Alternative Health looks at alternative ways of treating illness apart from the medical system.
Study: Dangerous Acid Blockers Shut Down More than Stomach Acid
What you don’t know about this class of drugs can ruin your health. It can even kill you. We’ve written before about the dangers of acid blockers and how, in many cases, they are likely exacerbating stomach pain while causing serious disease. New research gives us even more reason to stay away from these dangerous drugs. Did you know that acid blockers don’t merely shut off acid pumps in the stomach? Recent research warns that they also shut off production of acid inside the mitochondria every cell in our bodies! Yikes. The health of our mitochondria determine our overall health. Yet here we are blithely interfering with their cellular energy production and detoxification processes.
Opioid Pain Killer Drug Addictions Can Be Cured With Cannabis
The heroin and opioid painkiller overuse, addiction, and resulting death toll that averages out to 78 deaths per day has become an epidemic that continues to grow, except in states that have liberal medical marijuana laws. The CDC concedes that at least half of those statistics are fueled by opioid painkiller prescriptions of Oxycodone, as used in OxyContin®, Hydrocodone, with Vicodin® for example, and Methadone, ironically often prescribed under several brand names to assist those withdrawing from heroine. Those addicted to opioids are now taking advantage of medical marijuana legalization and using cannabis for pain instead of opioids.
Johnson & Johnson Hid Talcum Powder Link to Ovarian Cancer for 40 Years
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a well-known and trusted "baby friendly" brand, producing a range of baby products and feminine hygiene items. Unfortunately, J&J has failed the public trust yet again. And the lack of regulations relating to cosmetics is what helped them bury the dangers of one of its flagship products. In 2008, I warned women to cease using talcum powder. I noted there were several studies showing that applying talcum powder to the genital area might raise a woman's risk of ovarian cancer if the powder particles were to travel up through her vagina and get lodged in her ovaries. In February, 2016, a jury found J&J's talcum powder had contributed to 62-year old Jacqueline Fox's ovarian cancer, awarding Fox $72 million in damages. Ten million dollars was awarded for compensatory damages. Another $62 million in punitive damages was awarded to her family members, as Fox died last fall, succumbing to the disease after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago.
FDA Attacks Supplements to Protect Pharmaceutical Drugs
The long-awaited revision of FDA guidance rules for new supplements is finally here. It is very bad news. Highest-level Action Alert! What we are dealing with here is whether the supplement industry is allowed to innovate and create new supplements. The FDA, working as usual on behalf of the drug industry, says no. We need your help to stop this right now. It will take a huge effort on all of our parts and we need to start immediately.
Obama Adminstration’s DEA Ignores Marijuana Therapeutic Research – Keeps Status Illegal to Protect Big Pharma
The recent 2016 DEA decision to keep cannabis as a controlled substance Schedule I drug came amidst high hopes that it would be placed as Schedule II or below. Schedule I means the substance is dangerous, addictive, and has no medical merit. Marijuana or cannabis is therefore still ranked with heroin, and LSD. Heroin is an addictive and dangerous opiate that in other opioid forms such as morphine is used to suppress pain with legal prescriptions. Yet on the federal level, doctors cannot prescribe marijuana, in spite of so much evidence of its therapeutic value. At the same time, however, in what appears as an obvious hypocritical move that benefits only Big Pharma, the DEA, while not removing the criminal legal status on marijuana, did relax the laws regarding medical research on marijuana which will soon benefit drug companies looking to patent drugs that mimic what the plant already does.
Ancient Herb Helps Anxiety and Depression Better than Pharmaceuticals
Ashwagandha is second only to turmeric's curcumin in international peer reviewed study scrutiny. There are at least 200 studies that have demonstrated various positive health effects from ashwagandha. Some of the studies demonstrated recovery from anxiety and depression without adverse side effects. Several PubMed studies are available. Ashwagandha promotes vigor and healthful longevity by establishing wellness in the body, releasing emotional tension and physical discomfort. It also improves cellular energy on the mitochondrial level. It doesn't get anymore basic and influential on overall health than that. It is a uniquely adoptogenic or immunomodulatory herb, which as the names imply adapts according to your body's needs. It goes whatever way is necessary to achieve hormonal homeostasis or organ function balance necessary for healthy longevity.
Vitamin E Deficiency Is Rampant — Why You Don’t Want to Be
Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble vitamin and antioxidant that helps combat damaging free radicals. It also plays a role in the making of red blood cells and helps your body use vitamin K, the latter of which is important for heart health. Unfortunately, estimates suggest about 6 billion people worldwide are deficient in this basic micronutrient. According to a recent review presented at the World Congress of Public Health Nutrition, more than 90 percent of Americans fail to reach the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin E. An earlier review published in 2012 found that over 75 percent of Americans and Britons failed to meet minimum RDA levels for vitamin E. The RDA for people over the age of 14 is 15 milligrams (mg) of vitamin E per day, but most Americans get only half that amount. Insufficient vitamin E can increase your risk for a wide variety of diseases, including immune dysfunction, cognitive deterioration and cardiovascular disease.
Older Americans Turning to Medical Cannabis to Heal Cancer and Other Diseases
A lot of attention and concern has been placed on kids using medical cannabis with parental or medical guidance. Many of the "concerns" are misplaced and out of date, based on the “Reefer Madness” propaganda of the 1970s, which induced an unjustified phobia of cannabis or marijuana. Some of the children who are afflicted with the most severe form of epilepsy, Dravet syndrome, are alive and doing well because of specially formulated cannabis that's low in activated THC. Others are surviving cancer and curing terminal Crohn's disease because of higher THC cannabis. Most of them manage well on cannabis almost completely, getting off most or all of the pharmaceutical medications that were worsening their condition. But what about older folks, people well into their 60s and older, 70s and 80s? Only a small minority who take responsibility for their health with good diets, the right supplements, and moderate exercise wind up managing well in those age groups. Most of them weren't aware of the Internet's “alternative” health information and warnings about mainstream medicine when they were younger. So most senior citizens wind up loaded on pharmaceuticals just to get by with daily routines, including decent sleep. But there is an increasing number of senior citizens catching on to the merits of one plant's ability to replace those medications for “age related” ailments. Some have even managed to walk out of hospice with "terminal" cancer after medical cannabis intervened.
Medical Refugees and Medical Tourism: New Options for Alternative Health Patients Rejected by Mainstream Medicine
According to quotes attributed to early Americans Dr. Benjamin Rush and Thomas Jefferson, medical freedom should have been inserted into the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights. The fact that medical freedom has not been included in the Constitution's Bill of Rights has resulted in the establishment of “Pharmaceutical Medicine” as the only “officially” acceptable medicine and fostered the suppression of all other forms of valid healing. All unacceptable forms of medicine not considered “official” have been excluded from medical insurance coverage. The monopolist exclusion of insurance coverage for safer, less expensive, and more effective treatments creates a vast patient pool no matter the expense. For example a cancer patient may opt for chemo and radiation because his or her insurance covers that, but not natural treatments, which though less expensive, are beyond most people's budgets. This attempt by the U.S. Government, usually under the authority of the FDA, to suppress non-approved pharmaceutical alternatives that are often natural, non-toxic, less expensive, and more effective, has led to a new cultural phenomenon: Medical Tourism and Medical Refugees.
An Example of How Highly Successful People Use Medical Marijuana to Manage Pain
Sometime during the late 1980s, a Sunday talk show featured a “debate” on legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. The person against such legalization came up with an unintentionally silly line, “I wouldn't want to be on a plane with a pilot using marijuana.” Well, he wouldn't want to be on a plane with an alcoholic pilot either, and alcohol is legal. So legality has nothing to do with individual judgment or airline rules. That was a good example of a straw man argument. Such straw man arguments are common when it comes to discussions on marijuana, medical or otherwise. What was impressive then was the pro-medical marijuana advocate. He was a stock broker in South Florida who smoked 10 to 12 cannabis cigarettes daily. It was amazing that he could talk with anyone on a live TV telecast and argue his point. Advising clients on investment choices seemed to be even more ridiculous. But it turns out to be true. Irvin Rosenfeld was diagnosed with a rare bone disease called hereditary multiple exostoses (HME) at the age of 10. The pain from the bone tumors, usually non-cancerous, irritating skin and muscle tissue could only be made manageable with dangerously addictive narcotic prescriptions. Medical marijuana turned out to be a much better solution, and eventually the federal government was supplying him medical marijuana to manage his pain.
Chlorella: Best Single Food as Medicine for Our Times
We are plagued in these modern times with insufficient nutrition in our foods while being overwhelmed with toxins from an unbridled chemical culture. Chlorella offers solutions to both issues for all who wish to take advantage of its nutritional and detoxification properties. Chlorella is the perfect food for letting food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food as Hippocrates urged over 2000 years ago. Scientists claim chlorella was around well before Hippocrates. It's a truly ancient, perhaps prehistoric, food. It's both nutritionally dense and strongly contributes to detoxing heavy metals: mercury, cadmium, aluminum, and lead. Chlorella is one of nature's best super foods. It contains all the amino acids, providing easy-to-digest protein. It also contains very high amounts of vital minerals such as magnesium, zinc, and iron as well as essential fatty acids, polysaccharides, and human growth factors. By providing gut friendly bacteria, using chlorella helps boost digestion and our immune systems. Chlorella can minimize heavy metal toxicity while offering high protein and many other nutrients with only three to five grams consumed daily.
Magnesium — An Essential Mineral for Heart Health
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. Researchers have detected more than 3,750 magnesium-binding sites on human proteins giving an indication of its wide-ranging health effects. More than 300 different enzymes also rely on magnesium for proper function. A common estimate is that 50 to 80 percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium, and the health consequences are significant. Magnesium plays an important role in your body's biochemical processes, many of which are crucial for proper metabolic function.
The Virtues of Hemp: The Most Underappreciated and Misunderstood Crop
Do you know the difference between marijuana and hemp? The confusion between those two terms has cost us the benefits of industrial hemp, which can do a lot of what other materials are doing with much less ecological damage than what exists now. According to George Blankenbaker, president of Realhemp, Inc, hemp is the most misunderstood and under appreciated crop there is. And the confusion between marijuana or cannabis and hemp has made growing hemp without THC illegal only in this country, the USA. We get most of our hemp products, especially hemp seeds and oils, from Canada and some from Europe. Both regions have relatively thriving hemp agricultural and industrial enterprises, and even theirs are not enough to sooth an ecologically unbalanced planet. China grows 90 percent of the world's hemp. Blakenbaker's interview was done by the Cannabis Summit among the several interviews and gifts offered elucidating medical cannabis' properties and its surrounding legal and social issues. What he reveals that has been kept from humanity in addition to cannabis' medicinal qualities is staggering.
The Unrecognized Health Benefits of Vitamin B12
The B-vitamins or B-complex are commonly known as brain vitamins. They are mostly water soluble and essential, meaning the body doesn't manufacture B-vitamins and depends on outside sources for vitamin-B nourishment. Proper vitamin-B nourishment supports the brain and central nervous system. There are eight B-vitamins. It's best to consume green leafy plant foods to obtain most B-vitamins from food sources. But vitamin B-12 is not one of them. It can be obtained from animal sources or supplements. As we grow older, metabolizing vitamin B-12 becomes more difficult. Most of the B-complex vitamins are co-factors with cellular mitochondria ATP production. Mitochondria are the cells' energy engines that also monitor DNA activity. It can't get much more basic than that. This article will focus on vitamin B-12, a very important undervalued B-vitamin.
Man Given Months to Live with Brain Tumor Rejects Chemo for High-fat Ketogenic Diet – Doing Well 2 Years Later
The science behind the high-fat low-carb ketogenic diet has been around for years. It is a special diet originally developed at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1920s as a cure for childhood epilepsy. A diet that is still used today, some children can become seizure free or nearly seizure free on the ketogenic diet, where drugs often fail. In recent times, studies have been done on cancer patients using the ketogenic diet, using the theory that refined carbohydrates feed cancer cells, whereas a diet induced state of ketosis can starve cancer cells. One of the most widely used dietary oils in the ketogenic diet to induce ketosis is coconut oil. But a diet approach to curing cancer is a direct threat to the multi-billion dollar cancer industry, which depends on no cures for future growth for its cancer products, which can only be pharmaceutical drugs approved by the FDA. So for cancer patients who want to try alternative methods to treat their cancer, they must endure ridicule, fear, and scorn by doctors in mainstream medicine. In the story below, one young man did just that. In the face of opposition from mainstream medicine, he rejected chemotherapy for his brain tumor, and was only given a couple of months to live. He chose to implement the ketogenic diet instead, and now 2 years later he is still alive and doing well, having bypassed the dangerous side effects of chemotherapy which would have, at best, probably only extended his life a couple of months.
Cannabis Treats Diabetes and Protects Against Obesity
How counter-intuitive can one get? Everybody knows marijuana users get the “munchies,” which are usually satisfied with high calorie low nutrient foods. It's also somewhat accepted by mainstream oncology that cannabis curbs chemo patients' nausea and boosts their appetites. Yet studies demonstrate that even recreational pot users have a considerably lower incidence of obesity and metabolic syndrome, which often leads to diabetes 2. These published peer reviewed studies are a small sampling of international studies from Israel, Spain, Italy, and the USA among others that have looked into various applications of cannabis for treatments for other diseases with positive results. Yet, the DEA Controlled Substance Schedule 1 rating for cannabis of dangerous, addictive, and without medical merit stands as of this writing. Apparently, the Justice Department that governs the DEA is trying to protect the pharmaceutical industry, not ordinary citizens.
Activated Charcoal not Only for Poison: Also Beneficial for Detoxification
Maybe you've noticed that activated charcoal filtration is part of those reverse osmosis filtration stands where you can fill up your own water jugs for around a quarter or slightly more per gallon. Activated charcoal is in most if not all hospital E.R.s and many emergency vehicles as a fast, effective antidote for poisons ingested accidentally or overdoses of toxic medicines. It's also used in gas mask filters. It is considered safe and effective by the FDA, and although hospitals and E.R. vehicles carry different pharmaceutical forms, consumers can purchase untainted powders very inexpensively. Very few know of this amazing natural antidote, and even less know of its general detoxifying capacity.
How People are Healing Serious Gut Disease with Cannabis That Mainstream Medicine Has Nothing to Offer
There have been several anecdotal reports of cannabis curing cancer. But less discussion has been publicized about cannabis curing Crohn's disease and other inflammatory bowel and gut diseases that are considered incurable by mainstream medicine. Perhaps the most dramatic story has a woman named Shona Banda at its center. Shona was severely stricken with Crohn's. She was bedridden, and whatever she managed to eat didn’t provide nutrition because her gastrointestinal tract simply wouldn’t absorb nutrients
Alternative Health Scientist Receives ISO Accreditation for Lab – Challenges “Science Elite” for Science Freedom
Mike Adams, known as the "Health Ranger" and the founder of one of the top Alternative Health media outlets in the United States today, was recently awarded the highest standard of international laboratory accreditation for his forensic food lab: ISO 17025. Adams has served notice on the "Science Elite" and their exclusive club: "The achievement will not be believed by some scientists, for they labor under the delusion that science is an exclusive club, accessible only to the anointed few who spend years earning PhDs from academic institutions. They cannot imagine that a clean food activist, journalist, musician and creative comedy skit creator could launch a laboratory from scratch, master high-end analytical instrumentation and achieve the world's highest standard of laboratory accreditation... all in less than three years." Adams goes on to explain to his massive audience: "SCIENCE belongs to all of us, not just the 'scientific elite.' We the People are each independently qualified to invoke the principles science in the quest for knowledge. Science is not solely the domain of wealthy corporations, universities, governments or arrogant members of the 'cult of scientism.' In fact, the more science gets conducted by independent scientists like you and me, the stronger and more authentic science becomes!" As we celebrate Independence Day here in the U.S. this weekend, remembering those who have preceded us in the fight for liberty and freedom, let's also take on the fight for science freedom and thank men like Mike Adams for investing so much of his time and resources to serve the public with truly independent scientific research.
Father Convicted in Non-Vaccinated Child Death in Solitary Confinement Due to Threats in Prison
David and Collet Stephan of Alberta, Canada, were sentenced after the widely-publicized death of their son Ezekiel and subsequent court trial. Some supporters of the family openly wept when David was sentenced to 4 months in prison, but many of those same reporters were relieved that Collet will not be imprisoned, but will be under 3 months of house arrest. The sentiment is that, "At least she will get to be with her children." After a back and forth bout with the croup and flu-like symptoms in 2012, court testimony showed that the 18 month old little boy seemed to bounce back before suddenly taking a turn for the worse. As Health Impact News has previously reported, there was a great deal of expert testimony and evidence presented that demonstrated that the child would most likely be alive today were it not for serious failures on the part of the medical system. Because of the negative press, theirs is a high profile case. David is in solitary confinement and told his wife that he didn't see the sun for 5 days. The rumors and twisting of the facts in the media have endangered David's life, Collet told Health Impact News. Her husband is in solitary confinement out of fear for his safety after the media has painted him as a monster instead of the kind, loving father that he is.