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Avoid This Food to Help Slow Aging

February 22, 2012 by admin · Comments Off 

By Dr. Mercola

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a complex group of compounds formed when sugar reacts with amino acids.

This can occur both in the food you eat, and inside your body.

It's is a fitting acronym because – along with oxidation – it's one of the major molecular mechanisms whereby damage accrues in your body, which leads to disease, aging, and eventually, death.

For example, there is mounting evidence that AGEs may be implicated in the development of the chronic degenerative diseases associated with aging, including but not limited to:

  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Alzheimer's disease, and
  • Diabetes

Several studies have shown that restricting the consumption of AGEs can lead to an increased lifespan in animal models.

According to a paper that summarizes recent research on AGEsi:

"... [T]he data are supportive that endogenous AGEs are associated with declining organ functioning. It appears that dietary AGEs may also be related.

... As of today, restriction of dietary intake of AGEs and exercise has been shown to safely reduce circulating AGEs, with further reduction in oxidative stress and inflammatory markers."

Why Limiting Sugar is Key for Longevity

Limiting sugar in your diet is a well-known key to longevity, because of all the molecules capable of inflicting damage in your body, sugar molecules are probably the most damaging of all. Fructose in particular is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that creates AGEs and speeds up the aging process. It also promotes the kind of dangerous growth of fat cells around your vital organs that are the hallmark of diabetes and heart disease. In one study on fructose, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs in just 10 weeks!

Sugar/fructose also increases your insulin and leptin levels and decreases receptor sensitivity for both of these vital hormones, and this is another major factor of premature aging and age-related chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease. Keep in mind that while it's perfectly normal for your blood sugar levels to rise slightly after every meal, it is not natural or healthy when your blood sugar levels become excessively elevated and stay that way.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what will happen if you're eating like the stereotypical American, who consumes a staggering 2.5 pounds of sugar a week on average!

And when you add in other low-quality carb foods such as white bread, sugar, pasta, pastries, cookies, and candy, which also break down to sugar in your body, it's not so difficult to see why so many Americans are in such poor health.

This type of high-sugar (high-carb) diet is also what's driving the obesity epidemic—not diets high in fat. An infographic created by Column Five for Massive Health, based on Why We Get Fat by science writer Gary Taubes, explains why. In short, carbs, like fructose and other sugars, destroy your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which in turn causes your cells to accumulate more fat, and makes it more difficult to get rid of the extra weight as well. So, the bottom line is this: If you want to look and feel younger longer, avoid all forms of sugar (including grains) as much as possible!





IMAGE COURTESY OF MASSIVE HEALTH. READ ABOUT THIS INFOGRAPHIC

Glycation 101

Fructose adversely affects your body in a number of ways, but one of the mechanisms that causes significant damage is glycation. As already mentioned, glycation is the process in which sugar bonds with protein to form advanced glycation end products, or AGEs.

This process creates inflammation, which can activate your immune system.

Macrophages are scavenger cells that are part of your immune defense system, and as such they have special receptors for AGEs, aptly called RAGEs (think: raging inflammation). These RAGEs bind to the AGEs in your body and get rid of them. Unfortunately, this defensive process can also cause its fair share of damage. Inside your arteries, for example, the scar tissue created from this process is called plaque.

You really want to limit the AGEs in your body as much as possible, so your immune system won't have to work so hard to defend against them. As a standard recommendation to limit glycation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.

However, most people would be wise to limit their fructose to 15 grams or less, particularly if you have elevated uric acid levels, which can be used as a predictor for fructose toxicity. (For more information on this, please see this previous article.) This includes keeping track of your fructose intake from whole fruits. For additional information about the fructose content of common fruits, please see this helpful fructose chart. I recommend this lower level simply because if you consume processed foods or sweet beverages at all, you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose.

Fructose Metabolism Basics

Anyone who still insists that "sugar is sugar" is way behind the times... There are in fact major differences in how your body processes different sugars, and it's important to understand that when you consume fructose, your body packs on pounds at a much higher rate than it does when you consume glucose. The following summary details the main metabolic differences between fructose and glucose to help you understand how fructose can wreak such havoc with your health, and why it's considerably worse for you than glucose:

  • After eating fructose, nearly all of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
  • Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is primarily converted into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
  • The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
  • Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
  • When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Fructose is essentially largely converted into fat!
  • The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which triggers your "fat switch," causing you to gain more weight.
  • Glucose does not do this, as it suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.

How to Tame Your Sugar Cravings

As mentioned earlier, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. Do your best to keep your fructose consumption below 15-25 grams a day. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.

Sugar is highly addictive, so cutting down can be a real challenge for some, especially if you're consuming very high amounts. If you're struggling with sugar addiction, I highly recommend trying an energy psychology technique called Turbo Tapping, which has helped many "soda addicts" kick their sweet habit. If you still want to use a sweetener occasionally, here's what I recommend in lieu of sugar:

  1. Use the sweet herb stevia.
  2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation.
  3. Use organic raw honey in moderation.
  4. Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.
  5. Avoid agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave's meteoric rise in popularity is due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are processed out.

The Anti-Aging Lifestyle

Of all the healthy lifestyle strategies I know of that can have a significant impact on your longevity, normalizing your insulin and leptin levels is probably the most important. Cutting out sugar and grains and increasing exercise are two effective ways to accomplish that.

But to truly optimize your longevity and slow down the clock, your entire lifestyle needs to be taken into account. So, here are the rest of my top "anti-aging" recommendations. Incorporating these healthy lifestyle guidelines will help set you squarely on the path to optimal health and give you the best shot at living a much longer life:

  • Learn how to effectively cope with stress – Stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day, so developing effective coping mechanisms is a major longevity-promoting factor.

    Meditation, prayer, physical activity and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. I also strongly believe in using energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to address deeper, oftentimes hidden emotional problems.

  • Eat a healthy diet focused on whole, ideally organic, foods – My nutrition plan, based on natural whole foods, is your first step toward increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life.
  • Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels. This is another very powerful and inexpensive intervention that can have profound benefits on your health. In the summer you can do this for free by careful and safe sun exposure. In the winter a therapeutic level of oral vitamin D can be achieved with an oral supplement (around 8,000 units of vitamin D3 a day for most adults)
  • Animal based omega-3 fats – Correcting the ratio of omega-3 to healthful omega-6 fats is a strong factor in helping you live longer. This typically means increasing your intake of animal based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil, while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats (think trans fats).

    I do not, however, recommend the new prescription strength fish oil medication, sold under the name Lovaza. Don't be fooled by their "all-natural" PR campaign. This is actually a drug to treat very high triglyceride levels. However, as with most other drugs, Lovaza comes with potentially dangerous side effects that you would not experience with a natural fish oil or krill oil supplement. Side effects include flu-like symptoms, infections, back pain, skin rashes, upset stomach, taste changes, digestive issues, chest pain, migraines and respiratory problems!

    Additionally, new research strongly suggests that 500 mg of krill oil is more potent and far less expensive.

  • Get your antioxidants from foods –Good sources include blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, beans, and artichokes.
  • Use coconut oil – Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known to reduce your risk of heart disease and lower your cholesterol, among other things. In fact, it's doubly beneficial because it can be both eaten and applied directly to your skin. Coconut oil can be used in place of other oils, margarine, butter, or shortening, and can be used for all your cooking needs.
  • Get your resveratrol naturally – Resveratrol is one of the forerunners in the anti-aging pill race, but more than likely, by the time they've manipulated it into a synthetic pill (like the fish oil discussed above), it won't be healthy for you.

    Although resveratrol is the antioxidant found in red wine, I can't recommend drinking wine in the hopes of extending your life because alcohol is a neurotoxin that can poison your brain and harm your body's delicate hormonal balance. Instead, get your resveratrol from natural sources, such as whole grape skins and seeds, raspberries, mulberries, and peanuts.

  • Exercise regularly and smartly -- Studies repeatedly show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay your onset of hypertension, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and the falls that lead to hip fracture. Although a lifetime of regular exercise is ideal, it's never too late to start. It's been shown that even individuals in their 70's can substantially increase both strength and endurance with exercise.

    High-intensity, interval training can also increase longevity as this specific style of training promotes human growth hormone production – yet another aspect of the longevity puzzle.

  • Avoid as many chemicals, toxins, and pollutants as possible – This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
  • Avoid pharmaceutical drugs – Pharmaceutical drugs kill thousands of people prematurely every year – as an expected side effect of the action of the drug. And, if you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need any of them in the first place.

Reference:

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The Dr. Oz Show: My Latest Jaw Dropping Interview

February 21, 2012 by admin · Comments Off 

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Oz invited me back to New York to tape another segment for his show.

The show, which will mark my fourth appearance as a guest, will be airing today, Tuesday February 21.

Check the schedule for your area in this link.

We talked about a number of interesting topics, but one in particular left the audience completely shocked...

Silver Fillings in Your Mouth Release Mercury

Most people are aware that mercury is a poison, but many overlook the fact that they have this toxic metal implanted in their mouth in the form of "silver" (amalgam) fillings.

I explained on the Dr. Oz show that three out of four adults have silver fillings -- and the primary ingredient in them is mercury.

There are 1,000 mg of mercury in the average filling -- this is about 1 million times more mercury than is found in seafood, which is in microgram quantities.

Even the conservative EPA and CDC advise pregnant women to avoid high-mercury fish like tuna, due to the well documented adverse effects on fetuses.

Mercury is an incredibly potent neurotoxin; it doesn't take much to cause serious damage because it's an absolute poison.

If you were to take the amount of mercury in a typical thermometer and put it in a small lake, that lake would be closed down due to environmental hazards.

Yet, amounts much higher than that are readily put into people's mouths daily, with many unaware of the risks. It's estimated that 75 percent of Americans are ignorant about the fact that amalgam fillings are actually 50 percent mercury. Worse still, every time you chew you liberate mercury from your fillings. Actually, almost any kind of stimulation can cause your fillings to release mercury, including eating, drinking, brushing your teeth, grinding your teeth and chewing gum. If you want to see the vapors released for yourself, watch the shocking video below.

Mercury vapor from amalgams pass readily through cell membranes, across the blood-brain barrier, and into your central nervous system, where it causes psychological, neurological, and immunological problems. Children and fetuses, whose brains are still developing, are most at risk, but really anyone can be impacted. So, as I explained to Dr. Oz, if you have silver amalgam fillings it would be wise to take chlorella with every meal until you are able to have them SAFELY removed by a biologically trained dentist.

Chlorella Expels Mercury from Your Body

Chlorella, a single-celled fresh water algae, acts as an efficient detoxification agent by binding to toxins, such as mercury, in your body and carrying them out of your system. It is the chlorophyll in chlorella that makes it so powerful, as chlorophyll helps you process more oxygen, cleanses your blood and promotes the growth and repair of your tissues.

In one study, when mice fed methylmercury were given chlorella, they excreted approximately twice the amount of mercury in their urine and feces as mice not treated with chlorella.i This is important, as chlorella plays a particularly crucial role in systemic mercury elimination because the majority of mercury is rid through your stool. Once the mercury burden is lowered from your intestines, mercury from other body tissues will more readily migrate into your intestines -- where chlorella will work to remove it.

Chlorella is Only Digestible if it has a "Broken Cell Wall"

One important caveat you need to be aware of: chlorella is completely indigestible by humans, as we simply do not have the enzymes to break down its cell wall.

Unlike other green foods, chewing and digesting chlorella will not release the powerful health benefits contained within this green algae. This is because chlorella's tough outer cell wall, which is also chemically responsible for binding with the toxins inside your body, cannot be broken down by your biology. Therefore, it is imperative that the manufacturing process break down the tough outer cell wall for you, as this is the only way to make the chlorella biologically available to help remove toxins like mercury from your body.

This is why I only recommend supplementing with Broken Cell Wall chlorella, because this is the only form that allows your body to use this powerful detoxification agent.

Another concern when choosing your chlorella is to be sure that the source waters where it is grown and harvested are free of any contamination. Since chlorella is a natural green food, it will be affected by polluted water and will retain environmental toxins if it's grown in contaminated waters. So be certain any chlorella you supplement with comes from a naturally clean water source. One final consideration, mixing chlorella with the cilantro may enhance the detoxification benefits. If you have multiple silver fillings and are concerned about your body's heavy metal burden, this is a complementary strategy to consider.

Join the Fight to Get Mercury Out of the Dentist's Office

As a result of enormous public pressure from dentists, health professionals and consumers, we are on the brink of prompting real change in the fight for mercury-free dentistry; you can help us reach the tipping point in order to bring about permanent change. You can find out more about this important issue, and how to voice your opinion here.

IMPORTANT: Find a Good Biological Dentist

If you are convinced of the importance of removing your mercury let me caution you to avoid the mistake I made.

After being convinced of the danger by watching the 60 Minutes program on the topic 20 years ago (you can see the video below) I actually had over a dozen of my amalgam fillings removed.

I saw a competent conventional dentist but he was absolutely clueless about the dangers of mercury. As a result I had large amounts of mercury liberated improperly and I believe it was largely responsible for damaging my kidneys.

SO PLEASE...

Avoid my mistake and see a biological dentist who is trained in properly removing mercury so it doesn't go into your body during the removal process. This typically involves the use of high-powered suction and rubber dams.

One simple strategy is to ask your friends or local health food stores who these dentists are in your community, or you can also contact The International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine, which is the organization that created the video above.

Why Barefoot is Best

Many people realize while on vacation, how great it feels to walk barefoot on the beach. I have personally prioritized grounding myself to the earth as much as possible for over 5 years.

The preliminary information confirms what I have believed for years, grounding yourself to the earth may significantly improve your health. The soles of our feet are the best contact to make with the earth, and will naturally discharge inflammation.

The details can be found by listening to my interview with Clint Ober:

Reference:

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The Sweet Golden Treat That Can Help Wipe Out Deadly MRSA

February 20, 2012 by admin · Comments Off 

By Dr. Mercola

Honey was a conventional therapy in fighting infection up until the early 20th century, at which time its use slowly vanished with the advent of penicillin.

Now the use of honey in wound care is regaining popularity again, as researchers are determining exactly how honey can help fight serious skin infections.

According to their findings, certain types of honey might be more effective than antibiotics!

After any skin injury, bacteria that live on your skin can infect and penetrate the wound site.

One particularly common type of strep (Streptococcus pyogenes) can result in wounds that refuse to heal.

But honey, especially the kind made by bees foraging on manuka flowers, was found to destroy these bacteria.

Scientific American recently reported i:

"In lab tests, just a bit of the honey killed off the majority of bacterial cells -- and cut down dramatically on the stubborn biofilms they formed.

It could also be used to prevent wounds from becoming infected in the first place."

According to the authors of the study,

"These findings indicate that manuka honey has potential in the topical treatment of wounds containing S. pyogenes." ii

Should You Dress Your Wounds with Honey?

As long as you use the right kind of honey, science does back up its use for wound treatment, which is especially relevant today as antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are on the rise.

Five years ago, the FDA authorized the first honey-based medical product for use in the US. Derma Sciences uses Manuka honey for their Medihoney wound and burn dressings, which can be found online from medical supply stores. Amazon.com also sells them. These products can also be found in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

When considering using honey for the treatment of wounds, it's extremely important to understand that there's a major difference between raw honey—and especially Manuka honey, which is in a class of its own—and the highly processed "Grade A" type honey you find in most grocery stores. The latter is more akin to high fructose corn syrup, which is more likely to increase infection, and should never be used to treat topical wounds! (It also will not offer you the same health benefits as raw honey when consumed.)

Manuka honey, on the other hand, is made with pollen gathered from the flowers of the Manuka bush (a medicinal plant), and clinical trials have found this type of honey can effectively eradicate more than 250 clinical strains of bacteria, including resistant varieties such as:

  • MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
  • MSSA (methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus)
  • VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci)

Compared to other types of honey, Manuka has an extra ingredient with antimicrobial qualities, called the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF). It is so called because no one has yet been able to discover the unique substance involved that gives it its extraordinary antibacterial activity. Honey releases hydrogen peroxide through an enzymatic process, which explains its general antiseptic qualities, but Active Manuka honey contains "something else" that makes it far superior to other types of honey when it comes to killing off bacteria.

The level of UMF can vary between batches, so each batch is ranked and priced accordingly. The higher the concentration of UMF, the darker, thicker, and more expensive it is.

To determine its rating, a sample of the honey batch is placed on a plate with a bacterial culture. The area where the bacterial growth stops is then measured. This area is compared to a similar area produced by a solution of phenol and water. The UMF number refers to the equivalent percentage of phenol in water, so, for example, honey with a UMF rating of 10 has the same antibacterial strength as 10 percent phenol. A rating of UMF 10 or higher is recommended for medicinal use.

Evidence Supporting Use of Honey against Infectious Bacteria

Aside from the featured study, many others confirm the soundness of using good-old-fashioned honey for the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections. For example, a 1992 study found that honey sped up the healing of caesarean sections iii, iv. Another study found that honey cured the intractable wounds of 59 patients, and it's been known to help heal everything from ulcers to sunburn. According to the International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds, positive findings on honey in wound care have been reported from v:

  • 17 randomized controlled trials involving a total of 1965 participants
  • Five clinical trials of other forms involving 97 participants
  • 16 trials on a total of 533 wounds on experimental animals

A study published in the summer of 2009 also found that chronic rhinosinusitis sufferers might benefit from honey vi. In 11 isolates of three separate biofilms, honey was found to be significantly more effective than commonly-used antibiotics in killing both planktonic and biofilm-grown forms of pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) and staphylococcus aureus (SA), two important factors in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS).

The findings may hold important clinical implications in the treatment of CRS, which affects 31 million people each year in the United States alone, and is among the three most common chronic diseases in North America.

Helpful Additions to Your Home First Aid Kit

If you're considering using honey to treat a mild burn, sunburn, or small wound at home, make sure to use either Manuka or raw honey. Like the Manuka honey, high quality RAW honey will help draw fluid away from your wound and suppress the growth of microorganisms. Part of what gives raw honey its antibacterial properties is an enzyme called glucose oxidase, which the worker bees excrete into the nectar. This enzyme releases low levels of hydrogen peroxide when the honey makes contact with your wound. A chemical reaction between the honey and the tissue also makes your wound smell good. Heated honey will destroy this perishable enzyme which is why you want to only use raw honey for this application.

For your home care kit, two other natural wound dressings that offer impressive results without drugs are Duoderm and HemCon bandages. The HemCon bandages are made from a natural protein found in shrimp shells, which not only promotes clotting, but also offer an effective antibacterial barrier against microorganisms such as MRSA and VRE—two common antibiotic-resistant strains.

While the focus of this article is on the topical uses and benefits of honey, it also has numerous health benefits when consumed in moderation. For more information about the health benefits of honey, please review the related articles below.

REFERENCES

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This Revolting Practice Targets Poor Unsuspecting People First – And You Next

February 19, 2012 by admin · Comments Off 

By Dr. Mercola

One of the most frustrating characteristics of multi-national drug corporations is their commitment to the corporate mantra of maximizing profits for their shareholders at any cost, including that of human lives.

The testing of dangerous drugs and vaccines on children is an area that is particularly risk-filled...

The Nuremberg Codei provides ethical guidelines for medical researchers to protect human test subjects in scientific experiments from injury, disability or death.

The first principle of the Nuremberg Code—that doctors must obtain voluntary informed consent from the person about to be experimented on—appears to be frequently ignored, especially when it comes to clinical trials of experimental vaccines.

In recent news, the Argentinean Federation of Health Professionals accused GlaxoSmithKline of misleading participants and pressuring impoverished, disadvantaged families into enrolling their children in clinical trials of the experimental Synflorix pediatric pneumonia vaccine.

Fourteen of the children participating in the experimental vaccine trial died. Glaxo Smith Kline denies the charges and says it will appeal the nearly $240,000 fine imposed on the company and two doctors. According to CNNii:

"The deaths of 14 children, who reportedly died after participating in the trials, have drawn widespread attention in Argentinean media... GlaxoSmithKline categorically denies that the vaccine caused the deaths... But the health professional federation pointed to the children's deaths in its call for increased regulations on drug testing."

The death of 14 children in a vaccine trial SHOULD draw widespread attention, but while it's a major news item in Argentina, the US approach seems coldly indifferent, to say the least. Why is this? Why are U.S. health officials expressing concern when children die from other causes but are turning a blind eye to the tragedy of children being killed by both experimental and licensed drugs and vaccines? That makes no sense at all!

Preying on the Poor and Illiterate

This certainly is not the first time children have died during drug company trials. It's also not the first time a pharmaceutical company has been accused of being less than completely honest about experimental vaccine or drug risks, when they want to persuade poor, under-educated people into signing up for clinical trials.

For example, according to Nigerian authorities, Pfizer illegally tested an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital in 1996. Eleven of the children died and dozens were disabled before the illegal activity was exposed.

Similarly, two years ago, the Indian government suspended Merck's Gardasil study after they discovered that four of the young clinical trial participants had died after receiving Gardasil, and more than 120 girls suffered severe adverse reactions. A civil society-led investigation into the vaccine trial highlighted serious violations of ethical guidelines for clinical research and informed consent rights of study participants or their legal guardians.

Again and again we see how major drug companies scheme to enlist people, who do not have full information about experimental vaccine or drug risks and are effectively turned into human guinea pigs in scientific experiments. In fact, this almost seems to be more the rule than the exception.

Likewise, we see how conventional medicine, in general, downplays the inherent risks of drugs and vaccines. Fourteen children died in GSK's pneumonia vaccine trial and, yet, we're supposed to believe that every single one of those deaths was completely unrelated to the vaccine. Another case in point is the shocking lack of respect for individual human life in the approval of a pediatric anthrax vaccine trial by the National Biodefense Science Board!

Pediatric Anthrax Vaccine—A Disaster in the Making?

Last year, I interviewed Dr. Meryl Nass about anthrax, and she was the one who brought this terrible situation to my attention.  The idea of public health officials promoting the testing of anthrax vaccine on children is truly unfathomable considering the fact that the military's controversial mandatory anthrax vaccination program has already resulted in many reports of anthrax vaccine injuries and deaths in soldiers and civilian military personnel. Side effects occur in one to two percent of those given anthrax vaccine and 11 percent of all anthrax vaccine adverse event reports are considered serious.  

The FDA's definition of a "serious adverse reaction" to a vaccine includes a reaction that leads to:

  • Hospitalization
  • Permanent disability
  • Life-threatening event
  • Death

Anthrax vaccine was mandated by DOD for all soldiers deployed in the Gulf War to theoretically protect them against a bioterrorism attack using weaponized, inhalation anthrax. Since then, the anthrax vaccine has been implicated in the development of so-called Gulf War syndrome, and Dr. Nass believes it's a viable candidate as one of the contributing factors. Meanwhile, animal studies have shown the vaccine to be rather ineffective against anthrax infection... So, what might the ramifications of giving anthrax vaccine to infants be?  I shudder to even consider it! The very idea of subjecting infants to such a hazardous vaccine seems, quite frankly, unconscionable.

In Dr. Nass' words:

"It's completely crazy, and it's illegal.  It can only be done because the Department of Health and Human Services is denying that there are serious adverse reactions.  They have their National Biodefense Science Board, which by the way has two people who were very important in running the anthrax vaccine program in the military on that board, and their job is to protect the good name of the anthrax vaccine.

One is John Grabenstein. He ran the military vaccine program and ran the anthrax vaccine program first.  He was instrumental in creating a whole series of scientific studies that were misrepresented and poorly done to try to show that the vaccine was safe when it wasn't safe.  He's a very unethical researcher.  He is a pharmacist with a PhD, and of course where did he go after he left the military? He went to Merck and works as a so-called scientist in their vaccine division… Merck knew that this guy was unethical; that he was cooking the books on the research, and they hired him anyway."

Unethical Drug Trials Overseas: A Growing Problem

According to a 2011 investigative report published by Vanity Fairiii, 6,485 clinical drug trials were conducted overseas in 2008, up from just 271 overseas trials in 1990. And tracking of these trials is virtually non-existent. This can be a very serious problem when you consider that about 80 percent of the applications submitted to the US FDA for new drugs contain data from these foreign trials... Worse yet, drug companies are not required to report studies conducted overseas, which leaves the door wide open for studies with negative results to simply disappear.

There's also very little accountability in terms of the accuracy of these trials because many of them are not performed by academic researchers but by independent contractors, who do everything from devising and performing the trial, to reporting on the results, ghostwriting technical articles and creating promotional campaigns for the drug. There can be no doubt that scientific experiments and clinical trials that do not contain adequate informed consent protections puts innocent human participants at risk for injury and death and is a violation of our most basic freedoms and human rights.

Is a Pneumonia Vaccine Even Necessary?

Getting back to GlaxoSmithKline's pneumonia vaccine trial—in which 14 children died—a big question that really deserves an honest answer is whether such a vaccine is necessary. It is true that pneumonia, which is a severe form of acute lower respiratory infection that specifically affects your lungs, can have serious, life-threatening complications. According to the 2006 UNICEF report, Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Childreniv, complications from pneumonia kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

An estimated 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost 1 in 5 deaths of children under the age of five, worldwide, with South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa bearing the burden of more than half of the total number of pneumonia cases.  That said, the debate is not about whether pneumonia is a serious infection or not—it is.

However, UNICEF has also detailed the most effective forms of prevention of pneumonia, which include: 

  1. Exclusive breast feeding
  2. Promoting adequate nutrition and zinc supplementation
  3. Reducing indoor air pollution
  4. Expanding vaccine coverage 

While vaccination is on the list, it's by no means the most important prevention strategy. To highlight the effectiveness of simple and inexpensive nutritional intervention, consider this: After reviewing a total of 10 studies, investigators at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that zinc supplementation alone reduces the risk of pneumonia by 41 percent!

Some people, who prefer to use more natural holistic health approach to staying well, have used essential oils to help prevent respiratory infections like pneumonia. Some essential oils -- oregano, thyme and rosewood oils in particular – appear to create an autolytic reaction in organisms, including Streptococcus pneumonia. One researcher found that spraying these essential oils on S. pneumonia cells in the laboratory setting prompted the cells to fall apart!

How to Reduce Your Risk of Infectious Disease Without a Vaccine ...

Most people, who have become educated about vaccination and health, would be quite skeptical about voluntarily enrolling their child into a vaccine clinical trial. But, as discussed, many of these trials are conducted overseas, in underdeveloped countries, where families do not have the education to understand the risks they are taking or the means to protest being used as human guinea pigs in drug company sponsored scientific experiments. Some of these unsuspecting research subjects die and others are left with permanent health problems that can destroy their lives and their families.

This is a travesty. I long for the day our medical system will stop violating the informed consent rights of human subjects participating in clinical trials and drug companies will stop treating the people, who die and are injured in clinical trials, as the cost of doing business.  Unfortunately, I don't think the system will change on its own. It will only change once enough people see through it, and refuse to buy into the false promise that a pill  will cure every ill and a vaccine will prevent every disease...

It's so important to understand that, overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system. Vaccines can actually compromise healthy immune function and this is true, regardless of your age. Two of the most important factors influencing the health of your immune system are:

  • Your gut flora, and
  • Your vitamin D status

About 80 percent of your immune system resides in your gut, so maintaining a healthy gut flora is imperative for a fully functioning immune system. Also, if your child's gut is populated with too many pathogens, he or she is likely to be more prone to vaccine damage. For more information about this, I highly recommend listening to my interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.

Vitamin D is another crucial component for maintaining optimal health, so I urge you to get your children's vitamin D levels tested, and, if found deficient, to follow my recommendations for optimizing their levels.  

Artificially manipulating your immune system with a vaccine does not produce the same kind of immunity and sought after disease-fighting results that a healthy lifestyle can. It may actually make you less healthy in the long run. For more information, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a good place to start to do research and obtain information that you need to make intelligent, informed decisions about vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

The media is quick to warn about the dangers of infectious diseases but rarely discuss the dangers of the vaccines against those diseases. This has created a very lopsided view of the safety of vaccines. So please, if you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper, or make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down.  Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

To learn more about informed consent, the six principles for protecting your vaccine choices, and a summary of the U.S. law pertaining to vaccine exemptions, please review the article, STOP! Read This Before Vaccinating for Anything. 

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

  • NVIC Advocacy Portal: Protect vaccine exemptions in YOUR state. Sign up to use the free online Advocacy Portal and stay informed about threats to your legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices so you can take immediate action by contacting your state legislators with the click of a mouse or touch on your SmartPhone screen.
  • NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
  • If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
  • Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or  government officials for making independent vaccine choices.

References:

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These Foods Have ‘Invisible Thorns’ Which Can Rip Apart Your Insides

February 18, 2012 by admin · Comments Off 

By Dr. Mercola

"You are what you eat" is one of the most profound and instructive sayings ever to be passed down to us through the ages, and thanks to an explosion of exciting new research into the way that food directly affects your genes, it can no longer be written off as merely a metaphorical expression. 

In fact, food provides far more than just the material "building blocks" and "fuel" for the 'body-machine; it is also a source of genetic information, which is capable of informing the cells and processes within your body, for better or for worse.

What is quite amazing is the difference in biological response when comparing the right and wrong types of foods.

In fact, new research has revealed that eating the wrong plants can actually directly alter your genetic expression, which can lead to a myriad of diseases.

Micro-RNA Molecules from Your Food May Control Up to 30 Percent of Your Genes

Groundbreaking new research shows that microscopic RNA in the plants you consume enters your body and is actually capable of affecting the expression of up to 30% of your genes!

Never before could it have been imagined that your "genes" could be so profoundly affected by things you eat.

There is also the field of lectinology, which has opened our eyes to how plants – particularly grains and legumes – have a set of defenses, not unlike "invisible thorns," which can cause direct, non-immune mediated harm to a wide range of tissues and organs within your body.

Medical science is beginning to awaken to how profoundly food is intertwined with health and disease, and how nutrients affect genes, and how our genes respond to nutrients. This, in fact, is the field of study known as Nutrigenomics – something, I believe, you will be hearing far more about as the science begins to gain wider appreciation. It is a burgeoning new field, in fact launched soon after the completion of a working draft of the Human Genome project (2003), which failed to provide the long sought after "holy grail" of modern biology.

In a nutshell, the project failed to identify one gene for every one protein in the human body, forcing researchers to look to epigenetic factors --  namely, "factors beyond the control of the gene" – to explain how the body is formed, and how it works.  What is the most important factor beyond the control of the gene? Diet.

Eating the Wrong Plants Can Mess With Your DNA Expression

Chances are you've never heard of micro RNA (miRNA) … but that doesn't mean it hasn't already been impacting your health …  RNA is one of three major macromolecules, like DNA. Micro RNA are basically small pieces of RNA that interact with your genes, essentially stopping certain genes from being expressed.

MiRNA exists in human body fluid naturally; for instance, researchers have detected high expression levels of immune-related miRNAs in breast milk, particularly during the first 6 months of lactation. It's thought that this genetic material is transferred from mother to baby to help modulate the development of the infant's immune system. Cow's milk also contains miRNA, which is currently being explored as a possible new standard for the quality control of raw milk.

However, micro RNA also exists in plants, and for the first time research has shown that eating the wrong plants may transfer this plant miRNA  to humans -- with potentially devastating implications.

The study, published in the September 2011 edition of the journal Cell Research, determined that microRNA from cooked plant foods like rice, wheat and potatoes can in fact collect in your blood and tissue, leading to a number of potential health problems.

The study further revealed that microRNA remains completely stable after not only cooking, but through the digestion process as well. Most importantly, the researchers found a significant quantity of microRNA in the human body, concluding that:

" … plant miRNAs are primarily acquired orally, through food intake."

So whenever you eat rice and certain other plant foods, including potatoes and wheat, you are ingesting genetic material that may turn certain genes "off." To date, microRNA has been implicated in a number of diseases ranging from cancer and diabetes to Alzheimer's disease. But what exactly is microRNA, and why is it so important?

"Gene Regulators" in Your Rice, Wheat and Potatoes

MicroRNA has been widely shown to alter many critical biological processes, including apoptosis – the process of programmed cell death and DNA fragmentation. As a result, the dysregulation of microRNAs has been linked to cancer and various other diseases. However microRNA are also responsible for regulating your genes on a very large scale. As mentioned, it has been estimated that miRNAs account for less than 1% of genes in mammals, but that up to 30% of genes are regulated by them.

Amazingly, microRNAs are known to regulate the flow of genetic information by controlling the translation or stability of something known as messenger RNAs, which is a molecule of RNA that carries valuable genetic coding information within your body.

What's more, this plant miRNA has been shown to interfere with human microRNA by mimicking it and binding to the receptors. In the study, researchers examined the two highest levels of these microRNAs in human participants, and found that it is shockingly prevalent among many dietary plant staples.

As results of the study show, three microRNAs were detected in rice and other foods including Chinese cabbage, wheat, and potato. Of course these are all highly common food staples for many families not only in the United States, but around the world. This means that you may be unknowingly consuming plant microRNAs that could be increasing your risk of cancer and other disease. Even more concerning is the fact that the study authors observed this effect in both healthy men and women, reporting:

"Upon investigation of the global miRNA expression profile in human serum, we found that exogenous plant miRNAs were consistently present in the serum of healthy… men and women."

What you eat, therefore, is who you are in the most literal sense possible.

This fact, while often overlooked, is fundamental in understanding how to optimize your health. If you eat the right foods, you thrive; eat the wrong foods, and you suffer. The problem is the field of nutrition is infused with the same intensity of impassioned debate and confusion as religion and politics – and rarely, only rarely do you get a clear picture of what is good for you, as an individual.

It can take a lifetime to figure out how to perfect a diet, particularly one suitable for you as an individual. The good news is that modern research is beginning to make headway in figuring out what is good for virtually all humans, at least in most cases. Certain foods appear to be problematic for many … and most grains continue to be at the top of this list.

Lectins: "Invisible Thorns" of the Plant Kingdom

MicroRNAs are only one component of plant foods that stretch beyond the scope of vitamins and minerals … Did you know, for instance, that many of the plants we consume for food, particularly grains and legumes, contain chemical and physical defenses that protect against being eaten?

These include anti-nutrients that interfere with the digestion of starches (anti-amylase), proteins (protease inhibitors), minerals (phytate), and many other similar molecules. Sprouting, fermentation, cooking and processing can sometimes reduce and/or eliminate these substances, but not in all cases.

There is one category, of particular interest, known as lectins. Lectins get their name from the Latin word legere, from which the word "Select" derives – and that is exactly what they do: they select (attach to) a very specific number of biological structures.

Lectins are capable of disrupting the health of the creatures that consume them, often piercing through the protective coating of their digestive tracts, and gaining entry into systemic circulation.

Wheat, for instance, contains an exceptionally small lectin known as wheat germ agglutinin or WGA, which is capable of attaching to the surface proteins of nearly all of its natural predators, from bacterial to fungi, worms to insects, mice to men.

Because all of the these creatures are composed, in part, of the biopolymer n-acetyl-glucosamine, and because WGA is designed to attach – exactly and exclusively – to this glycoprotein (part sugar, part protein), it is Nature's ingenious way of saying: "Hey, back off!" – at least when it comes to eating excessive amounts of the seed storage form of the mature grass plant, e.g. cereal grains.

In an article published on GreenMedInfo.com, Sayer Ji describes lectins as "invisible thorns," explaining:

"Nature engineers, within all species, a set of defenses against predation, though not all are as obvious as the thorns on a rose or the horns on a rhinoceros. Plants do not have the cell-mediated immunity of higher life forms, like ants, nor do they have the antibody driven, secondary immune systems of vertebrates with jaws. They must rely on a much simpler, innate immunity.

It is for this reason that seeds of the grass family, e.g. rice, wheat, spelt, rye, have exceptionally high levels of defensive glycoproteins known as lectins. These  'invisible thorns' are an ingenius means of survival."

Lectins were first discovered in castor bean casings, which contain the lectin ricin. Ricin is so toxic that only a dose the size of a few grains of salt can kill an adult if injected or inhaled. In fact, the US military investigated it for potential military use in the First World War.  Like micro RNA, lectins are capable of directly affecting gene expression within cells.

The Very Real Danger of Genetically Engineered Foods

Given the fact that research now shows microRNA are appearing in humans who eat rice, it brings up many questions about the way the food we eat interacts with our physiology. While the Cell Research study had nothing specifically to do with genetically modified foods, the implications have everything to do with them.

MicroRNA appears to have dangerous implications for human health, so it stands to reason that genetic modification, which by definition involves organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered, may too. Further, it brings up a whole new way by which GM foods might harm human health, considering researchers have been using genes very similar to micro RNA to "turn off" certain plant genes.

As reported in The Atlantic:

"Researchers have been using this phenomena to their advantage in the form of small, engineered RNA strands that are virtually identical to miRNA. In a technique called RNA interference, or RNA knockdown, these small bits of RNA are used to turn off, or "knock down," certain genes.

RNA knockdown was first used commercially in 1994 to create the Flavor Savr, a tomato with increased shelf life. In 2007, several research teams began reporting success at engineering plant RNA to kill insect predators, by knocking down certain genes. As reported in MIT's Technology Review on November 5, 2007, researchers in China used RNA knockdown to make:

 ' ...cotton plants that silence a gene that allows cotton bollworms to process the toxin gossypol, which occurs naturally in cotton. Bollworms that eat the genetically engineered cotton can't make their toxin-processing proteins, and they die.'

And:

'Researchers at Monsanto and Devgen, a Belgian company, made corn plants that silence a gene essential for energy production in corn rootworms; ingestion wipes out the worms within 12 days.'

Humans and insects have a lot in common, genetically. If miRNA can in fact survive the gut then it's entirely possible that miRNA intended to influence insect gene regulation could also affect humans."

The research on micro RNA also has implications on the very doctrine by which biotech companies make claim to GM food safety: substantial equivalence (the idea that there is no difference between GM and non-GM crops). There is obviously much left to be discovered about how DNA and RNA interacts with human beings … and it is becoming increasingly clear that plants with altered DNA cannot be "substantially equivalent" to their natural counterparts. The Atlantic continues:

" … if companies like Monsanto want to use processes like RNA interference to make plants that can kill insects via genetic pathways that might resemble our own, some kind of testing has to happen. A good place to start would be the testing of introduced DNA for other effects -- miRNA-mediated or otherwise -- beyond the specific proteins they code for. But the status quo, according to Monsanto's website, is:

'There is no need to test the safety of DNA introduced into GM crops. DNA (and resulting RNA) is present in almost all foods. DNA is non-toxic and the presence of DNA, in and of itself, presents no hazard.'

Given what we know, that stance is arrogant. Time will tell if it's reckless. There are computational methods of investigating whether unintended RNAs are likely to be knocking down any human genes. But thanks to this position, the best we can do is hope they're using them. Given it's opposition to the labeling of GM foods as well, it seems clear that Monsanto wants you to close your eyes, open your mouth, and swallow."

How Can You Eat to Optimize Your Genetic Expression?

Given the knowledge that the food you consume ultimately becomes the life source of your entire body, it is important that you eat well not only to utilize vital nutrients but also to optimize your genetic expression.

This is cutting-edge information, but it is becoming very clear that there is far more to "food" than vitamins and minerals. Research has only scratched the surface into micro RNAs and their impacts on human health, but the preliminary research suggests they may provide one more method by which grains may harm your health.

For most, it appears healthy eating entails limiting carbohydrates from grains and potatoes, and instead focusing on carbs from vegetable sources. This is in line with the "Paleo" way of eating, which involves focusing on foods that are in line with your genetic ancestry, such as vegetables, nuts and grass-fed meats, while limiting sugars and grains. Cereals, potatoes and bread were non-existent prior to the dawn of agriculture, and there's reason to believe these foods are discordant with our ancient genome. We need to relearn what foods are ideal for our bodies not just to live on, but to thrive on.

You can find more information about how to eat to support positive genetic expression in my nutrition plan. Also keep in mind that your diet is but one way to influence your genetic expression. Your emotions, pharmaceutical drugs, exposure to pollutants, and even exposure to sunlight (vitamin D) and supplements like curcumin play a role in how your genes are expressed.

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