Fort Hood Shooting: Investigating Psychiatric Drugs & Violence Connection is Long Overdue

Thirty-seven percent of recent war veterans are being diagnosed with PTSD and 80 percent are of those are prescribed a psychiatric drug. The Veterans Administration's mental health budget has soared from less than $3 billion in 2007 to nearly $7 billion in 2014. From 2005 to 2011, the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration increased their prescriptions of psychiatric drugs by nearly seven times. That's more than thirty times faster than the civilian rate. Violence and psychiatric drugs is a deadly formula America is becoming too intimately familiar with. Rather than continually send heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, it is time for lawmakers to investigate the connection between prescription psychiatric drugs and violence.

New Cholesterol Guidelines May Put 13 Million More on Statin Drugs

Controversial revised cholesterol-treatment guidelines loosened the definition of who would qualify for statin drug treatment to prevent heart disease, greatly increasing the number of people who would be eligible for treatment. Compared with the older guidelines, the new recommendations would increase the number of US adults eligible for statin therapy from 43.2 million to 56 million, with most of the increase occurring among adults without heart disease. Perhaps the biggest “sham” of all is that statin drugs, touted as “preventive medicine” to protect your heart health, can actually have detrimental effects on your heart.

Pfizer Tracking Unvaccinated Children Through Health Insurance

If you are a parent who has made the decision not to vaccinate your child Big Pharma knows, according to a postcard sent in by a Next News viewer. In the notice mailed by Pfizer Inc. they indicate that they possess "records that your child may not have received a recommended vaccine." The postcard reminds the parents to contact their health provider to schedule an appointment. Pfizer also indicates that they've paid for the mailing on behalf of "your child's health plan, health clinic, or health department." We deduct that if your insurance company or health coverage provider doesn't receive a bill from your child's pediatrician for a vaccination your child's health profile is flagged and the post card is mailed from their database. With Obamacare slowly coming online and individual state departments of Child Services performing more lethal kidnappings nationwide it is not a stretch to believe that the same records could be used against parents for states to claim that a parents freedom of choice is child neglect.

15-Year-Old Girl Awarded Permanent Custody to State of Massachusetts Amidst National Outcry

This week Judge Joseph Johnston of Massachusetts juvenile court awarded permanent custody of 15-year-old Justina Pelletier to the State of Massachusetts against her desires and the desires of her parents, and also amidst great public outcry. The plight of Justina's case has garnered national attention after her father disobeyed a gag order originally imposed by the judge (which has been since removed due to great public outcry). Justina's story has been covered in several major media outlets, such as Dr. Phil, The Blaze, FoxNews, and many others. If you are not familiar with this story, or think that it does not affect you, think again. This is a case where one medical institution, more powerful than another one in another state, has abused the power of the state to impose their views of psychiatric care by force against a different medical diagnosis by a different team of doctors. This also violates the right of the parents to choose their own medical treatment for their 15-year-old daughter, who has been removed from her family and kept detained under psychiatric care, away from her family for over a year now, even as her health continues to deteriorate. If this kind of medical tyranny is allowed to continue, even under tremendous negative national media exposure, it will drastically change the direction of forced medical treatment inside the United States and affect everyone. Could it be that Justina is part of some drug research going on at Boston Children’s Hospital, and that strong political forces aligned with Harvard are putting pressure on this judge? We may never know, but for now, the nation looks on in horror at what is happening in Massachusetts, and begins to learn just how widespread the practice of medical tyranny is in the United States today.

FDA Fails to Protect Against Antibiotic Resistance, Guarantees More Needless Death and Suffering

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect two million Americans every year, causing at least 23,000 deaths. Nearly 25 million pounds of antibiotics are administered to US livestock every year for purposes other than treating disease, such as making the animals grow bigger faster. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) ruled that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health worldwide, and the primary cause for this man-made epidemic is the widespread misuse of antibiotics. Denmark stopped the widespread use of antibiotics in their pork industry 14 years ago. The European Union has also banned the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed over concerns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. What’s standing in the way of curbing antibiotic use in the U.S.? In a word, industry. For instance, the American Pork Industry doesn’t want to curb antibiotic use, as this would mean raising the cost of producing pork by an estimated $5 for every 100 pounds of pork brought to market. The pharmaceutical industry is obviously against it as well.

Medical Cannabis: The REAL Reason the Government Wants to Keep it Banned

“Cannabis” refers to the plant that is commonly called "marijuana." The two terms are often used interchangeably. However, "cannabis" is the historical name that has been used in the medical literature. While public sentiments towards marijuana have recently changed to the point where two states have now voted to make it legal for recreational use, few people understand the actual history of cannabis as a medical plant in the United States, and how it came to be classified as an illegal drug. It is crucial to understand this history in order to fully understand what is happening at the state and national level with regards to both medical cannabis and recreational marijuana. Did you know that medical cannabis at one time was a widely prescribed drug in the U.S., and that physicians were originally opposed to its regulation? Did you know that while the U.S. government continues to list cannabis as a Schedule 1 illegal drug preventing doctors from prescribing it because it supposedly has no therapeutic value, that the government is also patenting drugs based on cannabis? What about recent laws passed to legalize the recreational use of marijuana: are these good or bad for medical cannabis use? Learn all this and more:

New Tactic in Stopping GMOs: Sue the GMO Farmer instead of Monsanto

Ever since the introduction of genetically modified crops into the food chain, the tussle has been largely between farmers and Monsanto , which says since 1997 it has filed 145 lawsuits against farmers who've improperly reused its patented seeds, or on average about one lawsuit every three weeks for 16 straight years. In that time frame, the biotech hasn't lost a single case, even when farmers like the organic growers who had their case against Monsanto tossed last year sued for cross-contamination of their crops. DuPont , the world's second-largest seed producer behind Monsanto, is similarly seeking to police the use of its seeds by hiring retired police officers to ferret out farmers allegedly improperly using its patented seeds. Defeating the well-financed GMO behemoth has been a losing battle, but that may be about to change. In 2010, a western Australia organic farmer, Steve Marsh, found that his harvest had been contaminated by his neighbor's genetically modified canola/rapeseed crops planted with Monsanto Roundup Ready seed. Marsh subsequently had 70% of his farm's organic status for produce stripped from him causing severe financial harm, some $85,000 in earnings. In a first of its kind lawsuit, Marsh is suing his neighbor for the loss resulting from the seeds blowing onto his oat and wheat crop, contaminating them.

Butter Consumption Reaches a 40-Year High

Butter consumption in the US has hit a 40-year high, largely resulting from a shift in consumer preferences away from processed foods. Between 1920 and 1960, Americans’ butter consumption declined by over 75 percent, yet heart disease went from a relatively unknown condition to the number one killer. Butter, especially raw butter from grass-fed cows, is rich in beneficial nutrients including vitamins, trace minerals, CLA, and beneficial fats. Butter produced from CAFO milk is inferior nutritionally as it comes from cows fed almost entirely GE grain, some fattened up with additional sugar from GE sugar beets and cottonseed. Buying dairy products from reputable local farmers will allow you to enjoy butter without supporting the inhumane conditions too common at factory farms.

Judge Continues to Refuse to Release 15-Year-Old Girl Held in Psychiatric Care Against Parent’s Wish

While the Justina Pelletier story has gained coverage in the national mainstream media which has for the most part rallied to the side of the parents, the judge presiding over her case continues to refuse to release her to her parents' custody. After the most recent court date on Monday, the family issued the following statement to Fox CT: Boston, March 17, 2014-- "At the hearing today, Judge Johnston took under advisement the motions previously submitted by the Pelletiers, but refused to take action about Justina’s care or custody." "Despite Justina’s worsening condition, Judge Johnston still has not enforced his ruling to transfer Justina’s medical care to Tufts. Justina remains at the Framingham Foster Facility and has not been seen by a single doctor, apart from an emergency room visit on Saturday, due to her declining medical condition." Earlier in the day Justina's parents were interviewed on the popular daytime television program Dr. Phil.

Pathogens in Your Mouth Can Lead to Cancer in Other Parts of Your Body

Two independent new studies found a causal link between a common oral bacterium (F. nucleatum) and colorectal cancer; pathogens in your mouth can enter your bloodstream to colonize other parts of your body. Oral hygiene is even MORE important than previously thought, to reduce pathogenic microbes that can travel from your mouth to other parts of your body and cause disease. Consuming naturally fermented foods and incorporating “oil pulling” with coconut oil are two effective ways of balancing your oral and gut flora, which will improve your oral health, as well as your overall health.