A new study published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease confirms that extracts of one of the oldest plants in existence today, the 'living fossil' known as Gingko biloba, protects against stroke-related neurologic deficits in human subjects.
Of the more than 400,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, it’s estimated that more than 50 percent are on some sort of psychiatric drug. Money is part of the reason. Foster parents are paid more to take care of a child with mental health issues. On average, a foster family earns about $17 a day for taking in a child who needs a basic level of care. But a child who is taking drugs such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications or anticonvulsant medications is worth around $1,000 a day. Many child and human rights advocates are concerned about the dramatic number of children who are classified as 'special needs' after entering the foster care system. One reason doctors, psychiatrists and therapists may not be speaking out against the unnecessary drugging of these children is because those who prescribe the drugs often benefit financially, receiving big payouts from pharmaceutical companies.
Just as Congress is preparing to recess until the second week in September, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) reintroduced legislation that would deal a deadly blow to nutritional supplements. This bill is a naked new FDA power grab—an attempt to move us one step closer to a full FDA pre-approval system for supplements. That, of course, would just make supplements insanely expensive, like drugs—if you could get them at all.
Enjoyed the world over as something of an icon of the tropical experience, the pineapple was used in indigenous medicine for a wide range of ailments; uses that are only now being confirmed by modern scientific methods. Research on the medicinal properties of pineapple has steadily accumulated over the past few decades, to the point where the conventional medical system has been compelled to take notice.
The average person may be prescribed 14,000 pills (this doesn’t even include over-the-counter meds) and by the time you reach your 70s you could be taking five or more pills every day, according to Pill Poppers, a documentary. Pill Poppers takes you on a journey through some of the most popular drugs in the world, from the ADHD drug Ritalin to drugs for erectile dysfunction, depression, pain and contraception, asking: are these pills really beneficial, or are they doing more harm than good?
A bit of wizardly conjuration involving the words “it is believed” can make things transmute from nice-ideas-if-they-work into facts—if they’re muttered with the correct intonation from the throats of state-sanctioned scientists. It is, at least, a nifty way to hide the fact that the rotavirus vaccine has caused new types of rotavirus.
Are HPV vaccines a viable option in your personal war against cancer? It is very difficult to make an informed choice about Gardasil or Cervarix when you receive only part of the available information. The time has come to take a critical look at the facts behind recent HPV vaccine news reports. The theory behind these two vaccines is: by reducing infections with the two high-risk types of HPV associated with an estimated 70% of cervical cancer cases globally, there may be a reduction in the number of cervical cancer victims. However, until such time as a verifiable reduction in the number of cervical cancer diagnoses is reported, this theory remains unproven.
The head of pediatrics at St Stephens Hospital in New Delhi has blasted the World Health Organization and Bill Gates’ GAVI vaccine partnership for pushing a deadly vaccine program on India. The pentavalent vaccine has already killed at least 40 babies in India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. The vaccine program has been suspended in Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan after deaths and adverse reactions. This pentavalent vaccine combines the outdated whole-cell DPT (withdrawn in the US) with Hib and hepatitis B. It is the brainchild of the Bill Gates GAVI vaccine partnership, which boasts of rolling it out around the world.
Patients with colorectal cancer are usually treated with chemotherapy, which reduces the number of blood cells, especially white blood cells, and consequently increases the risk of infections. Some research studies have reported that aromatherapy massage affects the immune system and improves immune function by, for example, increasing the numbers of natural killer cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes. The objectives of this study were to determine whether the use of aromatherapy with light Thai massage in patients with colorectal cancer, who have received chemotherapy, can result in improvement of the cellular immunity and reduce the severity of the common symptoms of side effects. It was found that aromatherapy with light Thai massage can be beneficial for the immune systems of cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy by increasing the number of lymphocytes and can help to reduce the severity of common symptoms.
A new class of drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors promises to reduce LDL cholesterol levels to previously unheard of lows, dropping your level below 50. These drugs will undoubtedly kill many before the risks are fully realized. Your body needs cholesterol for the production of cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids that help you to digest fat. If your levels get too low, you increase your risk of dementia, violent and aggressive behavior, depression, suicide, cancer, Parkinson’s disease—and likely heart disease, as a result of cholesterol sulfate deficiency.
The FDA has approved the first non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes associated with menopause. The drug is paroxetine mesylate (marketed as Brisdelle). Paroxetine, an SSRI, is the active ingredient in two drugs for depression and other psychiatric disorders, Paxil and Pexeva. What is not mentioned is that the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee voted 10 to 4 that the overall risk-benefit profile of the drug did not support approval—that the benefits over placebo were “minimal,” and that all of the severe side effects associated with SSRIs, such as suicidal thoughts and osteoporosis, outweigh the minor benefits.
Low-carb diets and paleolithic nutrition are all the rage these days, and for good reason. Compared to the Standard American Diet, both of them are superb. Few of us would dare to take the two to their extreme, however. Giving up sugar and wheat is one thing, but what about giving up everything except meat? Yes, I'm talking about an ultra low-carb diet with even foods like nuts and berries removed. Unsurprisingly and understandably, studies on the long-term effects of such a diet are severely lacking. There is at least one study that did just this, however. Dr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Canadian ethnologist who spent more than a decade with the Inuit during his arctic explorations, lived almost exclusively on fish and meat for 9 years. At the time, this was considered heresy and life-threatening, just as it is today. To the surprise of many (including Stefansson himself), he suffered no health problems during his decade of pure carnivorism. When he told people of his amazing experiences, he was met with skepticism from medical authorities who asked him to undertake a study that would replicate the results. He and a fellow explorer named Andersen agreed to eat an all-meat diet for an entire year in a closely observed setting.
One of modern medicine’s routine practices is vaccination of virtually all infants on a schedule—even if they’re premature. This study clearly documents the likelihood that preemies are being subjected to severe harm by the practice. Yet, health agencies and doctors won’t even slow down in the rush to jam needles into the weakest among us.
The measurement of those who know God best is not their intellectual understanding of the Bible, or social issues, or political issues. Instead, those who know God best show it in their love for one another! And Jesus was our supreme example, showing us a love the world had never seen before.
There is a medicinal spice so timelessly interwoven with the origins of human culture and metabolism, so thoroughly supported by modern scientific inquiry, as to be unparalleled in its proven value to human health and well-being. Turmeric turns the entire drug-based medical model on its head. Instead of causing far more side effects than therapeutic ones, as is the case for most patented pharmaceutical medications. Turmeric possesses hundreds of potential side benefits, having been empirically demonstrated to positively modulate over 160 different physiological pathways in the mammalian body.
Intelligent design gets a bad rap because it is not in line with the supposed scientific consensus that unguided evolutionary processes account for the existence of all of the life that we see today. But there are unanswered questions regarding the origin of the complexity of biological systems and the information content in DNA (both within the genome and the epigenome), as Stephen Meyer has shown in Darwin's Doubt and Signature in the Cell. Science, indeed, should be about exploring uncharted territories from varying, even unpopular, perspectives rather than confining ourselves to research that has been blessed by convention. The old paradigm focused on the sequence of the coding portion of DNA to find genetic factors for disease. However, when the old paradigm cannot answer questions, it is time to think outside the box.
Last year, a remarkable study published in the journal Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology revealed something very special about garlic: it is a natural detoxifier of lead and is not only as effective as a common chelation drug known as d-penicillamine at pulling this metal out of the body but is also much safer. Drugs such as d-penicillamine are highly toxic, while garlic is a commonly enjoyed culinary spice worldwide with a wide range of potential side benefits and a high margin of safety.
Angiogenesis is the process of building new blood vessels and is inherently coordinated with building new tissue, but increased angiogenesis can also have a deadly side effect - a distinguishing characteristic of cancer growth. Some cancer treatments for halting the growth of cancer-feeding blood vessels have been successful in treating tumors. This term is known as anti-angiogenesis. Although several drugs have been incorporated with isolated anti-angiogenic compounds, there are more than 30 dietary sources of naturally-occurring anti-angiogenic substances. Foods with natural anti-angiogenic compounds do not have the serious side effects which are now being found in angiogenic drug inhibitors.
During the first two weeks of June, reports of farmed salmon toxicity spread through Norwegian news, and on June 16, the Norwegian Health Department actually went on the record warning against eating too much farmed salmon. A large European study involving about 8,000 newborns found that pregnant women with high levels of toxins in their bodies tend to give birth to children with lower birth weight, which in and of itself may have an adverse on the child’s health.
Watermelon is so much more than just a highly refreshing summertime treat. From the perspective of a growing body of clinical research, it is a truly medicinal food, with health benefits ranging from boosting antioxidant levels, lowering blood pressure, and combating metabolic syndrome. Even the seeds provide benefits in that they are a rich source of protein!
