Month: February 2011

Various health websites characterize a febrile seizure as a 'convulsion' or a 'loss of consciousness' that accompanies a fever. In general, the eyes roll back and the individual becomes rigid, twitches and shakes; they do not respond or seem to hear and do not remember the episode.

Despite valiant efforts by the medical establishment to downplay incidences of febrile seizure, calling them 'harmless', 'common' or even 'normal' and assuring us that there is no permanent neurological damage (phew!), anyone who has ever witnessed one, particularly in a young child, will tell you that it's terrifying.

The makers of this year's flu vaccine for children, Sanofi-Aventis, have admitted to a higher than normal incidence of febrile seizures after administration of their vaccine but still insist that no causal link has been made. The uptick in seizures was detected by an early-warning system of the CDC and the FDA, called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), that is designed to track vaccine safety.

While no final conclusions have been made public yet, it is safe to say that the bias of health authorities leans heavily towards vaccination, seeking to legitimize the wide use of vaccines and protect the reputations of companies that make them. So likely, we will never know the un-spun truth.

For the moment we can only add the possibility of a febrile seizure to a growing list of concerns and possible side effects of vaccination. And when you do, you may just find yourself with the needed argument to forgo one more elective, ineffective vaccine in favor of a bit more sunshine and good 'ole vitamin D.

The researchers studied school-aged children in rural Nepal whose mothers had previously participated in a clinical study while pregnant. During that prior study, some of the mothers had been given folic acid and iron supplements.

"We had the opportunity to follow the offspring of women who had participated in a randomized trial of iron and folic acid and other micronutrients to assess neurocognitive function and outcomes," researcher Parul Christian said.

The researchers found that children whose mothers had received supplements scored higher on tests of intelligence, organization and fine motor skills than children of mothers who had not received supplements.

"What we showed is prenatal iron and folic acid supplementation had a significant impact on the offspring's intellectual level and motor ability and ability during school age, which was a very exciting finding," Christian said. "It had an impact across a range of function, including intellectual function, executive function and fine motor function."

Iron and folic acid are both known to play important roles in early nerve development.

Although the difference in scores on the universal nonverbal intelligence test was only 2.4 points between supplemented and non-supplemented children, a difference of that scale could be highly significant on a population level, the researchers said, calling for improved prenatal care for poor communities.

Prenatal care is already known to improve birth outcomes.

"Women who receive prenatal care enjoy the lowest risk of maternal and infant mortality in history," writes Tori Hudson in the book "Women's Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine."

When we eat sugar or carbohydrates our digestive system converts these larger molecules into glucose which is then absorbed into the bloodstream and taken to every cell of the body. Blood sugar fuels the cells keeping them healthy. For healthy function it is critical to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

Stabilizing blood sugar is largely controlled by the pancreas through a hormone called insulin. When the body recognizes that blood sugar is elevating the pancreas releases insulin. Insulin then acts as the key that fits the cell receptor door lock. Once insulin interacts with the cellular door it opens and the sugar is able to enter the cell. When the working rhythm among the pancreas, insulin, and the cells are out of harmony, it produces insulin resistance and eventually degenerative diabetes.

A poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are the two biggest contributing factors for diabetes. When we eat carbohydrate rich foods we create a large demand on the body for insulin production. Insulin is a storage hormone that is also a precursor for inflammatory prostaglandins (cellular messengers). Bouts of elevated insulin put the body into fat storage metabolism and this increases inflammatory processes within the body. This increased inflammation damages the cell membranes of the body causing insulin receptor distortion that leads to insulin resistance.

With inadequate insulin signaling the blood sugar remains elevated. When blood sugar stays elevated for too long it interacts with enzymes and other protein molecules creating dangerous substances called Advanced Glycolytic End Products (AGEs). AGEs are highly inflammatory and destructive as they damage tissue throughout the body including nerve fibers and blood vessels. This is the reason for the neurological and cardiovascular complications involved with diabetes.

Prevention and reversal of degenerative diabetes depends on our ability to reduce inflammation and enhance cellular healing processes. This begins with a diet rich in phytonutrient dense vegetables, healthy fat and clean protein sources. Non-starchy vegetables, herbs, & teas are great sources of anti-oxidants and have very low carbohydrate content. Healthy fat sources include coconut products, avocados, olive oil, nuts, seeds, & purified omega-3 fish oil supplements. Healthy protein includes wild-caught fish, grass-fed red meat and free range chicken, turkey, and eggs. These protein and fat sources are extraordinarily critical for rebuilding healthy cell membranes with normalized insulin receptor activity.

High intensity surge training is the best form of exercise to reverse diabetes. Due to the high intensity, this form of exercise utilizes all the stored sugar in the liver & muscles during the exercise bout. In response, the cells of the muscle and liver take-on an insulin-like effect and have a significantly increased affinity for glucose to fill their storage tanks. Additionally, surge training enhances growth hormone secretion (HGH) through the next 24-36 hours enabling the body to burn more fat for energy. This HGH effect also enhances the body's ability to heal the damaged pancreas and insulin receptors on the cell wall.

Powerful anti-oxidant rich, anti-inflammatory herbs such as cinnamon, turmeric, green tea, & ginger help to stabilize blood sugar and reduce cellular inflammation. Insulin resistance also takes form with several nutrient deficiencies including chromium, zinc, & vanadium. Supplementing with chromium picolinate, vanadium citrate, & zinc has been shown to be very effective at enhancing cellular insulin sensitivity.

Of course, conventional doctors are once again wrong: Cancer patients do have a particular smell due to the metabolic off-gassing of cancer cell tumors. But here's the real story the mainstream media isn't telling you: It's not just dogs that can smell cancer — many health practitioners can also smell cancer patients.

I've personally spoken to numerous natural health practitioners who say they can smell cancer in patients. It's not really a difficult thing to do, it turns out. With a bit of training, I believe most doctors could even be trained to do it, much like this dog in Japan which correctly identified cancer from stool samples 37 out of 38 times.

It doesn't mean doctors have to sniff patients' poo, either: You can also smell cancer on someone's breath, so just talking to a patient can give a doctor an opportunity to do that. (Historically, by the way, physicians use to taste patients' urine, from which they could diagnose a number of diseases, especially diabetes.)

This particular research on dogs' ability to sniff out cancer was conducted by researchers at the Kyushu University in Japan. Dr Hideto Sonoda, who conducted the research, told the BBC, "The specific cancer scent indeed exists, but the chemical compounds are not clear. Only the dog knows the true answer."

An important point in all this is that the cancer-sniffing dogs were able to detect early-stage bowel cancer — something that is extremely difficult for modern medical technology to detect. And it only takes a dog a few seconds — at virtually zero cost — to make the assessment.

Now, of course, medical scientists are busy trying to build an electronic device to replace the dog, because conventional medicine can't stand the fact that something built by nature (the dog's nose) might be better than some million-dollar electronic gizmo they come up with that can be billed out at $500 a test. So rather than just using dogs who can already detect cancer right now, they're going to wait around a few years and try to create some high-tech equipment that will probably be a poor replacement for the dog.

That's how modern medicine works: It steals good ideas from nature and replicates them, but the results are almost always a poor imitation of what Mother Nature has provided for free. Here's how the end results would likely stack up:

CANCER-SNIFFING DOG
Accuracy: 98%
Cost: One dog biscuit and a pat on the head

CANCER-SNIFFING HIGH-TECH MACHINE
Accuracy: 60%
Cost: $500 billed to Medicare

Gee, which one do you think conventional medicine will end up using?

"We have seen numerous people reverse their condition," Dr. Michelle Magee, director of the MedStar Diabetes Institute in Washington, is quoted as saying by CNN. "But it takes a real dedication for the rest of their lives."

Typically, overweight or obese people who eat poorly and exercise little develop type 2 diabetes. The conventional course of action is then to regularly watch blood sugar levels with a monitor and take daily shots of insulin, the hormone normally produced by the pancreas to process sugars, but that is lacking in diabetics.

But by eliminating processed foods loaded with highly refined sugars, eating lots of whole, organic foods, and getting regular exercise to maintain healthy muscle and fat levels, diabetes can actually get their bodies back on track to where they can once again naturally produce their own insulin, and even stop having to inject themselves with insulin every day.

Last year, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, conducted an interview with Dr. Gabriel Cousens, founder of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Ariz. In the interview, Cousens explains how raw foods can helps to cure diabetes. According to Cousens, his regimen has proven to be successful in up to 95 percent of diabetics.

To learn more about reversing diabetes, you can also check out the entire NaturalNews archive of articles and interviews that explain various ways in which diabetics can tackle, reverse, and ultimately cure their disease.