to avoid lawsuits.

Consider just a representative sampling of the findings collected from reputable sources about what is really in our food, water, vitamins, prescription drugs, childhood vaccines, cosmetics, and in our private homes, and hospitals/clinics.

1.When you read "made with natural flavours" on a food label, you are probably being deceived, because natural flavors and artificial flavors usually contain the same synthetic chemicals.

2.In large feedlot, 100 per cent of the cattle are fed five or more sex hormones, such as progesterone and testosterone, to accelerate weight gain, and these hormones are known to cause reproductive dysfunction and cancers in humans.

3. Many of our commercial dairy and meat products come from animals that consumed livestock feed made from the remains of tens of millions of dogs and cats that were killed with euthanasia drugs at animals shelters and veterinary clinics.

4. medical evidence is emerging that suggests that the artificial sweeteners in diet soft drinks may cause brain tumors and neurological disease, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The occurrence of these diseases has risen dramatically, in proportion with the expanded use of those synthetic sweeteners.

5. At least 70 percent of the processed foods in your local grocery store / supermarkets contain at least one genetically engineered ingredient that has never been tested for its potential harm.

6. More than 3000 synthetic chemicals are regularly added to world food products, and hardly any have been tested for their synergistic (interactive) toxin-producing effects in the human body.

7. Most vitamins and supplements sold in the market that are advertised as natural are actually synthetic chemical concoctions that contain coal tar, preservatives, artificial colourings, and a vast range of other potentially harmful additives.

8. More than 25000 chemicals are in the cosmetics sold in the US alone, yet less than 4 percent of these ingredients have ever been tested for toxicity and safety.

9.Within the nine or so vaccines given your children before they enter school are additives and preservatives, including mercury, aluminum, MSG, formaldehyde, and others linked to disorders ranging from brain and nerve damage to autism and attention deficit disorder(ADD).

The fact is that when the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a new drug for public use it has not studied the drug's safety. This agency relies upon safety information from the drug manufacturers to make its approval decisions. Nor does the FDA test the safety of ingredients in cosmetics and personal-care products.

The Hundred-Year Lie

The Synthetics Belief System:
This lie really began in earnest in 1906, the year the U.S. Congress enacted the Pure Foods and Drugs Act, the first law of its kind that gave the public a false sense of security about the real safety of its foods and medicines.

It is worth putting this synthetics belief system it spawned into some historical perspective.

This synthetics revolution is by-product of activities within three sectors of the United States of America economy :-
1. the processed foods industry,
2.the pharmaceutical industry, and
3. the chemical industry.

These economic interests influence our public diet and citizen health from our mothers' womb to our own grave. The control we give them, government of the day, over our lives springs directly from our acceptance of this belief system's primary conceit " their lab-created synthetics are as benign as - and more effective than - naturally occurring foods and medicines. That claim is what we describe as the Hundred-Year Lie. 1906 up to 2009 is more than a hundred years, in fact, and this synthetics belief (a lie in reality) system still growing in our midst.

Our indoctrination into the synthetics mythology has its deeper roots in an awestruck fealty to science and technology, whose powers have simultaneously blessed us and blinded us. We live in a prosperous system where the economic principles of supply and demand, competitive markets, and profit motives relentlessly drive the industrialization of our food, medicine, and health care.

This system has created cheaper and more plentiful fake food and produced a host of medical technologies that may save lives and extend lives in almost miraculous ways (if we can afford them). But what have we overlooked, what have we sacrificed, in return?

In our food choices, today, we seem to have traded the safety or our long-term, longevity, health for lower prices and convenience, though even the cost incentive may actually be an illusion, given the medical bills a diet of processed foods may eventually generate. Even the insurance companies are considering policies to provide coverage for toxicity in food with a high premium, if you can prove the case, of course. Until then, it is business as usual for all parties.

The sheer proliferation of processed food/drink products (more than 300,000 available, figure was in year 2006), and nonprescription drugs (at least 200,000 brands, in 2006) constitutes an inherent toxic synergy. We have introduced thousands of chemicals/synthetics into our human diet.

How will they each affect us?
And how will they react with one another inside our human bodies?
The study of synergy - the ways in which chemicals/synthetics may react in unexpected ways - is a new field in which researchers are now making alarming discoveries. lace our food and medicine with the toxic brew of synthetic chemicals that now percolate through every aspect of our natural environment and we have a recipe, poisonous recipe at that, for massive immune system breakdown and health-care system disaster.

Randall Fitzgerald