Month: January 2012

The way nature works in a more or less "natural" state is that tree roots go deep in the soil and bring up vital minerals that are replaced as the trees die and decompose.  In addition, animals that eat and contain the minerals themselves die and decompose and are returned to the soil.  Similarly, animal and human waste matter is returned to the soil.

In modern times, we have disrupted the natural cycle of mineral replenishment by clear-cutting the forests and trees to make crop land, removing most of the waste and dead animals, and we have over-farmed virtually all of our soil without allowing time for micro-organisms to convert the remaining minerals into usable forms for plants.  Thanks to the advent of petro-chemical fertilizers in 1908, we have mostly returned to the soil only petroleum derived nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus – which produce lush growth but nutrient-poor plants.

To make matters worse, we have applied pesticides and herbicides that have killed off vital micro-organisms which help convert remaining soil minerals to usable forms.

Thanks to the extended use of fertilizers and "maximum yield" mass farming methods the soil in the North American continent has had an average of 85% mineral depletion over the past 100 years – the worst of any other country in the world.

The end result is that a bowl of spinach most of us eat today contains perhaps 1/8th the nutrition of the bowl our grandparents and great grandparents ate.  Thus it is no surprise that most of us are deficient in one or more essential minerals.  A primary example is magnesium, It is estimated that anywhere from 70 to 95 percent of us are deficient in magnesium and the health consequences are enormous,  Magnesium plays a role in no fewer than 300 body processes and magnesium deficiency has been linked to a wide variety of illnesses.

The role of minerals and human health is immense, yet seldom recognized.  Two times Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling went so far as to state unequivocally "You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency."

I, for one, do not think it is much of an overstatement, because minerals are the most basic of building blocks for proper nutrition and health.  Quite simply, without minerals, nothing else works.  Amino acids and enzymes don't work and so vitamins and other nutrients don't get broken down and absorbed properly and we end up with major deficiencies in both vitamins and minerals. The end result is a chain reaction of poor health where nothing works as it should.

Another major area where mineral deficiency manifests itself, in addition to poor health and immune system support, is obesity.  Similar to the cats and dogs one sees eating grass when they instinctively know they are either deficient in vitamins and minerals or need extra ones to combat an illness or infection, I believe that the human body also sends such instinctive signals at times that it is missing vital nutrients, but we no longer recognize what it is our bodies are telling us and where to find what we need to silence the signals.

Such confused signals often lead to cravings oftentimes, and so we eat and eat to try to satisfy them, but what we really crave is missing nutrition. Instead of turning to a nutritious diet or other healthy way to furnish minerals (such as supplementing with plant derived minerals from sea plants or from the prehistoric clays in Utah), we turn to the SADS diet, fast foods, nuked meals, sweets, junk food, etc. often to no avail. Perhaps many of us can relate to that familiar quandary of eating and eating to the point of being gorged, and yet still feeling hungry for "something". That something may very often be minerals!

The article is entitled  "Dead and Alive: Beliefs in Contradictory Conspiracy Theories" and the thesis of the article is that people who believe in conspiracy theories eventually become so immersed in them and so mesmerized that they do not realize they are holding contradictory beliefs.

"Conspiracy theories can form a monological belief system: A self-sustaining worldview comprised of a network of mutually supportive beliefs. The present research shows that even mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively correlated in endorsement." (SPPS Abstract)

"Conspiratorialists" become so distrustful of "government" and "authority" that they will impute any and every kind of malevolence to them.

Thus it is that people can claim, on the one hand, that Osama bin Laden is "dead" and died years ago, while simultaneously claiming that bin Laden remains alive and that US and Pakistan government authorities are not being truthful about him and his physical state.

Of course, I've never run into anyone, who claims that bin Laden is ALIVE. But it's true that here at the Daily Bell we've run articles explaining that bin Laden probably died years ago. See, for instance, "Osama bin Laden is Dead Again?"

The SPPS article would likely have you believe this is an outrageous conspiracy theory. But given that FOX news ran a report on bin Laden's death in 2001, and given that Pakistan's former president Benazir Bhutto herself claimed that bin Laden died in the early 2000s (supposedly as the result of an assassination), it doesn't seem so far-fetched to speculate that bin Laden didn't die as the result of a US raid in 2011.

But that's almost minor stuff. Articles like this, despite their scientific patina, are deeply illiterate. Why so? Because invariably such articles won't deal with the bedrock financial illiteracy of current economic and political paradigms.

Imagine if the world were based on lies. Well, unfortunately, that's the truth. The lies go far beyond "who shot JFK" or whether the US government was directly or indirectly involved in 9/11.

When one uses the logical framework of Austrian, free-market analysis to analyze the Way the World Works in the modern age, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that modern society is built around fundamental untruths.

The first one is economic: It is the idea that central bankers can efficiently and effectively set the price of money. They cannot.

Every time central bankers decide on how much money to print or where short interest rates should be, the decisions are "fixing" prices – and price-fixing never works. Price-fixing distorts economies and causes a wealth shift from those who create it to those who don't and may not know what to do with it. Over time, aggressively mis-priced money causes first recessions and then depressions.

The second lie is that laws and regulations are necessary and that they can save society from "anarchy." In fact, anarchy is only the absence of government. That's the real definition. And absence of government does not necessarily imply "chaos." Just as setting interest rates fixes the price of money, so every law and regulation is a price fix as well, preventing someone from doing something within the context of the marketplace. This also constitutes a wealth transfer.

One can have a perfectly adequate and satisfying society without formal government, certainly without the kinds of intrusive and murderous governments we've got today. History is full of examples of societies that flourished with at least minimal government, especially societies where power truly flowed from the bottom up.

The third lie is that government is essential for purposes of defense and defending its citizens. But a quick survey of modern wars shows a disturbing tendency of governments – especially certain Western governments – to foment the very wars that citizens believe they're being protected from.

War is the "health of the state" – the way that those in power consolidate their hold while punishing their enemies using phony pretexts having to do with "treason" and "leaking classified information." Sound familiar?

It is what we call the Internet Reformation that has gradually shed light on the fundamental untruths permeating modern society in both the developed and developing world.

The Internet, like the Gutenberg Press before it, is a revolutionary device that has allowed people access to information that was hitherto denied or covered up, especially in the 20th century when the power elite's control over society was perhaps at its apex.

A conspiracy likely DOES exist. The Internet easily reveals not just facts that illuminate it, but also PATTERNS that show the same command-and-control strategies implemented throughout history, over and over.

It is easy, unfortunately, to mock those who believe in so-called "conspiracy theories" because the truth of what has occurred in this weary world is so extreme and shocking that most people simply cannot believe it. What truly horrifies us becomes a target for mockery. It's a defense mechanism.

Here's the seeming hard truth: A tiny group of Anglosphere banking families controlling most if not all of the world's major central banks have used the trillions to which they have access in order to foment what can be called a "New World Order."

This tiny group of intergenerational plotters and their enablers and associates have apparently built a seamless matrix of control around the entire globe to implement their schemes. They are building world government and are putting in place its building blocks.

What is it about the UN, IMF, World Bank, International Criminal Court, World Health Organization and hundreds of others lesser known globalist facilities that people who deny or decry modern "conspiracy theory" don't understand?  

An entire gamut of globalist entities has been superimposed on the world in the past 75 years. Most recently − only this past week, in fact − the US military held a formal exercise over the skies of Los Angeles using the same black helicopters that conspiracy theorists were mocked for mentioning not a decade ago.

But the biggest issue by far – bigger than even the establishment of the facilities of the New World Order – is the fundamental illiteracy of those who choose to support modern society as it is today and as it has evolved over the past 100 years.

While human societies have always been based on fairly bizarre rituals, it is safe to say that the current crop of behind-the-scenes leaders have raised statist insanity to a new level.

Every part of modern society, from its basic economic building blocks to its liturgical belief in dysfunctional "laws and regulations" to its deep-seated reverence for the manipulated destruction of war, is questionable on a factual basis.

The reality of modern society is increasingly pathological – and the ones with the pathology are those who lead the rest of us along using paradigms that are evidently and obviously dishonest and dysfunctional.

Articles that mock the looniness of "conspiratorialists" need to deal with the fundamental economic and sociopolitical dishonesty of their own assumptions. They should begin by admitting the evident and obvious logical fallacies of the "modern" society they celebrate.

I'm not holding my breath.

It is a fact that high stress is a major contributing factor to cancer and many other diseases. The question is how does stress cause cancer? To answer this, one must look at what the stress response does physiologically in the body. Hans Selye, the father of stress research, said there are two types of stress, distress and eustress. Distress is a longer, more damaging response which negatively affects the organs, glands and systems including the immune system. Eustress is a short term beneficial stimulus to the system. If you run up and down the stairs ten times you feel invigorated. Now if you run up and down the stairs one thousand times you are exhausted and totally drained, so eustress is health boosting whereas distress is health depleting.

The stress response is controlled by the brain via the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis or HPA axis. The hypothalamus, which has been called the brain of the brain, is the part of your brain that senses biochemical changes similar to the thermostat in your house. If certain biochemicals go high or low, it triggers the brain to respond. The hypothalamus does so by telling the master hormone gland, the pituitary, to send messages to the adrenal glands to secrete a hormone called cortisol. When cortisol is at the proper level it is anti-inflammatory and promotes health. When cortisol goes too high with acute stress or too low with chronic stress, it causes your immune and digestive systems to shut down, inflammation to increase, blood sugar to rise, hormones to go out of balance and bones to become osteoporotic. When cortisol stays high or low it predisposes you to cancer and many other diseases.

What causes cortisol to go out of balance?

1. Mental/emotional stress (distress)
2. Lack of total sleep and pre-midnight sleep (four hours is ideal)
3. Diet high in sugar, starch or acid forming foods
4. Too little or too much exercise

Cancer can form when cortisol becomes chronically high or low because adrenal exhaustion causes immune system suppression and your immune system is what keeps the individual cancer cells (which everyone has), from growing into colonies called tumors.

The most important stress management plan starts with proper sleep, diet, and exercise along with learning how to change your perception of the situation. When you change your perception you can change your reality and your health. To reduce the mental/emotional distress one must live fully in the moment without spending time thinking about the "if only I would have" past or the "if only I could" future. If you had excruciating pain in your body, what does your mind say? "I am going to die if I do not get out of this pain". But is this really true? Can you endure the pain for one second? The answer is yes and this is how you will endure any storm in your life, by living one moment at a time instead of living in the past or the future. This type of living keeps your cortisol and immune system in balance and keeps you healthy in mind and body.

Sources for this article include:

1. Stress without Distress H. Selye , Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1st edition (June 1974)

2. The Neuroendocrine Impact of Chronic Stress on Cancer Premal H. Thaker and Anil K. Sood. Semin Cancer Biol. 2008 June; 18(3): 164-170.

3. Increased serum cortisol levels are associated with high tumour grade in patients with renal cell carcinoma
Rasmuson T, Ljungberg B, Grankvist K, Jacobsen J, Olsson T. Acta Oncol. 2001;40(1):83-7.

4. Interleukin-6 levels and HPA axis activation in breast cancer patients with major depressive disorder.
Soygur H, Palaoglu O, Akarsu ES, Cankurtaran ES, Ozalp E, Turhan L, Ayhan IH. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Aug 15;31(6):1242-7. Epub 2007 May 24.

About the author:
Dr. Keith Nemec is a holistic chiropractic physician who has been treating patients for the last 27 years. Dr. Nemec is the codirector with his wife Laurie of the Total Health Institute, an alternative and integrative medical facility which offers both inpatient and outpatient services. Total Health Institute is a treatment and teaching facility that has both natural physicians and alternative minded medical doctors working together as a team in Wheaton, Illinois. Thousands of people have restored their health at the Institute over the last 27 years. Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec have published two books: “Total Health = Wholeness” and “Seven Basic Steps to Total Health”. They also host their own radio show "Your Total Health" five days a week in Chicago.

Omega-3 fatty acids
As a significant source of omega-3 fatty acids, flax seeds help reduce breast cancer risk by ameliorating inflammation and reducing the rate at which breast cells divide in response to estrogen. The power of omega-3s was demonstrated in a recent study at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in which the researchers questioned 35,000 postmenopausal women who had not been diagnosed with breast cancer. Six years later they did a follow up questionnaire and found that regular use of fish oil, another potent source of omega-3 fatty acids, reduced breast cancer risk by 32 percent. For women who already have breast cancer, Dr. Horner states that omega-3s will help shrink tumors and help keep them confined so that they don't spread.

Fiber
Whole ground flax seeds are also a significant source of fiber, long thought to be important for preventing breast and colon cancer. A recent study funded by the World Cancer Institute found that every 10 grams of fiber consumed daily reduces breast cancer risk by 5 percent. It is thought that the fiber binds to estrogen in the intestines and helps move it out of the body before it can do more harm.

Lignans
Lignans, another big contributor to the prevention of and healing of breast cancer, are natural plant compounds found in fruits, vegetables and grains such as wheat, broccoli, garlic, carrots and dried apricots. However they are also abundant in flax seeds which have 100 times the lignans found in other known edible sources. In a recent German study researchers evaluated bloods samples from 1,140 postmenopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer. They measured levels of enterolactone, a known bio-marker for lignans and found that women with the highest amounts of this substance were associated with a 40 percent lower mortality risk from breast cancer. Previous research by the same scientists had already established the importance of lignans for prevention of breast cancer.

Horner also stresses the importance of lignans stating that they promote change in the breast structure in a way that makes the tissue more resistant to the toxins that can cause cancer. In addition, lignans decrease tumor growth factors, help prevent metastasis and reduce estrogen production by fat cells.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics.jsp

http://progressreport.cancer.gov/doc_detail.asp?pid=1&did=2007&chid=75&coid=726&mid

Waking the Warrior Goddess, Dr. Christine Horner's Program to Protect Against & Fight Breast Cancer, Christine Horner, M.D., 2007.

http://quest.fhcrc.org/articles/2010/09/fish-oil.html

http://blog.aicr.org/2012/01/11/major-new-analysis-fiber-may-prevent-breast-cancer/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/haog-pcr091311.php

According to the Punjab health department, hundreds of people have already been admitted to hospitals around Lahore due to poisoning from the contaminated drugs. But authorities there say the official death count being publicly reported is too low, and that as many as 200 people or more have actually already died as a result of taking the drugs.

"Patients were coming in with symptoms similar to dengue fever. But then we realized it wasn't that," said Faisal Masood, a member of a committee formed by the provincial government to investigate the cause of widespread illness and death. "The one thing common in all patients was heart disease, and that they were getting medicines from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology."

Police in the area have shut down at least one pharmaceutical manufacturing plant responsible for the tainted drugs, according to reports, but they have not disclosed the name of the company that owns it. The Pakistani government has also banned five drugs, which have also not been publicly named, and arrested the owners of three local drug companies.

"My father died on 23 December after taking the contaminated medicine. There was bleeding from his mouth and also bleeding from his urinary tract," said Parveen Bib, a local resident, to BBC News. Officials believe small, metal particles in the drugs are to blame, while others say deadly chemical contaminants may have been responsible.

The tainted drugs apparently came from six smaller drug companies in the area, all of which were specifically contracted by the Pakistani government to distribute free heart drugs to patients. The bottles in which the drugs were packaged apparently did not have manufacture or expiration dates, and were obviously not properly safety tested prior to distribution.

There have been numerous recalls in the US for drugs tainted with metal particles as well. In 2006, for instance, Perrigo Co. recalled 11 million bottles of acetaminophen, a generic form of Tylenol, for "metal fragment" contamination (http://www.naturalnews.com/021036_acetaminophen_drug_recall.html). And again in 2010, Johnson & Johnson recalled 40 different brands of children's medicines for contamination problems that included metallic bits (http://www.naturalnews.com/028699_Tylenol_recall.html).

Caffeine compounds cause cell death
University of Illinois associate professor of food chemical and toxicology Elvira de Mejia stated "The caffeine derivatives in mate tea not only induced death in human colon cancer cells, they also reduced important markers of inflammation." Mejia observed that this is important since inflammation can lead to cancer progression. Her study was published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research in latter part of 2011.

In the in vitro study, de Mejia and former graduate student Sirima Puangpraphant first isolated, and purified, then treated human colon cancer cells with caffeoylquinic acid (CQA) derivatives from mate tea. As the scientists increased the CQA concentration, cancer cells died. "Put simply, the cancer cell self-destructs because its DNA has been damaged," de Mejia said.

Inducing apoptosis, or cell death, is one of the tactics medical researchers have been trying to create through pharmaceutical anti-cancer drugs. However research has also discovered that natural medicines also possess this capability. The new University of Illinois study now demonstrates that yerba mate is one of those substances with this cancer-fighting power.

Yerba mate stops inflammation
The study suggests that the mate tea compounds not only have potential as anti-cancer agents but may also be effective against other diseases associated with inflammation. However, since the colon and its microflora play a major role in the absorption and metabolism of caffeine-related compounds, the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects of mate tea may be most potent against bowel cancer. "We believe there's ample evidence to support drinking mate tea for its bioactive benefits, especially if you have reason to be concerned about colon cancer," de Mejia noted.

The scientists will also soon publish the results of a further study on yerba mate and colon cancer. The new study compares the development of colon cancer in rats that drank only mate tea against a control group that drank only water.

“There’s no need to be concerned, but what you should be concerned about is why the authorities are so quick to dismiss it,” says Dr. Gordon Edwards.

“Why aren’t they just reporting this stuff and not commenting — they seem to take it upon themselves to deny there’s any danger, even enough to let people know what’s happening.”

Edwards, a university professor, is president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and a former advisor on nuclear matters to Ottawa and the Ontario government.

Thorn in side

When it comes to radiation, and the fallout following the Fukushima nuclear accident, Edwards is a thorn in the side of Heath Canada, sounding the alarm when officially, there isn’t one.

He’s been pointed when saying radiation from Fukushima will lead to higher rates of cancer in Canada — though he’s also quick to say the risk is tiny on a per-person basis.

Now he’s asking questions about rain which fell on Calgary shortly after the nuclear disaster last March, containing radioactive iodine well above the Health Canada guidelines for drinking water.

Officially, Calgarians have nothing much to worry about.

Health Canada hasn’t even released the data, saying it’s too small an amount to be worthy of public comment — and the same silence has applied for much of the Canadian data collected so far.

And while Edwards technically agrees there’s little need to worry, he says that should be something Calgarians and Canadians can decide for themselves.

“There are certain people who might be concerned — for instance, a pregnant woman,” said Edwards.

“When a baby is growing inside, that baby should not be getting a dose of radiation at a critical moment of development, because when an embryo gets radiation, one damaged cell can multiply.

“A fetus is far more susceptible to radiation. Is a fetus likely to be harmed by this level of radiation? No, but could it be, yes.”

Health Canada confirms that last March, after the Fukushima nuclear accident, a Calgary monitoring station detected an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine, stemming from Japan.

Canadian guidelines limit exposure to six becquerels of iodine per litre of drinking water, and much lower radiation spikes in the U.S. resulted in a “don’t drink the rainwater” order.

But not here.

Edwards says Calgarians should at least have known there was a spike beyond recommended levels, especially as rain-bourne radiation concentrates in vegetation and the food chain.

“It’s not up to Health Canada to decide for everybody else what they should do,” said Edwards.

“They should announce the figures and let people decide for themselves.”

Health Canada maintains that Canadians have nothing to worry about, despite Calgary’s radiation peak and smaller spikes found in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Ottawa.

Only in Calgary did the Fukushima fallout push rain past the Canadian limit for drinking water — yet not enough for Health Canada to issue a warning.

Fearmongering

Even now, officials with the federal agency say raising red flags over a “one off” sample of radioactive rain is fearmongering — and Health Canada’s senior medical advisor says there’s no valid basis.

“Even if the level in water was close to what the upper limits would be, that would still mean someone would have to consume two litres a day, all year, in order to reach a level where they might possibly be at risk,” said Dr. Paul Gully.

“Therefore, for a level to be identified in Calgary in rainwater on one occasion, really means there is no risk — not in the past and not now.”

Gully says those with a concern over radiation should be assured the moment there was a real risk, Health Canada would make it very clear.

“Be reassured if there was a problem, and Health Canada does continuous monitoring, then Canadians would be informed,” said Gully.

“But we would not want to alarm the public by continually saying, there’s no risk.”