Month: December 2008

Crusador Interviews Christopher Barr

“Once there is an active heart problem the importance of magnesium actually increases considerably.  This has actually been noted in medical research since the 1950s.”  — Christopher Barr

by Mike Adams

(NaturalNews) Vaccinations are modern medicine's most-favored form of quackery. Even while the bulk of the evidence shows vaccines and flu shots ultimately harm more people than they help, they continue to be pushed by doctors, drug companies and state health authorities. Now you can add pediatricians to that list.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, a group of drug-pushing doctors that claim to care for children, is now demanding that parents get their children injected with an annual flu shot vaccine — even for six-month-old babies! According to the new AAP guidelines, all children from six months to eighteen years old should receive an annual flu shot vaccine injection even though flu shots have been scientifically shown to be effective on only about one percent of those receiving them!

But here's the most disturbing part: The AAP is now aggressively attacking anyone who suggests flu shot vaccines should be spaced apart or skipped altogether in order to reduce the vaccine burden on a child.

The cumulative toxic vaccine burden
With a child in the U.S. now receiving upwards of 130 different vaccines (many are combined into a single shot, so it's not 130 shots), it only makes logical sense to wonder whether there's such a thing as a cumulative toxic vaccine burden that might harm the health of a child. But the AAP apparently believes there's no limit to the number of vaccines a child may be given. Even a six-month old infant may receive a thousand different vaccines as long as they are demanded by health authorities.

Any doctors or health authority who questions vaccines today is immediately branded a quack by the pro-drug, pro-chemical medical establishment, and vaccines have become the dividing issue that separates the medically insane from the sane. Those who push for mandatory vaccines (like HPV) and annual flu shots for infants are, of course, the insane "mad doctors" who think the human body is somehow deficient in viral DNA fragments and must be supplemented with any number of such injections in order to be healthy.

The agenda of the insane vaccine pushers is to literally criminalize all parents who object to vaccines and strip the medical licenses of any doctors who urge caution on vaccines. Importantly, they claim there is no room for debate on the issue of vaccines because they are so righteous in their vaccine wisdom that no reasonable person can even question the reasoning behind a child being injected with over a hundred vaccines.

Vaccine pushers have become irrational zealots
By taking this position, the pro-vaccine pushers have revealed themselves as irrational vaccine zealots who promote their chemical agenda not because it makes scientific sense, nor because it is medically justified, but rather because it is their demented way of dominating and controlling the population.

The pro-vaccine doctors have become a cult, and in this cult instead of sacrificing all your money and possessions, you sacrifice the health of your own children, turning them into modern medicine's lab rats who are subjected to outrageous medical experiments. (Let's face it: Injecting a child with 130+ vaccines is nothing less than a medical experiment.)

The frightening thing about this cult is that its power over the population is enforced at gunpoint. Try to resist the vaccination cult's directives, and you may find yourself arrested at gunpoint, your children kidnapped by state health authorities (CPS) and you end up in jail, charged with neglecting your child's health.

That's no exaggeration: In states like Maryland, parents are already being threatened with imprisonment for failing to get their children vaccinated, and the vaccine cultist are pushing for mandatory vaccine laws throughout the nation.

The radicalization of the vaccine pushers
In attempting to criticize opposition to his fabricated war on Iraq, President Bush famously said, "You're either with us, or you're with the terrorists." This extremist stance is now mirrored by the vaccine pushers who are essentially saying, "You either agree with us, or you're a criminal."

Such a position leaves zero room for thoughtful debate, eliminating the possibility of coherent discussion over possible health threats that might be posed by vaccines. It's also a clear sign of the radicalization of the vaccine pushers who unfortunately seem to hold positions of high authority in modern society.

As the vaccine-pushing cult becomes more radicalized and even militarized (due to gunpoint enforcement, attack dogs at the Maryland courthouse vaccine enforcement event, etc.) it runs the risk of looking more and more like a home-grown terrorist group. It already shares many similarities with terrorist groups: The use of fear to promote its agenda, the use of chemical weapons that harm and kill civilians, the use of firearms and violent weapons to enforce its agenda, and the adoption of an intellectually-extremist position that declares all opponents to be criminals.

It's true that medical violence against children is routinely tolerated in America today. There is no crime modern medicine can commit against children that's outrageous enough to warrant an arrest of the medical authorities, apparently: They can poison children with chemicals, maim them with medically unnecessary surgery, destroy their brains with psychiatric drugs, burn their flesh with radiation treatments and obliterate their immune systems with chemotherapy, but as long as it's approved by a doctor, nobody seems to question this violent medical abuse of a child.

And when angry parents try to fight the system by petitioning the government to end mandatory vaccine regulations, for example, they are immediately called "scientifically illiterate" and accused of neglect.

That's the key to all this, of course: Any parent who objects to vaccines is effectively threatened with being arrested for daring to oppose the all-powerful medical authorities. It is through this blanket of fear that most parents are motivated to shut their mouths, take the shots and stop asking questions about things like autism.

Losing your freedoms AND your health
So what does it all really mean? It means pro-vaccine doctors are not only a threat to your child's health, but also a threat to your freedoms! These vaccine-pushing health authorities aren't running a public health campaign; they're running a militant cult that declares all who oppose it to be criminals deserving arrest and imprisonment.

Like all such militant cults that rise to power, the vaccine pushers need to have their power checked before they become an even greater threat to the health and safety of families everywhere. This could be easily accomplished with the passage of health freedom laws that would establish the permanent right of parents to refuse to subject their children to chemical concoctions they object to.

The fact that we even have to consider new laws to protect such rights demonstrates just how much of a threat to health freedoms the vaccine pushers have already become. When governments and state-license health authorities are given the power to override the commonsense decisions of parents, the very fabric of freedom is beginning to fray.

Or, put another way, when parents who try to protect their own children from a dangerous accumulation of toxic chemicals are branded criminals and imprisoned, a dangerous threshold has been crossed that takes the entire nation further away from anything resembling freedom and a lot closer to a medical police state.

The future of militant medicine in America
If this militant vaccine agenda isn't stopped, and if medical authorities are given even more state power over the People, it's not hard to imagine a future where:

• Where chemotherapy is administered to children at gunpoint and those who resist are arrested.

• Where refusing to put a child on psychiatric drugs is considered justifiable grounds for mandatory psychiatric medication of the parents (in a mental institution, of course!).

• Where all information on the internet that challenges vaccines or pharmaceuticals is censored, and those who dare to publish it are arrested and "disappeared." Imagine a Gitmo for bloggers…

• Where vaccine pushers demand an ever-increasing barrage of vaccines for all children, reaching a point of utter insanity where 1000 or more vaccines are injected into a six-month-old baby.

• Where feeding your child vitamins is considered a crime, and children are even "drug tested" for traces of vitamins, and those found to carry such traces are taken away from their parents by Child Protective Services.

Do these possibilities seem outlandish? The idea that parents could be arrested for refusing to subject their child to chemotherapy also seemed outlandish at one time, but now it's a present-day reality. The idea that the State would send letters to thousands of parents, threatening them with jail time if they didn't submit their children to a "vaccination processing line" at the local courthouse also once seemed outlandish. But now it's an historical fact.

That something seems crazy has never been sufficient to prevent it from actually occurring, and the medical authorities seem willing to abandon human rights more quickly than just about any other group, including terrorist groups. Most terrorist groups, after all, tend to target adults (9/11, for example) while the vaccine pushers are targeting children. Terrorist groups also tend to target populations of other nations, while the vaccine pushers are targeting the children of their own countries.

This is not to say that vaccine-pushing doctors ARE terrorists, only that they use tactics and have embraced extremist views that are frighteningly similar to terrorists. Obviously, doctors don't use bombs, fragmentation grenades and rocket launchers to harm people. They use chemical poisons, heavy metals and viral fragments instead.

Perhaps we should start referring to the act of receiving a vaccination injection as "being fragged."

A group of seven Amish farmers in Michigan say the state’s insistence that they use radio frequency ID devices on their animals "constitutes some form of a ‘mark of the Beast’ and/or represents an infringement of their ‘dominion over cattle and all living things’ in violation of their fundamental religious beliefs," according to their lawsuit.

Some Amish, who have a booming business in producing organic milk, disagree with radio ID tagging so strongly that they said they will give up farming if they do not get an exemption.

Amish, members of an Anabaptist Christian denomination, are best known for their literal interpretation of the Bible and their simple lifestyle.

The livestock registration is allegedly intended to create a national tracking system to help contain outbreaks of diseases such as mad cow disease, or foot and mouth.

But the Amish claim that the scheme threatens their religious beliefs because, they believe, it is part of an ongoing attempt to number every living thing, a practice mentioned in Revelations where it is linked with the Devil.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) argues that its cattle tagging plan, part of its National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is voluntary and that the lawsuit should instead be directed at the state of Michigan, which wants to make it compulsory.

The USDA has also pointed out that farmers, including Amish ones, are already using numbered metal studs to track animals.Note: The USDA comment above provides general insight into how the government thinks generally: "Numbered metal studs" farmers use to keep track of their livestock is for private, internal purposes—to government "private" and "public" are the same thing. (DWH).

by Byron Richards

(NaturalNews) This year marks a major turning point in the theory of wellness and the prevention of disease. The drug-based paradigm of Western medicine is crumbling under the weight of its own massive fraud. New technology is proving how nutrients interact at the fundamental gene level to promote health and prevent disease. The discoveries are occurring at a breakneck pace – these are exciting times.

In the face of an obesity epidemic and the early onset of the diseases of aging in even young Americans, there shines a bright ray of hope. It is there for anyone who chooses to inform themselves and then take effective actions to better themselves. The aging clock can be slowed – and in many cases reversed. It is the dawn of a new era.

The following is a list of the Top 10 health breakthroughs of 2008. I know there are many other possible candidates for this Top 10 list. This is my version of the highlights that made 2008 special.

#10 – The Mayo Clinic Places One Foot in the Door of the Real World
Miracles never cease and it appears that the Mayo Clinic is trying to enter the 21st century with at least a finger on the nutritional pulse of reality. In May they put out a press release stating that "Thousands of research studies have documented how the oils known as omega-3 fatty acids can benefit the cardiovascular system, particularly among people diagnosed with coronary artery disease…The most compelling evidence for the cardiovascular benefit provided by omega-3 fatty acids comes from three large controlled trials of 32,000 participants randomized to receive omega-3 fatty acid supplements containing DHA and EPA….These trials showed reductions in cardiovascular events of 19 percent to 45 percent. Overall, these findings suggest that intake of omega-3 fatty acids, whether from dietary sources or fish oil supplements, should be increased, especially in those with or at risk for coronary artery disease."

The breakthrough is not that fish oils prevent and treat heart disease; we've known that for years. The breakthrough is that the vitamin-and-alternative-health-hating Mayo Clinic is telling the world to take fish oil supplements to prevent heart disease. That signifies the initial stages of a paradigm shift of magnitude.

#9 – Bone Health Is One Key to Longevity
Bones can no longer be thought of only in terms of fracture risk and osteoporosis. Bones are constantly giving birth to new cells and these cells play vital roles in metabolism and immunity. For example, when bone cells get inflamed not only does this promote excess bone loss it directly causes fat cells to multiply in white adipose tissue – which clearly explains why women gain weight after menopause as well as the key to stopping the problem.

The highlight study of the year was a detailed gene analysis performed on one of the world's healthiest older men (he was 113 at the time, recently passing away at 114). Researchers expected to find genetic advantages enabling him to live a long life. Much to their surprise, he didn't have any "better genes" at all – he had better bones! And the reason he had better bones was because he ate a diet containing fresh fruit and vegetables (bone anti-inflammatory nutrients) and stayed very active (stimulating bone health).

Needless to say, disastrous bone drugs were not part of his plan.

#8 – Grape Seed Extracts Stop Alzheimer's Plaque
This year's research showed that "normal" brain aging is quite an abnormal process; with the loss of mental capability, intelligence, and memory directly relating to how many plaque-like brain tangles occur. At the far end of the spectrum is Alzheimer's disease – a problem with brain plaque overwhelming healthy brain function. However, there are a thousand shades of grey on the way to this problem, and each step in the wrong direction is marked by ever-increasing levels of brain plaque.

Red grape seed extracts showed that they could stop brain plaque from forming. The new research showed that brain cells must first be punched in the nose by some form of stress, get inflamed, and then begin to express certain genes that promote plaque formation. Red grape seed extracts simply stop this process from occurring. Not only that, they are powerful protection for the lining of your arteries – helping to stop plaque formation there as well.

#7 – Vitamin D for Anything and Everything
A major question during 2008 was: "Is there anything that vitamin D does not help?" Vitamin D's role in bone metabolism is well known. Its role as a hormone is less well known but very important. As a bewildering array of breaking science now shows, vitamin D is a gene-regulating super nutrient. It is vital for efficient immune function, prevention of autoimmune problems, healthy metabolism, proper thyroid function, prevention of type I and type II diabetes, prevention of heart disease, cancer prevention, and improved nervous system health and mood.

The sunshine vitamin is indeed a wonder nutrient. The American Cancer Society sits around with major mud on its face, doing everything in its power to prevent people from getting vitamin D – a problem made worse in the winter months when none is available for most of the U.S. And as usual, our bumbling government won't let all Americans know that they need 1200 IU to 2000 IU of vitamin D per day, especially in the winter, to help prevent major health problems.

#6 – Resveratrol Turns Back the Clock
An explosion in resveratrol science hit the front pages of the news around the world, as Big Pharma spent millions trying to make resveratrol drugs. The Big Pharma spending is interesting for several reasons:

1) Just imagine how much we could learn if our government would spend money studying all major nutrients in widespread use.

2) The resveratrol nutrient that is already on the market will end up working better than any drug made.

Resveratrol activates a gene called SIRT1, which has a profound disease prevention and anti-aging effect. SIRT1 is normally activated by calorie restriction in times of famine. However, in today's world of excess food consumption it will be a major tool to prevent and treat the coming obesity epidemic and all its health complications.

It is already clear that the supplement works best when you are on a good diet, as too much food simply turns off SIRT1. Its value during a diet is that it helps your muscles work better on fewer calories so that you can actually lose weight while feeling great.

Even if you aren't overweight, the other main point is that resveratrol will help you live longer – a fact borne out by the lifespan in various regions of France that have the highest content of resveratrol in their red wine.

#5 – The Digestive Genome Marks the New Frontier of Health
The mapping of the human genome was a monumental accomplishment that has yielded unexpected information. As scientists began to unravel the mysteries of how the human genome is controlled, they quickly found that many of the signals controlling health were coming from the foreign contents within your digestive tract. Like the space race to the moon, the new health frontier is now the genomes of the trillions of foreign cells that comprise your digestive tract.

A treasure trove of information has already been uncovered. Many of these foreign cells are vital to health and have both a friendly and unfriendly role depending on which of their genes are turned on. A case in point is H.pylori and Candida albicans, both of which are considered unfriendly and both of which are normal inhabitants of your digestive tract and need to be in a friendly condition for optimal digestive health and the prevention of digestive disease. In fact, your personal "foreign cell signature" directly influences your own immune tissue to form along the lining of your digestive tract. It also plays a large role in how much inflammation you experience elsewhere in your body – including your joints and back. Friendly flora is vital to maintaining a state of balance that promotes health.

Decades of damage from the overuse of antibiotics, high sugar diets, junk food, chemicals in the diet, pesticides in the diet, genetically modified toxic food, and excess alcohol can finally be seen for the disease-producers they really are. It will be a long time before your doctor gives you any meaningful advice on this subject, since their profession has helped create an epidemic of poor digestive health that in the light of this emerging science is proving to be a major contributing factor to multiple diseases – not just digestive-related problems.

#4 – The Changing World of Fat, Cholesterol, and Heart Disease
Those basing health decisions on cholesterol numbers and concepts of good and bad cholesterol have been left in the Stone-Age dust. HDL, or "good" cholesterol, can have its proteins oxidized and easily become "bad" just like LDL. Cholesterol itself turns out to be a vital player in the structure of nerve receptors, and its levels are reduced when taking medication to lower numbers of LDL. Cholesterol fitness, like muscle fitness, is the new concept of cholesterol health that supports true cardiovascular health.

A huge breakthrough occurred this year when it was demonstrated for the first time that fat accumulating around the outside of arteries was the key signal of impending cardiovascular disease. This fat, which builds up in direct proportion to your waistline expanding, was previously thought to be part of the structure of arteries and not play a functional role. New scientific tools have shown that it accumulates in excess, recruits inflammatory immune cells to live in its newly expanded neighborhood, and they generate inflammation into the arteries that knocks out friendly nitric oxide causing blood pressure to rise and simultaneously generates massive free radical damage that injures LDL and HDL cholesterol and sets the plaquing process in motion.

This is made worse if blood levels of triglycerides stay high during the day – which is caused by eating meals that are too large, snacking between meals, and not exercising.

#3 – How Much BDNF is In Your Bank Account?
Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF) may well be the molecule of the year. BDNF is key to keeping your nerve cells alive and stimulating the growth of new nerve cells. Since your nerve cells are important for regulating everything else, keeping them in top working condition not only means that your mind will stay sharp it means you are likely to live longer and healthier.

This year scientists proved the immense value of having adequate BDNF for virtually any issue of nerve and brain related health. If your supplies run low then you cannot tolerate stress properly, you are more likely to be or become depressed, your brain is prone to excess inflammation, and you are set on a path of decline. Conversely, having adequate BDNF helps you keep up with the demands in your life. It means that you have the potential to keep your mind and nerves in good working condition.

For example, when you have adequate BDNF then old memories don't bother you or come back to haunt you at the most inopportune times. Having adequate BDNF may be a key, along with being a good person, to maintaining healthy relationships.

This year scientists demonstrated that fish oil, blueberries, curcumin, and pantethine all help boost the production of BDNF.

#2 – Run for Your Life
Running is now proven to be the single activity with the most bang for the longevity buck. Early in the year papers emphasized the importance of running in human evolution. It was also found that running is the best exercise to boost levels of BDNF. It was proven that running can rejuvenate your heart and even brisk walking can effectively lower your blood pressure.

The highlight of the year was the result of a 20-year study on running over the age of 50. It found that those who ran cut their risk of premature death in half! No drug can do that.

It also found that runners had less cardiovascular disease, fewer cancer deaths, less cognitive decline, and better immunity – and their joints were in good condition.
Running turns on gene signals associated with health – it's that simple. The choice is yours.

#1 – Thyroid Health is for Everyone
A startling array of thyroid-related studies have shown that even a slightly off thyroid sends you down a path of poor health. While thyroid issues are often associated with obesity, thyroid problems affect normal weight and underweight people as well. One of the important points to grasp about the emerging science is that these are not thyroid problems that can be treated with medication – as there is usually adequate thyroid hormone. This information is about thyroid stressors such as common pollution like PCBs, perchlorate in the food supply, excess food consumption, and general emotional stress – to name of few.

This year scientific studies showed a sluggish thyroid system was directly related to increased mortality, fatal heart disease, disturbed heart rhythms, elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, lack of coordination, risk of breast cancer, mood problems, glaucoma, and Alzheimer's risk.

You may wonder why so many issues can be associated with a type of thyroid problem that doctors don't even see as a problem. The answer is that your thyroid system sets the metabolic pace of your body, like the drummer in a band sets the tempo. If that tempo is too sluggish then everything else works less well, which means wear and tear accumulates at a faster rate.

You can fix sluggish thyroid problems by eating a cleaner diet, regular exercise, and using nutrients that facilitate healthy thyroid function – especially by enhancing the conversion of T4 to T3 and by providing adequate thyroid-related antioxidants.

The take home message from this year's thyroid news is that you should do everything possible to keep your entire thyroid system working at an optimal level of health. There is no comfort to be found in being "good for your age." The only thing that really matters is optimal function – which is the foundation for your future health.

The era of true anti-aging nutrition is upon us. There are no quick fixes – but there is a path to follow that is now backed by considerable science. Hop on – enjoy quality of health – for a very long time.

by Sherry Baker

(NaturalNews) Why do some people get lung cancer – even if they never smoke? New research suggests eating a lot of processed foods containing inorganic phosphates could be the explanation. What's more, the study also suggests that dietary changes to avoid these chemical additives may play an important role in lung cancer treatment.

In research just published in the January issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society, scientists from Seoul National University conclude that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a host of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might spur the growth of lung cancer. The researchers also suggest the food additive may contribute to the development of malignancies in people predisposed to lung cancer.

Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues studied mice with lung cancer tumors for four weeks. The rodents were randomly assigned to eat a diet of either 0.5 or 1.0 percent phosphate, a range roughly equivalent to what's found in most modern human diets that contain processed foods. At the end of the study period, the animals' lung tissues were analyzed to see what effects the inorganic phosphates had on tumors.

"Our results clearly demonstrated that the diet higher in inorganic phosphates caused an increase in the size of the tumors and stimulated growth of the tumors," Dr. Cho said in a statement to the press. "Our study indicates that increased intake of inorganic phosphates strongly stimulates lung cancer development in mice, and suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may be critical for lung cancer treatment as well as prevention."

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths worldwide. The American Thoracic Society points out that over 75 percent of lung cancers are small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and have an average overall 35-year survival rate of only 14 percent. Previous research has shown that about 90 percent of NSCLC appear to be activated by specific signaling pathways in lung tissue. The new study by Dr. Cho and his research team found that high amounts of dietary inorganic phosphates actually stimulate those same cancer-triggering pathways.

In a statement to the media, John Heffner, M.D., past president of the American Thoracic Society, pointed out that this kind of research in animals can reveal the complex interactions between host factors and the environment that can result in human cancer. "We know that only some patients who smoke develop lung cancer but the reasons for this varying risk are unknown. This study now provides a rationale for funding case-control studies in humans to determine the potential role of dietary phosphates in promoting cancer," Dr. Heffner stated.

While living organisms need a moderate level of phosphate, the use of inorganic phosphates as a food additive to increase water retention and improve food texture artificially has soared over the past decade. That means the average American diet is loaded with excess amounts of phosphates. "In the 1990s, phosphorous-containing food additives contributed an estimated 470 mg per day to the average daily adult diet. However, phosphates are currently being added much more frequently to a large number of processed foods, including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products. As a result, depending on individual food choices, phosphorous intake could be increased by as much as 1000 mg per day," Dr. Cho explained in the media statement.

"The results of this study suggest that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates has a place in lung cancer treatment, and our eventual goal is to collect sufficient information to accurately assess the risk of these phosphates," he said.

By The Idaho Observer

Over the last few years, the list of food and drug recalls, ecoli and other food borne illness outbreaks and food/beverage-induced mass poisonings have become more frequent. Government-approved pharma drugs and chemicals of known toxicity are leeching into the environment and are intentionally added into products being sold to consumers. The most recent corporate food adulteration scandal involves melamine contamination in baby formula. While tragic for the babies themselves and the adults who loved them, the larger lesson of this poisoning is that corporate convenience and profit trump public health and safety when it comes to government regulatory oversight.

Near the end of September 2008, news was broadcast worldwide that 53,000 infants in China had become ill and several died as a result of melamine-contaminated milk.

This wasn’t the first time that Chinese melamine has contaminated products with deadly results. In March, 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began receiving thousands of reports of American cats and dogs dying from kidney failure after eating contaminated pet food. Although only 14 cases were confirmed as "melamine poisoning from pet food," there is no centralized reporting system so the numbers of dogs and cats that died of melamine poisoning was likely much higher.

The pattern being revealed here is the increasingly pervasive presence of melamine contamination in commonly-consumed food products both here in the U.S. and abroad.

What is melamine?

There are several ways to produce melamine, some of which have been patented by Rockefeller’s Standard Oil subsidiary American Cyanamid beginning in 1956. Melamine, which is 66 percent nitrogen by mass, is added to a variety of plastics, resins, coatings and even concrete products to reduce porosity and increase strength. Melamine is also a flame retardant.

the Dutch company DSM, the world’s largest melamine producer, published an "industry update" in April, 2007. The update noted that, between 2002 and 2007, while the global melamine price remained stable, a steep increase in the price of urea (feedstock for melamine) has reduced the profitability of melamine manufacturing.

While melamine is manufactured as an end product, it is also a byproduct of synthesis gas production. "Syngas" production in China has been increasing to meet with the nation’s growing energy needs by converting low-grade coal into liquid fuel through a process that involves the conversion of urea through "pyrolysis" (heat and pressure in the absence of oxygen). Melamine is a byproduct of urea pyrolysis.

Since early 2006, mainland China, with melamine production growing by about 10 percent a year, has been experiencing a "serious surplus" of melamine and has recently become the world’s leading melamine exporter.

The emerging picture is that melamine, as a byproduct of syngas production, like sodium fluoride as a byproduct of aluminum and phosphate fertilizer manufacture (and depleted uranium as a byproduct of nuclear energy production), is expensive to dispose of properly so it is being diluted in commonly-consumed products and sold to people.

Melamine in milk and milk products

Melamine, a white powder that is not approved as a food additive, has very little taste or odor and is illegally being added to milk and milk products. Tests also show that melamine contains zero protein but has a unique chemistry that falsely accentuates the protein values of milk and milk products.

The basic nutrient in milk is the protein "casseinate." Melamine has nearly the same protein structure as casseinate but contains too many nitrogen ions and cannot be absorbed nor excreted by the kidneys and kidney failure eventually results. This can be especially dangerous if one’s diet is high in nitrates such as those found in processed meats like ham, lunchmeat and hot dogs.

Adding melamine to milk powder not only reduces the actual milk content but is much cheaper than milk so it lowers production costs. Melamine can be easily mixed with powdered milk and, since it doesn’t have a unique smell or taste, it cannot be detected by consumers.

Melamine in food

The nitrogen-rich molecule is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase its apparent protein content. It has also been employed as a non-protein nitrogen, appearing in soy meal, corn gluten meal and cottonseed meal used in cattle feed. Melamine is known to cause renal and urinary problems in humans and animals when it reacts with cyanuric acid inside the body.

Background

In 2007, an estimated 50,000 cats and dogs in the U.S. died suddenly due to kidney failure. Investigators traced the cause to pet food that contained melamine-contaminated wheat gluten from China.

Beginning in 2008, hospitals in China reported an abnormal increase in infant cases of kidney stones. By August, 2008, China’s Sanlu Milk Powder tested positive for melamine content.

In September, 2008, New Zealand’s government asked China’s regulators to test milk products. By September 21, 2008, the vast majority of milk-based food products manufactured in China and stored in Taiwan warehouses tested positive for melamine content.

New Zealand, Australia and most E.U. nations responded by ordering a recall of melamine-contaminated products from China and issued public warnings.

In the U.S., however, because of the threat of credit market collapse, our shaky stock market, bank failures and Chinese ownership of $trillions in bonds and real U.S. assets, the Bush Administration’s FDA and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt failed to order recalls or issue a public warning (Curiously, they continue to promote avian flu vaccines which are also manufactured in China by Rockefeller’s Sanofi-Pasteur). Meanwhile, many common food products contain melamine that are sold in stores throughout America.

What happens when melamine is ingested?

Melamine ends up inside the kidneys eventually forming stones which block the tubes that excrete urine. Since the person cannot urinate the pain is intense. The kidneys then swell and eventually begin to bleed. Although surgery can remove the stones, ingestion of melamine will often cause irreversible kidney damage. This can lead to loss of kidney function resulting in death from uremia or, if caught in time, long kidney dialysis—the expensive blood filtering process that takes about four hours every three days—for the rest of one’s life or until damaged kidneys can be replaced.

Why is kidney damage more serious in babies? Kidneys are very small and most modern babies, unfortunately, drink a lot of infant formula. It is estimated that 13,000 infants in China are currently hospitalized but since the media is tightly controlled in China, the actual number may be much higher.

What foods should be avoided?

Foods that contain dairy products from China should be avoided. Most milk chocolate sold is contaminated with melamine. Brand names such as Kraft, Nestle, Dreyer’s, Nabisco, Vitasoy, Mars and countless others use ingredients from China that could be contaminated with melamine.We suggest that you avoid food products from China and products containing Chinese ingredients until further public notice.

If you own a snack bar, restaurant or coffee shop, stop selling dairy-containing products from China. If you have infants at home, change to mother’s milk or find other substitutes such as raw goat’s milk. It is vitally important that you share this information with family and friends so they will understand the risk of melamine-contaminated milk poisoning.

The whole world (the Bush administration notwithstanding) is now deeply concerned with food products made in China or manufactured from ingredients made in China. It is difficult to determine where products are made based upon labels or barcodes. It may be prudent to simply avoid mass-produced and nationally-distributed milk and milk products unless you are certain that they are not imported from China or made from ingredients imported from China.

But where does it end?

If we are to boycott food from China and Taiwan because we suspect it may contain melamine, should we not also boycott food from the U.S. known to contain dangerous FDA-approved additives and drugs, genetically-modified plant and animal products? Should we not boycott U.S. food that has been irradiated to extend shelf life?

We are quickly coming full circle in the food-production cycle. We began as hunter-gatherers who either acquired food or starved. With urbanization came the division of labor and farmers produced food in trade for goods and services produced and supplied by others. Mechanization, coupled with corporatization, replaced farmers and food began being processed and packaged more and more for maximum profit and minimal personal liability to the point we are at today: The food supply sustains corporate profit not human life.

Our two choices are emerging: Eat poisoned food from corporate (fiction) sources and die slowly, or eat wholesome food from local (Creation) sources and live.

by Ron Paul

As another year draws to a close, there are some important transitions ahead of us.  Not just transitions to a new administration, but also economically, politically and culturally.

Many hoped that the changes would signify overwhelming positive steps for our country, and that we would enter a new era, as promised during the campaign.  I would like for this to be true, but based on the continuity so far, I would not be surprised to see America stay on the same course of failed monetary and economic policies.  The course has been set for several decades, and in reality there is little the new administration could do to fix things without actually making them worse.  But I expect them to try.  The only real solutions involve allowing the market to liquidate the debt and malinvestment.  The political reality is that this is not going to happen.

Through the coming months and years, our nation will find itself at many crossroads, as all manner of socialist, corporatist, protectionist and nationalist initiatives will be thrown at the economy to see if anything will reflate it.  Some of these so-called fixes will be enacted amidst much outcry, as with the $700 billion TARP bailout, which the public was right to oppose.  About half of that money is gone without a trace, with no accountability, and the economy is no better off for it.  Others, such as the proposed new $800 billion plus economic stimulus the new administration is already clamoring for, might have limited public support, as many will find the prospect of receiving a government check a little too tempting to object to.  After all, Wall Street got a bailout.  What about the little guy?  Everything will be attempted by government in the short run to remedy the worsening situation – everything, that is, but freedom.  Therefore everything attempted will fail.  Unfortunately, government will continue to consolidate and abuse power at an accelerated pace.  Government will get bigger, in the short term, and as monetary policy goes from irresponsible to absurd, I have every expectation that we will soon shift from some prices falling to an inflationary nightmare.

But there is hope.  As all these attempts fail, more people will demand freedom, and see that it is the only way.  Government can only get so big before the country goes broke.

It is regrettable that we keep forgetting what history has shown over and over to be true, because truly, it is a hard and destructive lesson to keep learning.  Perhaps it is just something that every generation has to learn for itself.  The political and cultural changes that come from these economic transitions will be key to the direction and quality of life for future generations.  But I am hopeful because of the strength of the American people and the increased number of voices recognizing that liberty really is the only way to peace and prosperity.

by Chistopher Barr

“Vitamin pills don’t prevent heart disease,” prominently declared the AP (Associated Propagandaess) “news” headline representative of other “news” coverage given an annual meeting of the American Hurt, er, uh, I mean, Heart, Association.

Heart disease has primarily to do with mineral deficiencies – notably of chromium, selenium , silicon and magnesium – so well grounded nutrition researchers wouldn’t be looking in the direction of vitamin pills.

Specifically, the study noted in the report was on vitamins C and E.  Very few nutrition researchers would look to vitamin C for heart help.  A few more would look to vitamin E though that would be misguided.

The study much ballyhooed by the mainstream press in general is – to quote the bard – much ado about nothing, or at least not very much at all.  It was funded by the National Institutes of Health – your tax dollars at work and a wasted work at that.

Barely getting any attention at all was another study presented at the same meeting disclosing that daily aspirin therapy did not provide any benefit against heart problems.  The AP “news” service made not so much as a mention of it.

Aspirin studies that show heart benefit do not use plain aspirin – they use buffered aspirin.  The buffering agent in buffered aspirin is a hefty dose of magnesium – one of the primary minerals of which deficiency contributes to heart problems.

The benefit of magnesium supplementation to individuals with active heart problems was first documented half a century ago before the first buffered aspirin heart studies were conducted.

Aspirin as a benefit for the heart is a very old canard indeed.

Round and round and round it goes …

The AP article previously noted herein did in its conclusion report that another study with vitamins B-12 and folic acid showed no benefit to the heart.

The vitamins B-12 and folic acid reverse homocysteine to the amino acid methionine.

Homocysteine is a long time demonstrated heart risk indicator though it was long ignored until recent years.

Tragically, more often ignored to this day is that the key to homocysteine issues are pyridoxal compounds commonly known as vitamin B6.

Homocysteine builds up when there is insufficient vitamin B6 to properly metabolize the essential amino acid methionine.

In other words, using vitamin B-12 and folic acid to reverse homocysteine to methionine without addressing the vitamin B6 deficiency that caused the problem in the first place means that homocysteine will form again.  The homocysteine problem never really goes away but rather comes and goes back and forth in a not so merry-go-round and round robin of bird-brained medical minds lacking much in nutrition knowledge even as so many are lack much in nutrition.

Drug pushers protect their turf

Having drug pushers conduct nutrition research is like having foxes guarding chickens.

A straw man argument is when one sets up an argument, assigns it to another, and then burns up that argument while claiming to have discredited another who didn’t even believe that in the first place.

Straw man arguments are the stock in trade of medical men when they argue about nutrition.

Medical men push drugs that you have to appear before them and pay tribute (office vi$it) to get permission to access.  You don’t need their permission to access nutrition so they have no motivation for making use of nutrition.

Another case in point is the story this week that purports to extend statin drug usage even to those without high cholesterol levels.

Statin drugs are already the number one selling drug in America and the new push by these drug pushers would increase that almost 50 per cent.  Yet the study noted numerous side effects from the statins including higher levels of diabetics occurring in those taking the statins … oh, and by the way, diabetics have three to five times as much heart disease as non-diabetics.

Yet, for considerably less than half the cost of statins the ingestion of the essential mineral chromium in a 100 per cent whole food form in hearty (pun intended) amounts results in a decrease of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol that statins provide plus an increase of HDL (“good”) cholesterol that statins do NOT provide with none of the many serious side effects that statins provide.

No permission or tribute to doctors needed for a hearty nutritional approach.

Finally, at the same time as all these other storied medical studies comes word that the AMA has come out in support of trans fats bans.  No mention is made that the common place use of trans fats resulted from rigorous recommendations for many decades from the AMA for their use.  Meanwhile nutrition people who have cried out against trans fats these many decades that AMA has recommended them do not even get a mention.

The AMA declared that stopping use of trans fats would prevent 100,000 deaths per year in the United States alone.  If that is true then the AMA has just admitted liability for 100,000 deaths per year in the United States alone based upon their many decades recommendations of trans fats.

Read in NATURALLY Speaking about simple, plain truths years – even decades – ahead of the mainstream.