Month: February 2010

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

(NaturalNews) This parody cartoon grew out of the idea that vaccines are "shots" that are being increasingly forced upon children and teens. At times, these vaccines are enforced at gunpoint or with the presence of vicious guard dogs — as happened in Maryland two years ago when a court judge ordered thousands of parents to bring their children to court for vaccination or face gunpoint arrest and possible jail time. (http://www.naturalnews.com/022267.html)

Most modern vaccinations are, of course, a form of chemical violence against children. If they were all formulated without chemical preservatives (like thimerosal) and dangerous adjuvants (which can harm the nervous system), that might be a different story. But far too many of today's vaccines are chemical concoctions that are entirely unnatural to the human body. To force them into the bodies of innocent children is an act of medical violence.

The method of introducing the vaccines is unnatural and highly interventionist: These chemicals and DNA / RNA fragments are injected directly into the tissues and blood, bypassing the skin (a normal protective defense) and bypassing the digestive system, too. An injected mandatory vaccine dumps foreign material directly into the bloodstream of children without the consent of either the child or the parents — that's what qualifies mandatory vaccines as "chemical violence" against children.

The Mad Doctor is in
The doctor in this parody cartoon was intentionally created to depict a "crazed" mad doctor because nothing turns an ordinary doctor into a mad man faster than an argument about vaccines. While he may seem to be a reasonable person on all other subjects, once you challenge him on the dangers of over-vaccination of children, all reason gets thrown out the window and he morphs into a raging lunatic of unscientific emotion.

The complete lack of scientific evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines makes no difference to him. "Vaccines need no science," he'll say, "Because everybody knows they work!"

My offer of $10,000 to anyone who can produce a scientific study proving the safety and effectiveness of H1N1 vaccines remains utterly unclaimed: http://www.naturalnews.com/027985_H…

Vaccine failures are common
Meanwhile, in the real world vaccines are failing miserably. A recent outbreak of mumps in the New Jersey / New York area occurred almost entirely among children who had already been vaccinated against mumps. I covered this story here: http://www.naturalnews.com/028142_m…

Clearly if vaccines really worked, then an outbreak should have only occurred among those who were NOT vaccinated against mumps, right? But as I reported here on NaturalNews, 77 percent of the children who got infected had already been vaccinated!

A similar truth emerges when you look at H1N1 deaths: Thousands of those who were vaccinated against H1N1 swine flu had already received the vaccine shots (http://www.naturalnews.com/027956_H…). We still don't know the exact number of how many vaccinated people died because the CDC is hiding that data from the public, making sure the mainstream media doesn't learn the truth that even many of those who were vaccinated still died.

What the CDC and its Big Pharma cohorts want people to mistakenly believe is that vaccines always offer protection against infectious disease. (100% protection). But this is blatantly false. In fact, because vaccines introduce a weakened virus into the body, they may hamper the normal immune response, creating systemic weakness that makes people more vulnerable to future infectious disease. In essence, weakened viruses create weakened immune responses, "training" the immune system to be more passive against future threats. That's why people who received vaccines in the past are far more likely to die of infectious disease in the future.

The Big Lie
Vaccine safety and effectiveness is "the Big Lie" of modern medicine in much the same that the WTC 7 building is "the Big Lie" of the war on terror. People who believe vaccines always work usually also believe the WTC 7 building was brought down by ordinary office fires.

Yep: A hardened, military-grade structure made of concrete and steel somehow managed to collapse in perfect vertical demolition style due to a few ordinary office fires. This explanation is so laughably false that I question the practical intelligence of anyone who believes it… and yet lots of people believe it! These are the same people who believe that a hundred different vaccines are all good for you and that the drug companies are only looking out for your welfare.

Watch this video about WTC building 7:
http://www.youtube.com/v/8T2_nedORjw

Some people will believe anything
I've noticed a fascinating correlation between those who buy the official line on 9/11 and those who buy the official line on vaccines: These are the non-thinking people who are easily duped by anything the officials tell them. They could be told that the WTC 7 building was brought down by out-of-control office workers shooting rubber band guns in the hallway and they'd believe it!

For office fires to have brought down WTC 7 in such a perfectly organized, vertical collapse, do you realize that these fires would have had to somehow melt or destroy all the support columns of the entire building at almost exactly the same time?

That's the only way a building falls down vertically in such a controlled fashion: You have to blow out the support columns in a very carefully controlled split-second sequence. The odds of a fire accomplishing this are as close to zero as you can imagine… especially given that ordinary office fires don't even burn at the temperatures necessary to cause steel support beams to fail due to heat.

Watch this mini-documentary to learn more:
http://www.youtube.com/v/iEuJimaumW4

What the real Skeptics are asking right now
So what does WTC building 7 have to do with vaccines? They both serve as a simple test of intelligent skepticism.

The real Skeptics are the people who are skeptical of the official explanation of 9/11 and the cause of the collapse of WTC building 7. Real Skeptics are likewise skeptical of the vaccine-pushing agenda of the CDC and the drug companies. The real Skeptics think for themselves and ask intelligent questions like, "Why have no other steel buildings ever collapse from ordinary office fires in the history of the entire world?"

Or questions like, "If human beings survived for hundreds of thousands of years without vaccines, developing highly effective internal defenses against infectious disease, then why are vaccines all of a sudden being pushed so hard given that the human gene pool has hardly changed over the last 10,000 years?"

Or here's an even better question: "If avoiding vaccines is so dangerous, then why are nearly all the children of anti-vaccine parents so amazingly healthy and intelligent?" They're the smartest kids in the room. Meanwhile, all the really low-IQ kids tend to belong to parents who dutifully approve every vaccine shot they're told to subject their children to. (And they use antibacterial hand soaps at home, too, because they're suckers for any chemical that's marketed as "protecting kids from disease.")

The non-skeptics are people who believe whatever they're told by authority figures no matter how ridiculous the explanation. Here, you need these vaccines shots because without them you might die! Irradiate your body with mammography in order to prevent cancer! Don't take vitamins or nutrients because they might hurt you! Instead, swallow these chemical medications — they're GOOD for you!

These are just some of the ridiculous commands of the authorities who depend on suckers to buy into their falsehoods. There are a lot of suckers in the medical community, of course: In fact, you don't even get through conventional medical school unless you suspend the entire process of thinking for yourself. With very few exceptions, the very act of becoming a licensed, practicing doctor requires a near-complete surrender of all independent thought combined with outright obedience to the Cult of Pharmacology (and its conspirators like the FDA, CDC and WHO). State medical boards yank medical licenses away from any doctor who deviates from "the faith" of pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Merely recommending vitamin D to a cancer patient can get a doctor barred from practicing medicine. (Absolutely true.)

Vaccines make you easier to control
This same obedience to authority cults is what drives suckers into the arms of vaccine pushers. They're told to be obedient to vaccines, so they follow orders without a single skeptical question coming to mind. Once they actually receive more vaccine injections, this process becomes further self-reinforcing because vaccine chemicals harm the nervous system, effectively suppressing cognitive function and making it more difficult for people to think for themselves. (This can usually be reversed, by the way, with nutritional detox therapies based on herbs and superfoods. So even if you were vaccinated in the past like I was, you can still "clean up" your system and restore healthy brain function.)

Once you combine the toxicity of vaccine adjuvants, chlorine in the water, BPA in plastics, non-stick cookware chemicals, antibacterial soaps and the chemicals in foods and medicines, you have a brain-numbing toxic stew that is now being spoon-fed to mainstream America. With their brains chemically suppressed by this onslaught of chemicals, most people find it impossible to think for themselves, so they go along with whatever they're told, oblivious to the truth that they are being fed daily poisons through the water system, the food supply, prescription medications and the mainstream media.

Vaccines are just one more form of ammunition in the war to poison the People — a war that's being waged by the corporations that rule our world. This war, like all wars, is extremely profitable to those who manufacture the bullets (or, in this case, the vaccines). The more people they can make sick — or scare into thinking they might become sick — the more money they can reap from the non-thinking public who will do whatever they're told.

Vaccines are good for you. The WTC 7 collapse was caused by fire. War is peace. Medical slavery is freedom…

Vaccines and bioterrorism
All of a sudden people who are asking intelligent questions about vaccines are under attack from a "national security" angle. Those who aren't vaccinated may die in a bioterrorism attack, we're now being told by the mainstream media. (I don't want to promote those stories by linking to them, but they're out there.)

Do you see this hilarious pattern? More fear is now being applied to scare people into getting vaccines by implying they might die from terrorism if they don't get them! Now, those who refuse vaccinations are practically being called traitors to the American Empire. Will refusing vaccines soon get you arrested under the Patriot Act?

But the vaccine pushers are in for a rude surprise: Vaccines ARE a form of bioterrorism! War has already been declared on the American people by the drug companies, and the weapons are the vaccines, the pharmaceuticals, the mammogram machines, the chemotherapy and other such weapons used by modern medicine. That's why this cartoon makes so much metaphorical sense: Vaccines are weapons!

The casualty count of this medical bioterrorism being waged against the People won't be known for years… perhaps decades. That's because vaccines don't kill very many people right away. Instead, they eat away at your brain function and immune function. They compromise your ability to stay healthy in the future, thereby increasing your risk of death from future infectious disease. Remember: Viruses mutate all the time, but vaccines don't. The vaccine shot you get today for strain ABC won't save you next week when the circulating virus mutates to BCD. Only your immune system can save you from that, and your immune system has been "dumbed down" by the vaccines!

The final body count from mandatory vaccination programs may eventually be in the tens of millions, but we'll probably never know for sure because people who die from the side effects of vaccines are never recorded as official "vaccine deaths." The coroners instead blame the more immediate elements such as "liver failure". We'll never know for sure how many of these deaths were actually initiated by vaccines which imbalanced the victim's immune function or caused long-term impairment to essential organ function.

It is very likely, for example, that most of the people who died from H1N1 swine flu were recipients of previous vaccines. The role that those previous vaccines may have played in their recent deaths from H1N1 is not being acknowledged by any health authority — they simply pretend there is no correlation between previous vaccinations and current immune system vulnerability.

All it would take to see the pattern is a trip to the swine flu morgue: I'm willing to bet that the majority of those who died from swine flu were recipients of previous vaccines.

Real solutions
I don't know of a single person who took high-dose vitamin D and led a healthy lifestyle who was killed by H1N1 swine flu. Not a single death of a person like this has been reported in the press. Don't you think the CDC, drug companies and the media would jump all over such a story if it were true? "Healthy vitamin D advocate dies of swine flu!" They would love to report such a story if only they could find one…

The problem for them is that such an event has probably never happened. No healthy person with high vitamin D levels has apparently ever died from swine flu. In fact, it's safe to say that the number of vitamin D advocates dying from any flu (including seasonal flu) must be extremely small, even spanning the last several decades.

That's because vitamin D protects you from infectious disease. Far better than vaccines, in fact. Vitamin D helps prevent cancer, diabetes and heart disease. It helps build strong bones and even plays a role in brain function. Vitamin D is the "miracle" solution for infectious disease that the world needs… and yet the CDC won't mention it!

Why won't the CDC recommend vitamin D? The answer is simple: Because the CDC is the vaccine whore of the drug industry. And at the top of the list of vaccine pushers is, of course, Dr. Julie Gerberding, who previously led the CDC for nine years and is now suddenly the president of Merck's worldwide vaccine division (http://www.naturalnews.com/027789_D…).

The CDC doesn't believe in nutrition. It doesn't believe in the human immune system (unless activated with a vaccine injection). It doesn't believe in anti-viral herbs or natural medicines. The CDC only believes in patented, FDA-approved Big Pharma vaccines, and that's what it's pushing no matter what. The CDC operates with scientific blinders that prevent it from acknowledging anything outside the world of vaccines and Big Pharma chemicals.

Forget the science: Vaccines represent the cultist mythology of modern medicine. If the CDC were really interested in halting infectious disease, why wouldn't they go public with recommendations about sunlight and vitamin D?

Why wouldn't the CDC empower people with the knowledge they need to protect themselves against virtually ALL infectious disease?

Why would the CDC remain silent on the issue of vitamin D, knowing that their silence would doom tens of thousands of American families and children to death each year from preventable flu infections?

The answer is because the CDC isn't really interested in public health. I used to think highly of the CDC, but after this swine flu behavior, I've come to see this agency for what it really is: The vaccine marketing division of the pharmaceutical industry. Instead of thinking that Merck and the CDC are separate entities, you might as well just call it MerckDC.

The CDC is no more interested in public health than the tobacco companies are interested in healthy lungs. The leaders of this agency have but one mission: Push vaccines onto more people and thereby eventually land high-paying jobs with the drug companies.

If you really want to protect yourself from infectious disease, all you really need is vitamin D, great nutrition, a healthy fitness level and the support of Mother Nature's anti-viral phytonutrients which are present both in everyday foods and medicinal herbs. You don't need the CDC. You don't need Big Pharma. You don't need vaccines and you sure don't need Merck. What you do need is to support your body's own miraculous immune system technology and let it do its job to save your life like it already has a thousand times over.

And in terms of developing countries where misguided billionaires like Bill Gates are engaged in funding mass vaccination programs, what they really need there are mass nutrition programs. Nutrition, vitamin D and some basic public sanitation would end the infectious disease problems there far more effectively than vaccines. So why won't Bill Gates invest money in nutrition? Because he's a wealthy puppet of Big Business, just like the CDC, WHO, FDA and FTC.

Teaching developing countries about nutrition and sanitation creates independence and empowerment. But teaching them to rely solely on vaccines leads to dependence and medical enslavement. Which path do you really think Big Business wants developing countries to take? You guessed it: The path of dependence on western corporations that reap huge profits from the suffering of third-world children.

That's why this cartoon is such a powerful metaphor: Vaccines are weapons. They are weapons of control over both domestic and foreign populations. They are weapons that ensure a profitable financial future for the pharmaceutical industry, and they are weapons that are being openly promoted by the FDA, CDC and the WHO — agencies with long histories of deep-rooted collusion with the pharmaceutical industry.

Share this cartoon (and a link to this page) to help educate others about what's really going on with the vaccine industry.

Using this cartoon
Permission is granted exclusively to all who oppose mandatory vaccines to use this cartoon in your book, website, documentary or other form as long as you include the complete cartoon (with the text below the cartoon intact) and provide full credit to Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com. If you use this on a website, please provide a link.

Here's a hi-res version of the cartoon if you'd like to reproduce it for a book, magazine or film.

"Our results indicate that early vitamin D deficiency may increase the long-term risk of high blood pressure in women at mid-life," researcher Flojaune Griffin said.

The researchers recruited 559 white women from Tecumseh, Michigan, who were between 24 and 44 years old when the study began in 1992. The participants' vitamin D blood levels were measured at the beginning of the study and once a year after that for 15 years.

At the beginning of the study, 5.5 percent of the women who were deficient in vitamin D suffered from high blood pressure, compared with only 2.8 percent of the women who had sufficient levels of the vitamin. At the end of the study in 2007, 10 percent of the women in the deficiency group had high blood pressure, compared with only 3.7 percent in the "sufficient" group.

"This is preliminary data so we can't say with certainty that low vitamin D levels are directly linked to high blood pressure," Griffin said. "But this may be another example of how what you do early in life impacts your health years later."

Vitamin D is known to play a crucial role in producing strong bones and teeth. New research increasingly suggests that it also helps regulate the immune system and protect against cancer, autoimmune disorders and heart disease.

The body naturally produces vitamin D upon exposure to sunlight. A number of factors have led to widespread deficiency, however, especially at latitudes far from the equator. These factors include less time spent outside and overuse of sunscreen. Dark-skinned people living at extreme latitudes are also especially vulnerable, as their bodies produce less vitamin D from the same amount of sun than those of lighter-skinned people.

Vitamin D3-5

by: Paul Fassa

(NaturalNews) An unusual exercise to improve mental health and acuity has been going viral on the internet lately. It was featured in a Los Angeles CBS News report (source below) that has an MD, a Yale neurobiologist, an occupational therapist, educators, and parents endorsing it. It is a simple routine, and it has created positive results for learning disabled and autistic children as well as older Alzheimer`s victims.

And it`s useful for any kind of brain fog or dullness, even emotional instability. It can improve memory and focus, and it`s even made some a little smarter. It seems to work for everyone regardless of mental condition.

How to Do This Simple Exercise

With your feet pointing straight ahead, spread them apart about shoulder width. Grab your right earlobe with the thumb and finger of your left hand. Cross over your left arm and do the same using your right hand on the left earlobe. Then squat as fully as you can, breathing in. That`s a little counter intuitive, but that`s what you do. Breathe in as you squat.

Then breathe out as you stand. So the breathing needs to be synchronized with the squats. Continue this motion repetitively while holding both earlobes for three minutes. That may be too much at first, so start with one minute. One can go up to five minutes, but three is good enough. This can be done by anyone at any age and should be done on a daily basis until the fog lifts!

How It Works

Los Angeles physician Dr. Eric Robins says that the brain cells and neurons are energized with this simple exercise. He prescribes it to his patients and has had excellent results. One example of his is a youngster doing poorly in school. After being introduced to the exercise, that child went on to become an A student.

According to Yale neurobiologist Dr. Eugenius Ang, the earlobes grabbed are acupuncture points that stimulate neural pathways in the brain. The brain`s hemispheres are in opposite sides of the earlobes. Using opposite hands for pinching the earlobes may have something to do with the way our subtle energies are arranged.

Ang showed that the results from EEG (electroencephalography) readings after doing this exercise indicate the right and left hemispheres of the brain had become synchronized. EEG readings measure the neuron firings in the brain via electrodes on the scalp, and are used to determine brain wave normalcies and abnormalities.

As Dr. Ang states, "… in modern terms, the brain is actually lateralized. This is an ideal hemispheric arrangement, which is unusual these days. It is something that pricey brain technology CDs attempt to do by producing subliminal sounds to the brain attached to audible sounds through a headset. Dr. Ang also does this exercise daily.

How It Started

The exercise was introduced by pranic healing Master Koa Chok Sui`s book SuperBrain Yoga and taught by him personally on lecture tours. Of course, there are many other aspects of pranic healing that Master Sui taught.

Prana is another word for Chi, the subtle life force energy that surrounds and permeates the body. It is the stuff of acupuncture and Qi (Chi) Gong. In addition to the subtle energy aspects of prana or Chi, it seems that combining a mildly aerobic exercise also helps flood the brain cells with oxygen.

At any rate, it`s an easy and inexpensive way to improve memory, mental clarity and focus, as well as assist those with debilitating mental disorders. There are those who call it quackery. But you`d be smart to do it daily!

Oxy-Gen
Advanced Colloidal Gold

by: Ethan A. Huff

(NaturalNews) A U.S. District Judge from Manhattan has banned the sale of spirotetramat, a pesticide produced by Bayer CropScience. Citing allegations by environmental groups and commercial beekeepers that the pesticide is toxic and is killing off the nation's honeybee population, Judge Denise Cote has declared that sales of spirotetramat must cease after January 15.

According to Cote, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not follow proper procedure when approving spirotetramat. The EPA did not take public comment about the pesticide before approving it and the agency failed to publish both the Bayer application and the approval documents in the Federal Register. The EPA and Bayer CropScience have 60 days to appeal the decision.

According to Bayer CropScience, spirotetramat is perfectly safe and does not harm honeybees, insisting that the pesticide has been extensively tested. The company laments the fact that the chemical was banned because of procedural faults but did not indicate how it would proceed.

According to Aaron Colangelo, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), spirotetramat is a potentially hazardous insecticide that should be pulled from the market and evaluated further. The NRDC in conjunction with the Xerces Society, a wildlife conservation group based in Portland, jointly sued the EPA over its approval of the pesticide.

Amazingly, the EPA admits that it approved spirotetramat illegally but has argued that its actions should have no consequences. This speaks volumes to the agency's arrogance in how it views its role as a regulatory agency.

Dave Hackenberg, one of Pennsylvania's largest beekeepers, is appreciative of the judge's decision. After all, he has been losing more than half of his bees every winter due to what he believes are pesticides. He leases his bees out to various growers every year to assist in pollination but he says that each year, more and more bees are dying. This past year, he lost about half of his bees by midwinter which was the largest amount to date.

Maryann Frazier, a researcher from Penn State University, agrees with the notion that pesticides play a large role in what is now being termed "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD), the massive die-off of bees with no clear explanation as to why they died. She believes that a number of factors contribute to CCD and that further research must be done.

Bees are a necessary insect that must be preserved. Without them, there would be no food. According to the Department of Agriculture, bees pollinate over $15 billion worth of U.S. crops.

Advanced Colloidal Silver

by: Tony Isaacs

(NaturalNews) While most people can greatly reduce their chances of getting cancer with healthy changes in diet and lifestyle, others with higher cancer risk factors may wish to take additional steps to have the maximum chances. People at higher risk include those who have had cancer before, those with a family history of cancer, people who have been exposed to viral and bacterial infections associated with cancer and those who have been exposed to cancer causing toxins such as asbestos, pesticides and heavy metals.

People who have had cancer before are statistically at much higher risk of either having the same cancer return or else acquiring another form of cancer. Those who have families with a history of cancer may be genetically predisposed to have a higher risk of getting the same cancers themselves. Likewise, similar family diets and lifestyles may play a contributing role to cancers being more prevalent in families with a history of cancer.

One area that can provide greater cancer protection is diet. Eating a healthy diet includes extra portions of some of the best natural cancer fighting foods, such as dark grapes (which contain known resveratrol), nuts such as raw almonds and walnuts, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. People with concerns about colorectal cancers should include sources of extra fiber, such as apples – which also help prevent breast cancer. Green tea and medicinal mushrooms have also been shown to be particularly effective against breast cancer.

Another important area to consider is supplementation. Supplements which boost the immune system are especially important, since cancer must first defeat the immune system to gain a foothold in the first place. Some of the best immune boosters are: oleander, echinacea, pau d'arco, suma, astralagus and the medicinal mushrooms. People who have been exposed to viruses may also want to consider natural anti-virals, such as garlic, olive leaf extract and oil of wild mountain oregano.

Some supplements have been associated with both general cancer protection as well as protection against specific forms of cancer. Examples include the aforementioned oleander, digestive enzymes and blackseed oil (Nigella sativa), which have all been shown to be effective against deadly pancreatic cancer. Vitamin D3 has been shown to be especially effective against breast cancer, colorectal cancers and skin cancers (despite the health scares about sunlight). Iodine has likewise been shown to protect against breast cancer, especially when combined with its important co-factor selenium (the best form against cancer is methylselenocysteine).

Curcumin protects against a wide range of cancers including lung and colorectal cancers. Studies have found that curcumin is especially beneficial for those who have a history of smoking. Of course, that is no excuse to continue smoking as smoking is one of the highest of all risk factors for cancer.

Mainstream medicine recommends more immunizations to decrease cancers; however, cancers that are believed to be due to viral infections are much higher in developing countries (26% compared to 8% in developed countries). Besides lack of immunizations, such countries are also marked by poverty and by a lack of sanitation and potable water and of access to healthcare and nutrition. Many believe that improving those areas would have a much greater positive impact than increasing immunizations as has been the case in the higher income developed countries.

Vaccines themselves may lead to many cancers. There has been a dearth of studies on vaccination safety. What is known is that vaccinations contain a number of known and suspected carcinogens and other mutagens that are known to cause abnormal cell development.

Going natural is likely the best and safest route.

Sources included:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS…
http://www.naturalnews.com/022808_c…
http://www.naturalnews.com/028093_l…
http://www.naturalnews.com/023633_c…
http://www.prnasia.com/pr/10/01/100…

by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) Women who take certain antidepressant drugs while pregnant may double their child's risk of being born with a certain variety of heart defect, according to a study conducted by researchers from Aarhaus University in Denmark and published in the medical journal BMJ.

"Anyone who is pregnant or considering becoming pregnant and has any concerns about the treatment for depression should speak to their doctor," said Cathy Ross of the British Heart Foundation.

Researchers compared the risk of birth defects in 1,370 children born to women who took at least one selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) while pregnant with the risk in 400,000 other children whose mothers had not taken any SSRIs while pregnant. They found that the drugs fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac), sertraline (marketed as Zoloft) and citalopram (marketed as Celexa) all significantly increased the risk that a child would be born with a defect in the septum, which separates the right and left halves of the heart.

Septum defects include a variety of conditions from minor blood vessel problems to outright holes in the heart. The researchers found that one extra septum defect would develop for every 246 pregnant women taking an SSRI during the time period from 28 days before through 112 days after conception.

Taking more than one SSRI drastically increased the risk of septum defects. While the risk of the defects was 0.5 percent in mothers not taking the drugs and 0.9 percent in those taking one drug (an 80 percent increase), it was 2.1 percent in mothers taking two or more (a more than 300 percent increase).

Sertraline appeared to increase the risk more than citalopram or fluoxetine did.

The study is not the first linking SSRIs to birth defects. Previous research has found a link between the drugs and defects of the heart and of other bodily systems.

by: Dr. Jay Davidson

(NaturalNews) "More than half of Americans on chronic meds!" That was the headline in May 2008, and big pharma was happy to hear that news.(1) The primary goal of the pharmaceutical industry is to continue to increase profits at the expense of Americans. The following are primarily the 4 methods that accomplish that: decrease cost of producing prescription drugs, increase the consumers' cost, increase the amount of medications that a person is currently taking and expand the marketplace so that everyone is on prescription drugs.

Big pharma has targeted the younger generations and because of that, more and more children have been prescribed medications in the last decade than ever before. As Elizabeth Gilbert said in her book Eat, Pray, Love, "medicating the symptom of any illness without exploring its root cause is a classic hare-brained Western way to think that anyone could ever get better."

Medications come at a cost and cause dangerous effects to the human body. According to an 11-year national analysis published in the journal Pediatrics, over half a million children (585,922) visit a doctor's office or emergency room for treatment of adverse drug events to prescription medicines!(2)

Over-the-counter medications are not included in the data of the 585,922 children reported yearly to have adverse events to prescription drugs. Also that same number does not include adverse drug events that do not seek medical attention.

The authors of this published article "were careful to exclude all cases which might be related to drug abuse, use of an illicit substance, intentional overdose, or administration of the wrong medication."

The study found that 28,062 children per year had an adverse event caused by vaccination, which accounted for almost 5% of the 585,922 yearly adverse drug events in children.(2) These numbers are out of control and staggering.

Prescription drugs are not safe and carry a significant risk when taking. The pharmaceutical industry's agenda is clear. Creating and labeling more disorders and diseases allows for more reasons to medicate the population.

The United States has the largest pharmaceutical industry in the world and yet the U.S. is not the healthiest nation. In 2007, its pharmaceutical revenue totaled at $315 billion.(3)

High blood pressure has no symptoms and many people may have it without knowing it. Having high blood pressure and not doing anything about it can have long-lasting negative effects on the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, and other parts of the body including the brain. Normal blood pressure is under 120/80. People should strive to reach this number through healthy lifestyle choices.

A recent study suggests that controlling high blood pressure may protect against dementia later in life. Common symptoms of dementia include memory loss, inability to solve problems, and inability to control emotions. High blood pressure causes a type of scarring in the brain that after years of build up, can cause dementia.

Current studies are underway to see if lowering blood pressure to lower than 120 will be more beneficial than lowering it to lower than 140. Currently, the focus on lowering blood pressure has been to increase heart and kidney health. However, improving brain health may be added to the list.

A weight loss study found that a low-carb diet is more beneficial in lowering blood pressure than a low-fat diet plus prescription medication. Both courses of treatment yielded a 10% body weight loss, but those who were on the low-carb diet reported lower blood pressure. Obesity contributes greatly to blood pressure. Making lifestyle changes that reduce blood pressure can increase overall health and well-being.

Medical scientists have found a species of fish in the Pacific Ocean that may provide answers to hereditary high blood pressure and kidney disease. Researchers believe that the Goby fish might give insight into the specific genes that cause hereditary heart disease. The fish has a protein called Urotensin II, which is important in the regulation of blood pressure in fish and humans.

These studies provide greater insight into the complexities of blood pressure. Data shows that there are many negative aspects of high blood pressure, but researchers are learning more about how to lower blood pressure naturally by making better lifestyle choices.

Sources

Gordon, S. (2010). For lower blood pressure, low-carb diet may be best. Retrieved on January 29, 2010: http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story….

Neergaard, L. (2010). More blood pressure worry: It's linked to dementia. Retrieved on January 29, 2010: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126…

University of Leicester (2009, June 26). Fish Protein Link To Controlling High Blood Pressure. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/06/090622064716.htm

by: Laura Weldon

(NaturalNews) Food marketers are vying harder than ever for your shopping dollar. They use any of 14,000 additives to make their products last longer, taste fresher or seem more appealing. The health effects of these compounds, especially in combination, are only gradually becoming apparent.

Read all the details in our four part series highlighting the worst compounds typically added to the food supply.

ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS
Like artificial coloring, artificial flavoring is largely found in heavily processed foods and drinks. These products are so devoid of naturally occurring flavor that inexpensive synthetic versions are used to mimic the real thing. Artificial flavors fool the consumer into "tasting" raspberries or cheese or avocado while saving manufacturers money.

These flavors are compounded from hundreds of chemicals. Some imitation vanilla flavorings use ingredients from petroleum or paper-mill waste. The presence of many artificial flavorings indicates that the product is compensating for real flavor found in real foods, herbs and spices. Packaging often trumpets the presence of "natural flavor" in products also riddled with artificial flavoring and minimal food value.

Artificial flavorings may contain substances such as hydrolyzed vegetable protein or monosodium glutamate which are not separately listed on the package. Food manufacturers have the right to make flavorings a trade secret, giving little to no information about the actual flavoring ingredients.

ASPARTAME
This artificial sweetener is found in a great variety of foods, many marketed as healthy. These include diet beverages, frozen desserts, drink mixes, oral hygiene and pharmaceutical products, ready to eat gelatin and pudding, chewing gum, coffee flavoring and snack foods. Aspartame is of particular danger to individuals with a disorder called phenylketonuria (PKU) who are unable to metabolize phenylalanine, one of the two amino acids in aspartame. One out of every 15,000 babies in the U.S. is born with this inherited disorder and can suffer mental retardation if aspartame is ingested.

Although promoted for weight loss, two Purdue University studies found that artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body's ability to correctly interpret calorie intake. "The body's natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight may be weakened when this natural relationship is impaired by artificial sweeteners," said one of the researchers, Terry Davidson. The researchers also noted an increase in obesity during the same time span that the use of artificial sweeteners increased. According to Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, aspartame is linked to cancer and neurological problems. Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) lists aspartame on the foods to avoid list as a possible neurotoxin and as a likely cancer risk.

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