For the past 60 years, saturated fat and cholesterol have been wrongfully vilified as the culprits of heart disease. Refined carbs, sugar, and trans fats found in processed foods are the real enemy—not the saturated fats found in foods such as butter, lard, or eggs. Butter, especially raw butter from grass-fed cows, is rich in beneficial nutrients including vitamins, trace minerals, CLA, and beneficial fats.
Kristina Bravo of Takepart.com is reporting that the State of Oregon is trying to take action to map GMO fields to protect their non-GMO and organic industry. Oregon has been hit especially hard in this area, as an Oregon farmer last year found an unapproved GMO variety of wheat growing in his field. This immediately resulted in several countries around the world that import U.S. wheat putting a halt on U.S. shipments due to their total ban on GMO wheat, hurting the export market for non-GMO wheat, such as the varieties grown in Oregon and Washington. Most of the world market has restrictions or out right bans on GMO products. Gov. John Kitzhaber is directing the State’s agriculture department to chart where genetically modified crops are grown, so non-GMO farmers can plan accordingly and seek to minimize the damage from cross contamination. However, producers of GMO seeds such as Monsanto and Syngenta do not publicly disclose their field locations. These companies repeat the USDA assertion that GMO farmers and non-GMO farmers can "co-exist" and that mapping is not necessary. Polls show that an overwhelming majority of American consumers want GMO products labeled, and producers of GMO products fully understand that if their products are labeled as GMO in the market place, consumers will not buy them. In addition, most of the rest of the world will not import them. Apparently the U.S. Government and the Biotech industry have taken it upon themselves to decide what is best for America and the rest of the world, and have no qualms with polluting the entire U.S. agricultural system with their genetically modified products.
The U.S. House of Representatives is voting on the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act of 2014 (H.R.1281), which would extend for five years the funding program that allows states to collect and store newborn DNA without parental consent. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA-40) is purportedly meant to improve health for newborns and children by allowing for detection of potentially life- and health-threatening genetic conditions. But Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org), a Minnesota-based national organization dedicated to preserving patient-centered health care and protecting patient and privacy rights, says the legislation is a back-door effort to bypass parental rights, collect and store newborn DNA and expand government access to the genetic code of Americans. “In the name of public health, this legislation continues a program that strips parents of their right to have a say in who holds their child’s genetic code, strips children of their privacy and property rights, and institutionalizes national data-sharing among federal and state governments,” said CCHF co-founder and president Twila Brase. “It’s one thing for newborn blood samples to be tested for a specific set of newborn genetic conditions; it’s entirely another for the government to grant itself the right to store that data and those DNA samples indefinitely, to use them for genetic research without parental knowledge or consent, and to place virtual tracking devices on every child by following their health history into adolescence. Yet, these are exactly what this bill does.”
As we have frequently reported here at Health Impact News, the federal war against raw milk is NOT over food safety, but over the economic threat to Big Dairy and their subsidized milk pools that go into processed food. When farmers bypass the system and market a premium product directly to the consumer, such as farm-fresh milk directly from a healthy cow, they are threatening the system. The FDA should have no jurisdiction at all at the state level in trying to regulate raw milk, but as Pete Kennedy writes below, they are influencing the Illinois Department of Public Health to restrict consumer's rights to purchase milk directly from the farm.
Bok choy contains powerful antioxidants like vitamins A and C and phytonutrients such as thiocyanates, lutein, zeaxanthin, isothiocyanates, and sulforaphane, which stimulate detoxifying enzymes and may protect against breast, colon, and prostate cancers.
As people around the country celebrate the homecoming of Justina Pelletier, who was held against her will and the desire of her parents for 16 months over a disagreement on medical treatment, a case in Chicago reminds us that her situation is representative of a larger movement across the country to take children away from parents for the purpose of “medical treatment”. NBC News in Chicago is reporting that Michelle Rider and her 16-year-old son, Isaiah Rider, traveled from Kansas City to Lurie Children’s Hospital after doctors in her hometown, Texas, and Boston were unable to effectively treat his neurofibromatosis — a painful condition that causes tumors to grow on his nerves. When Isaiah’s pain was reportedly not getting any better at Lurie’s, his mother attempted to have him transferred to another hospital. But doctors at Lurie’s Hospital reported to Cook County Court that Michelle was guilty of “medical child abuse”, as they disagreed with the course of treatment chosen by the mother. As a result, they seized custody of the child and put him into a foster home, allowing the mother to only be able to visit her son twice a week for one-hour supervised visits.
Nearly one third of adults have high blood pressure, or hypertension. A quarter of all prescribed medications are for high blood pressure and long-term use often leads to heart failure, heart attacks, and interference with calcium metabolism. If you are thinking of turning to herbal treatments for lowering your blood pressure, you have many options and there are many effective remedies at your disposal.
Longtime MMR vaccine advocate Dr. Gregory Poland now says the measles-containing MMR shot often fails to protect against measles and that recently reported measles outbreaks in highly vaccinated societies occurs primarily among those previously vaccinated. The MMR vaccine is unlikely to eradicate measles globally because even after two doses, nearly 10 percent of children do not have vaccine strain measles antibodies. Most Americans born before 1957 experienced measles and have naturally acquired immunity, which allowed women to pass antibodies on to their babies to protect them from measles during the first year of life. Things have definitely changed in the past 60 years. Because vaccine antibodies are different from naturally acquired measles antibodies, young vaccinated moms today cannot give longer lasting naturally acquired measles antibodies to their newborns. Vaccines simply do not confer the same kind of long lasting immunity that is obtained from experiencing and recovering from the natural disease. The MMR vaccine is not without risk, and doctors seldom warn of these risks. A documented serious side effect of vaccination, including smallpox, rabies, pertussis and MMR vaccine, is encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), which can lead to permanent brain damage. In 2012, the Italian Health Ministry conceded that the MMR vaccine caused autism in a now 11-year-old boy. The judge ruled the boy had "been damaged by irreversible complications due to vaccination (prophylaxis trivalent MMR)." Serious, permanent, and sometimes fatal reactions can and do occur, with more frequency than you might think.
Does the FDA have a legitimate concern when it comes to aging cheese on wooden boards? Is it true that they can’t be “adequately cleaned or sanitized?” Simply put, no. As thoroughly documented by the American Cheese Society, there are a number of effective ways that wooden boards can be safely cleaned. Some of “the most awarded and well-respected” American artisanal cheeses are aged on wooden boards, since it brings a richer, more complex flavor that can’t be duplicated when aged on other materials. In fact, many artisan cheese recipes are specifically formulated to be aged on wooden boards. This rule could have irreparably harmed thousands of small artisans and businesses. The business about wood boards is just an excuse, a distraction, from the issue at hand, which is the FDA’s determination to harass and even shutter as many artisanal cheese makers as it can. The FDA’s demand that artisanal cheese producers, which depend on friendly bacteria for the taste and nutritional benefits of their product, essentially create a sterile environment, isn’t unlike what’s happened to the rest of our society with a push for sterilization of food and the environment, all the way to the ever-present hand sanitizers. Unfortunately for small cheese producers, the only entities that can successfully produce cheese in a sterile environment are the corporate producers, whose cheese fewer and fewer people want.
One of the most exciting areas of research we have covered here at Health Impact News the past year has been regarding the high-fat ketogenic diet and how it can cure cancer. The ketogenic diet is not new. This high-fat low-carb diet was developed at John Hopkins Hospital in the 1920s for children suffering from epilepsy. They found that children who did not respond well to anti-seizure drugs often became seizure free after following a strict ketogenic diet. The diet is named after "ketones", which are an alternate source of energy supplied to the brain when the body reaches a state of "ketosis". One can generally reach a state of ketosis by fasting from all foods, but you can also experience the effects of ketosis by eating a diet high in fats with very few carbohydrates, limiting insulin production. Coconut oil is one the best fats to use in a ketogenic diet, as it leads to more rapid ketosis. Research shows the ketogenic diet literally starves cancer cells. This fact is becoming widely known, even in the medical community, as they look for ways to develop drugs to mimic the effects of the ketogenic diet. One of the reasons they want to develop drugs to replace the diet, is because the diet can be so "restrictive", and it is very difficult to break people's addiction to sugar and processed carbs. One does not have to wait for drugs to be developed, however, to start enjoying the benefits of a ketogenic diet. People who are following a ketogenic diet are beating cancer, reversing Alzheimer's disease, stopping seizures, beating diabetes, losing weight, and much more. In this video, Joe Mancaruso explains how he beat stage 4 lung cancer with a ketogenic diet, exercise, and positive living. He was given 6 months to live by the doctors, who wanted to put him on chemotherapy. Joe was already a survivor of testicular cancer from 1985. Since he supposedly only had 6 months to live, he decided he wanted a better quality of life during those 6 months than he would have had on chemotherapy and refused the drugs. Today, he is cancer free.
Over the past year, nearly 10 percent of the entire pig population in the US has been wiped out by a highly lethal virus. The virus, called Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), has been traced back to pig’s blood used in piglet feed to promote growth and enhance immune function. PED virus has traditionally been a relatively mild pathogen. Only recently did it suddenly evolve into a far more aggressive version—with a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent among affected animals. The factory farm system is NOT a system that ensures food safety and protects human health.
Beau Berman of FoxCT, the reporter who first broke the story of Justina Pelletier being held in a psychiatric ward at Boston Children's hospital against her will and the will of her family, sat down and interviewed Justina today in her own home (click link to watch). For the first time, the world is hearing Justina’s take on the custody battle that all began because of differing opinions about her medical condition. But now, she’s at home in her parents’ custody without any strings attached and she’s literally “home free”. Judge Joseph Johnston, the same judge who took Justina's custody away from her parents in February 2013, released her this week after much scrutiny and criticism from national media sources. The Massachusetts DCF was used by Boston Children’s Hospital to seize custody of Justina when she was 15 years old, due to a disagreement over treatment. Justina was being treated for mitochondrial disease, but new doctors were reportedly assigned to her case when she was admitted to Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and they said her diagnosis from Tufts Medical Center in Connecticut was incorrect, and that she was instead suffering from a psychiatric disorder. The parents disagreed and wanted to take her back to her original medical team, but the hospital took custody and locked her up in the psychiatric ward instead. Prior to Justina being admitted to BCH, she was leading a normal life and had even competed in an ice skating event. But under the care of Boston Children's hospital, separated from her family, her situation deteriorated quickly. Today, she is paralyzed from the waist down and will need significant rehabilitation.
Native to Brazil, cashews are crescent-shaped nuts with a sweet flavor and a plethora of uses in the kitchen. Considered third in consumption among all the tree nuts in the world, they're delicious in a wide variety of recipes. Cashews are the number one crop in the world (after almonds), cultivated in more than 30 countries and are a great mineral source, containing 31% of the daily recommended value for copper, along with 23% for manganese, 20% for magnesium and 17% for phosphorus,add to that 12% of the daily recommended value for vitamin K. What does this mean for the body? Studies show that magnesium helps diminish the frequency of migraines, improve cognitive ability, and also lowers blood pressure, which can prevent heart attacks. Copper contains antioxidants that render free radicals harmless. This protects against heart disease and cancer. Enzyme components like tyrosinase convert to the pigment melanin, which provides not just our skin and hair color, but protects our skin from UV damage. Magnesium works with copper to provide bone strength, and with melanin and elastin to provide joint flexibility, giving the nerves just the right tension.
Is your perfume or cologne controlling your behavior? Is it possible that you are addicted? Fragrances contain chemicals that have narcotic-like properties. The substances might not produce a traditional narcotic high, but they do cause dependency, which triggers the need for repeated use of the product to avoid the discomfort and irritability of withdrawal.
A landmark federal ruling that all qualified nutrition professionals—not just Registered Dietitians—may order therapeutic diets in hospitals, has leveled the playing field between nutrition professionals and Registered Dietitians. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) ruled that: “all patient diets, including therapeutic diets, must be ordered by a practitioner responsible for the care of the patient, or by a qualified dietitian or qualified nutrition professional as authorized by the medical staff and in accordance with State law.” The ruling adopts the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists’ (BCNS) formal recommendation to CMS that qualified nutrition professionals obtain any privileges granted to Registered Dietitians.
Hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid, is a very common problem, and there are many reasons for this, including drinking chlorinated and fluoridated water, and eating brominated flour. Chlorine, fluoride, and bromine are all in the same family as iodine, and can displace iodine in your thyroid gland. Dr. Jonathan Wright, a pioneer in natural medicine, recommend that women take about 6 mg of iodine per day, and men about 3 mg per day to protect their thyroid and breast health. Another principal cause of hypothyroidism is related to elevated reverse T3 levels, which can become elevated in response to heavy metal toxicity. In such cases, successful treatment must include detoxification. Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) can be successfully and quickly reversed with a treatment protocol using Lugol’s iodine and lithium.
We have frequently reported here at Health Impact News the stories of brave nurses standing up for their rights to refuse mandatory flu vaccinations as a condition for employment. There are current cases pending in litigation over this violation of civil rights and recently a New Jersey appeals court ruled in favor of a nurse who was denied employment based on her refusal of the annual flu vaccination. We have also reported here at Health Impact News that based on settled cases in the special vaccine court, the flu vaccine is the most dangerous vaccine in the United States based on settled cases. Most of the awards paid out for damages due to the flu vaccine are for cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). Much like the symptoms of polio, GBS sufferers can become totally paralyzed. Medical authorities know that this is a side effect of the flu vaccine, but the official claim is that it is only one out of one million. A quick list of settled claims each quarter will show that it is obviously much higher than this, however. The Morning Call of Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania is now reporting that one nurse's aide has been awarded $11.6 million for being paralyzed with GBS after receiving a flu shot. This is newsworthy, because pharmaceutical companies cannot be sued in civil court for damages due to vaccines. Congress gave them total immunity to such lawsuits in 1986 and that law was upheld by the pro-Pharma Supreme Court in 2011. Sales of vaccines include a tax that is paid to fund a special court where government attorneys fight for the U.S. government to prevent paying out damages due to vaccine. It is a long and difficult process, so settled cases represent only a tiny fraction of the amount of vaccine damaged people in our society.
A study on treating asthma with essential oil showed substantial benefits from the use of lavender oil. Over 26 million children and adults in the United States have asthma. Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases experienced by children. Many adults also have asthma. Inflamed airways in the lungs cause wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing at night or early in the morning. An intensification of symptoms is called an asthma attack. An asthma attack is often triggered by exposure to some type of external air contamination.
You will be shocked at the amount of money political campaigns receive from the pharmaceutical industry. As such, more and more money is being spent on drugs for prisoners. Is Big Pharma reaping the rewards of their Election Day investments? Contracts for inmate drugs increased from 3 to 4721 under the Bush administration. Under President Obama, the number of contracts awarded for drugs for federal inmates skyrocketed to 7,767 in 2008. By 2012, The Department of Justice awarded 41,658 contracts to drug federal prisoners totaling $332.5 million. It’s projected that the Affordable Care Act and its resulting Medicaid expansions will put millions more prisoners on psychotropic drugs.
Reversing over 50 years of negative press on the "dangers" of saturated fats, Time Magazine has finally admitted that the war on saturated fats was based on bad science and was wrong. Why this sudden change of heart, and can we expect other mainstream media sources to follow suit? Will the USDA dietary guidelines now finally change? Don't count on it. There is much more at stake here than just butter verses margarine. At stake is a multi-billion dollar statin drug industry to lower cholesterol. The cholesterol drug war rages on.
