Month: March 2012

Patients taking Altoprev (lovastatin extended release), Crestor (rosuvastatin), Lescol (fluvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin), Livalo (pitavastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Advicor (lovastatin / niacin extended-release), Simcor (simvastatin / niacin extended-release), and Vytorin (simvastatin / ezetimibe) will want to be aware of these potentially life-altering side effects, which are receiving little attention from the mainstream media.

"The reports about memory loss, forgetfulness and confusion span all statin products and all age groups," writes the FDA on its website. And concerning diabetes, the FDA writes that "raised blood sugar levels and the development of Type 2 diabetes have been reported with the use of statins."

Being careful not to offend its Big Pharma overlords, though, the FDA was quick to reassure the public that the new guidelines are not all that serious, and that patients should still keep taking their medications. And yet out of the other side of its bureaucratic mouth, the FDA is basically admitting that statin drugs are high-risk drugs, which most obviously precludes implementing any of the asinine recommendations made in recent months that everyone, including healthy individuals, should take statin drugs.

Back in 20'0, for instance, so-called experts out of Imperial College London openly proclaimed that statin drugs should be handed out to customers at fast food restaurants for free. This recommendation was made, of course, in spite of the fact that statin drugs harm far more people than they supposedly help, and have a long history of causing liver damage, kidney failure, and other serious conditions.

"The number of patients needed to be treated (with statin drugs) to reduce one death in three years is over '00," write Kenneth W. Thomas, 'on Gilbert, and Gerd Schaller in their book Side "ffects: The Hidden Agenda of the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel. "This means that 99 people take [statins] for several years and get absolutely no benefit."

Radiation Protocol

The consequences of cell phone use
Cell phones are a source of electromagnetic fields, radiation which creates change in anything it comes into contact with. EMFs emanate from mobile phones and because of how phones are used, these EMFs come into direct contact with the brain.

More than a dozen studies have linked using a cell phone for a long period of time — ten years or more — with a higher incidence of brain tumors and acoustic neuromas. These critical diagnoses are even more common when phones aren't switched from one side of the head to the other when engaged in conversation.

Other adverse health effects include:

• Evidence of leukemia, breast cancer and other cancers.

• Neurological concerns and changes in the nervous system.

• A much higher risk of salivary gland tumors.

Supporting studies
A study from the Medical University of Graz in Austria showed that cell phone use negatively affects sperm quality in men. A similar study from 2009 examined men in the height of their reproductive years and found infertility and the ability to father a healthy baby were compromised by cell phone usage.

Cells phones are also a source of perfluorooctanoic acid, a harmful chemical which has been linked to heart disease, cancer and female reproductive/developmental damage.

Cell phones are not the only problem. Cell phone towers, as well as other wireless devices, are responsible for contributing non-ionizing radio frequencies into the environment. Both the World Health Organization and the International Association for Research on Cancer have classified the electromagnetic fields emitted by cell phones as a 2B, possible carcinogen. The towers and the phones themselves are constantly emitting microwave radiation. Even when cell phones are not in use they are putting out EMFs.

Viable Solutions
According to the Environmental Working Group, after wireless industry representatives met with the Federal Communications Commission in 2010, information on the FCC's site which had previously been supportive of purchasing safer — lower radiation — cell phones was eliminated and replaced with the following:

"Does not endorse the need for these practices."

When government organizations and industry work together it is not always in the best interest of the consumer. This means finding viable solutions without depending upon government or industry recommendations.

Solutions that can be easily implemented include:

• Minimizing use.

• Using a shielded wire headset or speaker phone.

• Keeping phone at a reasonable distance from the body.

• Turning your phone off when not in use.

• Using a land line with a corded phone whenever possible.

• Texting instead of talking.

• Switching phone from one side of the head to the other.

• Avoid using your phone when reception is poor.

Researchers are continuing to study EMFs and their connection to health in terms of long-lasting and future effects. Whatever conclusions are reached, minimizing the effects now instead of later is timely and crucial.

The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) remains under the false assumption that it has the authority to restrict Hershberger from distributing raw milk and other raw dairy products to individuals in his community who want these items. This bloated bureaucracy has arbitrarily decided that such distribution is the equivalent of retail sales, and has proceeded to harass and tyrannize Hershberger and his family throughout the past several years, which has culminated into his arrest and upcoming trial.

So beginning at 11:00 am on the front steps of the courthouse on March 2, food freedom activists will respond to this government abuse by distributing Declaration of Food Independence pamphlets to passersby and event attendees that explains how humanity's God-given right to food sovereignty is not a government matter. Various members of Hershberger's buying club will also speak to the crowd about food freedom issues.

"The FDA reign of terror against family farms who are serving the needs of private buying clubs is culminating in one Wisconsin farmer facing federal charges," said Kimberly Hartke from the Weston A. Price Foundation. "Citizens deserve the freedom to choose, and are staging an event in support of this principled farmer, Vernon Hershberger. He is being dealt with unjustly, and is standing strong with the support of the families he serves" (http://hartkeisonline.com).

Prior to the main event, there will be a "Rights Workshop" featuring raw milk activist Max Kane; Canadian farmer and raw milk speaker Michael Schmidt; food freedom activist John Moody; author and blogger David Gumpert; dairy farmer and speaker Mel Olsen; Raw Milk Freedom Riders and Farm Food Freedom Coalition co-founder Liz Reitzip; and freedom activist and constitutional scholar Michael Badnarik. Following the workshop will be a farm food dinner.

According to reports, Sighle was not notified by either school or hospital officials of their intentions to administer vaccines to her daughter. Not only is Sighle opposed to the vaccines that were given, but she has expressed anger over the fact that officials deliberately ignored her written filing with the school not to administer any medical treatments without her expressed permission.

"She comes home, hands me the envelope with the shot record in it that they gave her at school. And when I looked at it I said, 'What is this?' And she was like 'They gave me shots, and they took blood, and they took urine,'" explained Sighle about the situation with her daughter to WXYZ. "Why would they give you an HPV (vaccine)? I never wanted you to have an HPV (vaccine). And as far as you getting injections, you have your own private physician. I don't need them to do that in school for you."

Besides simple treatments like a bandage for a cut, for instance, or an aspirin for a headache, Sighle had explicitly told the school prior to the incident never to administer any medical treatments without her permission. She also told WXYZ that it was her intention to specifically protect her daughter from these vaccines, particularly the HPV vaccine, which is linked to thousands of permanent adverse reactions, and more than 100 deaths (http://sanevax.org/).

"I'm angry with everybody, because nobody called and asked me anything," said Sighle. "St. John's, they should have better nurses. How are you gonna overlook something that severe? This is my child, you injected my child with medicine that I never wanted her to have."

Sighle says her daughter missed several days of school after getting the shots because of adverse reactions. According to Sighle, her daughter developed a severe rash all over her body, and is now concerned that other long-term health problems will emerge as a result of the vaccines.

In case you missed it, an official from West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford, N.C., recently decided that one young student's sack lunch did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines for a healthy meal. So he or she — the school still has not disclosed the identity of the agent — confiscated the girl's lunch, and forced her to purchase chicken nuggets from the school's cafeteria.

The USDA's guidelines state that sack lunches brought from home must contain one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of either fruit or vegetables. While the young girl's lunch contained cheese, it did not contain "milk," and also only contained one serving of fruit, which is presumably why the agent felt it necessary to confiscate her lunch and force her through the cafeteria line. At the same time, the Division of Child Development reportedly stated in a later review that the girl's lunch appears to have met all the guidelines, and that the confiscation was unwarranted.

The irony, of course, is that the three processed chicken nuggets the girl ended up eating fail even worse to meet the USDA guidelines, which are questionable in the first place. Processed, homogenized milk products, for instance, which are obviously what the USDA is referring to with the "one serving of milk" category, are hardly nutritious, as a recent study out of Harvard University found that processed milk from factory farms is linked to causing cancer.

But the government has no business regulating, let alone invasively inspecting, the home-packed lunches of schoolchildren, and forcing them to eat government-sanctioned cafeteria food, regardless of the circumstances. And part of NCPPR's demonstration was to stand in solidarity for food freedom against a government that is "waging war on lunch."

The Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO), a lobbying group which represents Monsanto and other key purveyors of GM crops, has for years been in close contact with the Obama White House over the issue of GM crop plantings in national wildlife refuges. Both BIO and the White House appear to be working in tandem on strategies to ensure that GM crops remain in wildlife refuges, an agricultural disaster that PEER has been trying for quite some time to bring to an end.

PEER has been largely successful in restricting GM plantings in wildlife refuges through repeated lawsuits, including one early last year that put an end to GM plantings in 12 wildlife refuges across the Northeast. But based on information that has been extracted via FOIA requests, the White House appears to be directly undercutting these measures by assisting BIO in protecting GM crops in other wildlife refuges from legal challenges.

And of particular concern is a January email between Peter Schmeissner, senior science policy analyst and member of the White House's biotechnology working group, and BIO, in which specific details about the biotechnology industry's lobbying strategies are laid out. The White House has deliberately censored certain sections of the email that is says contain biotechnology industry secrets, a fact that represents undeniable evidence that the Obama White House and the biotechnology industry are a close partnership.

"We suspect the reason an industry lobbyist so cavalierly shared strategy is that the White House is part of that strategy," said PEER staff counsel Kathryn Douglas about the situation. "The White House's legal posture is as credible as claiming Coca Cola's secret formula was 'inadvertently' left in a duffel bag at the bus station."

None of this is surprising since the Obama White House is filled with pro-GM players like Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lobbyist who was appointed by Obama to be deputy commissioner for food at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief Tom Vilsack, another Obama appointee, was also responsible for pushing through the approval of GM alfalfa early last year

Vitamin D3-5

Antonino Lasco, M.D., from the University of Messina in Italy and his colleagues evaluated 40 women aged '8 to 40 as part of their study. Each of the women had experienced at least four consecutive painful menstrual periods within the six months prior to the study, and also had blood levels of "5-hydroxy vitamin D of less than 45 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), which is below what is increasingly being considered a normal, healthy level.

Each of the women, who reportedly has not taken calcium, vitamin D, oral contraceptives, or any other medications besides non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for pain, were assigned either a single, oral dose of 300,000 international units (IUs) of cholecalciferol, also known as vitamin D3, or placebo for five days before they were expected to have their next menstrual period.

After two months, overall pain in the vitamin D group dropped by a whopping 4' percent, while no pain reduction was observed in the placebo group. And those with the most severe pain at the beginning of the study experienced the greatest reduction in pain as a result of taking vitamin D, which has huge implications for how women with primary dysmenorrhea can treat their pain naturally without having to continually take NSAIDs and other pain medications, which can result in serious side effects.

Taking 300,000 IU of vitamin D every day on a regular basis would obviously be way too much for any person to handle, as the upper limit for daily intake is somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 IU. However, taking this mega-dose every few months to alleviate menstrual pain instead of taking pharmaceutical drugs is a plausible option that appears to be both safe and effective.

"If these findings are confirmed in future randomized trials, vitamin D supplementation may become an important new treatment option for women who experience menstrual pain disorders," wrote the authors. "Our data support the use of cholecalciferol in these patients, especially when exhibiting low plasmatic levels of "5(OH)D."