For a number of years, scientists have been studying "brown fat." 

Brown fat is a heat-generating type of fat that burns energy instead of storing it, and this may have important implications when it comes to weight loss.

Human newborns have a supply of brown fat to keep warm, but by adulthood they lose most of their stores of it.

Brown fat has been located in the neck area, around blood vessels (helping to warm your blood), and "marbled" in with white fat in visceral fat tissue.

In a new study, scientists found that they were able to activate the brown fat still present in adult men by exposing them to cold temperatures.

The men burned more calories when cooled, and lost white fat, the kind that causes obesity.

According to the study's authors¹:

"That adult humans possess brown fat is now accepted - but is the brown fat metabolically active? Does human brown fat actually combust fat to release heat?

... Ouellet et al. demonstrate that metabolism in brown fat really is increased when adult humans are exposed to cold.

This boosts the possibility that calorie combustion in brown fat may be of significance for our metabolism and, correspondingly, that the absence of brown fat may increase our proneness to obesity - provided that brown fat becomes activated not only by cold but also through food-related stimuli."

Research has shown that certain groups of people tend to have more brown fat than others, and there are direct correlations between the activation of brown fat and metabolic measures of good health. For example:

• Slender people have more brown fat than obese people do
• Younger people have more brown fat than elderly people, and
• People with normal blood sugar levels have more brown fat than those with high blood sugar

Cold Temps Boost Brown Fat Activation

Swedish research published in 2009 also found that cold temperatures increased the activity in the subjects' brown fat regions, measured using positron-emission tomography (PET).² In fact, cold-induced glucose uptake was increased by a factor of 15!  While the Swedish researchers dipped the subject's foot into an ice bath while in the scanner, another similar study by researchers in the Netherlands chilled their subjects in a 16 degrees Celsius/61 degrees Fahrenheit room for two hours. They too found an uptick in brown fat activity.

Based on animal models, researchers estimate that just 50g of brown fat (which is less than what most study volunteers have been found to have) could burn about 20 percent of your daily caloric intake—and more if 'encouraged.'

According to a previous article on WebMD³:

"Kirsi A. Virtanen, MD, PhD, of the University of Turku, Finland, and colleagues analyzed brown fat in five young men. One of the men had about 2.2 ounces of brown fat.  "If the brown [fat] in this example were fully activated, it would burn an amount of energy equivalent to approximately 4.1 kilograms [9 pounds]" of fat over the course of a year, the researchers calculate. And that's a low estimate, as this assumes only 50 percent activation of the brown fat."

Activating Your Brown Fat Might Help to Reduce Your Love Handles

No wonder people are anxious to tap into the fat burning capabilities of brown fat! Interestingly, brown fat actually behaves more like muscle than fat, and as you will soon see, there's good reason for that.

One of the researchers in this area is Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, with Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over the past five years, his research team has published at least five studies⁴ on the topic of brown fat, and in one, they identified a sort of master switch that promotes the production of brown fat. In 2008, they showed that the molecular switch, known as PRDM16, regulates whether immature cells will turn into brown fat or into muscle cells. In an interview with WebMD, Spiegelman said⁵:

"We showed that brown fat and white fat have completely different origins. Brown fat is derived from muscle. That was a huge surprise."

Another set of researchers from Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center found another trigger for brown fat—a protein called BMP-7, which also promotes bone growth⁶. The researchers discovered that this protein acts as a growth factor for brown fat. Mice treated with BMP-7 protein grew up to have more brown fat than untreated mice, and the treated mice also used up more energy.

Needless to say, researchers are excited about the potential for a medical intervention that can help people develop more brown fat. But I would be cautious of any solution in a pill form. Instead, I'd suggest trying out some of the non-invasive methods that have been found to promote brown fat production and its activation. For example, in one mouse study, the animals converted white fat into brown fat simply by exercising.

According to Time Magazine⁷:

 "During exercise, the animals' muscles released a newly discovered enzyme called irisin, which triggered the conversion. It's not clear whether the same phenomenon is true in people, though humans do have the same protein. However, the brown fat that is easily observed in humans tends not to be the kind that is derived from white fat."

Ice Therapy: a Viable Strategy?

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Work Week, also published a book called The Four-Hour Body⁸, which includes the concept of activating your brown fat to boost fat burning by exposing yourself to frigid temperatures. He claims you can increase your fat burning potential by as much as 300 percent simply by adding ice therapy to your dieting strategy. A LiveStrong article backs up Ferriss' claim stating⁹:

"A NASA scientist told ABC News that's no hyperbole. In studying the effects of temperature on astronauts, he saw people's metabolism boost by 20 percent in environments as mild as 60 degrees. A Joslin researcher told National Public Radio that 3 oz. of brown fat could burn 400 to 500 calories daily."

So, how does Ferriss' Ice Therapy work? Well, by cooling your body down with ice, you're essentially forcing it to burn much more calories by activating your brown fat as the studies above can attest to. His suggestions, from easy to 'hard core,' include the following. Do advance slowly! It may be inadvisable to go straight to the ice bath if you're not used to it!:

• Place an ice pack on your upper back and upper chest for 30 minutes per day (you can do this while relaxing in front of the TV for example)
• Drinking about 500 ml of ice water each morning
• Cold showers
• Immersing yourself in ice water up to your waist for 10 minutes, three times per week. (Simply fill your tub with cold water and ice cubes)

Four More Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

Everyone's metabolism is different, but you can generally speed it up or slow it down within a reasonably short amount of time by making changes to your diet and lifestyle. Aside from resorting to ice therapy, the following common-sense strategies will also help boost your metabolism to encourage weight loss:

1. Avoid sugar (particularly fructose) and grains as they are the leading cause of insulin- and leptin-resistance, which directly affect your hunger levels, your fat-burning potential, and consequently your weight
2. Listen to your hunger, and eat a healthy meal or snack when hunger calls
3. Implement a well-rounded exercise regimen that includes:
1. strength training to build muscle (for every pound of muscle that you gain, your body burns 50-70 calories more per day), and
2. high-intensity interval training, which has been demonstrated to significantly increase fat loss by boosting human growth hormone production
4. Use healthy outlets for stress and negative emotions. Tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are your friend and ally when it comes to losing weight. Meditation, prayer, journaling and even exercise can also provide positive outlets for stress.

Remember, the idea is not to deprive your body or starve yourself into a size 2. The goal is to establish a healthy relationship with food, one that will keep you satisfied, nourished and slim, all at the same time.

REFERENCES:

• ¹ Journal of Clinical Investigation 2012 Feb 1;122(2):486-9
• ² New England Journal of Medicine 2009 Apr 9;360(15):1518-25
• ³ www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090407/can-brown-fat-make-you-thin
• ⁴ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=spiegelman[author]+AND+PRDM16&TransSchema=title&cmd=detailssearch
• ⁵ www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080820/brown-fat-new-key-to-weight-loss
• ⁶ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the Unites States of America 2011 Jan 4;108(1):143-8
• ⁷ Time Magazine January 26, 2012
• ⁸ The Four Hour Body
• ⁹ LiveStrong June 6, 2011

• Time Magazine January 26, 2012

  Want to Boost Your Metabolism? Try These 3 Things Today...

  Insulin Resistance -- Not Belly Fat -- to Blame for Metabolic Syndrome

  Boost Your Metabolism, Curb Cancer, and Slash Blood Sugar with this Easy Culinary Trick

By Dr. Mercola

It’s a widely held tenet in our society that if you get sick, you should visit your doctor to “get well.”

But many physicians are relatively clueless about “wellness care,” they are in the business of disease treatment.

This is why the vast majority of physicians’ visits end up with a medication being prescribed, or if that is not appropriate, a surgery or invasive medical test is often recommended.

What is blatantly missing from many of these appointments is a discussion of what is causing your ailment ... which often means hope for a real “cure” is forsaken in favor of expensive and often dangerous symptom management.

Many Americans Dying Prematurely Because of the U.S. Medical System

Medical care is designed to help you when you are sick, but in the United States the term “health care” is an oxymoron. “Sick care” would be more fitting. Consider this: Americans spend more on health care than citizens of any other country, up to 1.5 times more per person -- but we rank 50th in life expectancy and 47th in infant mortality. These are dismal outcomes from the most expensive health care system in the world!

In a new book ("How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America”) by Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, explains CNN:

“ ... a large number of our fellow Americans are suffering and dying avoidable deaths, because of lack of quality health care. ... Doctors deserve some blame for this mess. Appreciation of the science of medicine and the scientific method is often lacking.

It is amazing the number of health care professionals who seemingly reject the scientific method. They prescribe treatments they believe to be appropriate as opposed to therapies that are known to be appropriate based on objective scientific evidence. This form of ignorance is a root cause of much of the overuse of medical therapy.

Too often, doctors fail to distinguish what is scientifically known from what is unknown, from what is believed. This is beyond mere disagreement about interpretation of the science. There is often selective reading of the science, especially by those trained in a specialty wanting to advocate for it.

Health care providers and the public often overlook the emotional and financial conflicts of interest of health care professionals. While I blame the medical profession, blame also rests on hospitals, drug and device manufacturers, insurance companies, lawyers, politicians, government and even with patients.”

When the Treatment is Worse Than the Disease...

Dr. Brawley, a practicing oncologist, gives CNN a telling example in the case of 50-year-old Helen, who was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 1990. After receiving surgery, she then was given high dose chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, a treatment that resulted in her being hospitalized for nearly a year and “almost killed her several times.” According to Dr. Brawley, this chemo/bone marrow transplant combo treatment was common at the time for women with breast cancer, even though no study had ever proven it beneficial.

In 1999, clinical trials were finally completed showing that not only was the treatment no better than standard therapy, it may have actually been more harmful.

And therein lies the crux of the problem -- medical treatments are often ordered even though evidence to support their effectiveness is lacking, and oftentimes they end up doing more harm than good, sometimes even causing the patient to die.  Why? Sadly, it’s often based on financial gain. Dr. Brawley continued:

“Even without evidence, some patients and their doctors had faith that it worked. The procedure was common because some doctors taught that the transplant was beneficial to patients. Truth be told, it was very beneficial to the doctors and hospitals offering it … The American health care system is fundamentally flawed and encourages inappropriate behavior and a subtle form of corruption. There truly is a combination of greed, ignorance and apathy within health care that is a cancer on this country. There is nothing wrong with medicine as a business, and nothing wrong with making an honest profit. However, in some cases, greed needs to be replaced with public interest, a concern for the national good.”

"Pharmageddon" is Here

Pharmageddon is "the prospect of a world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good" -- and it is no longer a prospect but is fully upon us.

Last year an analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that deaths from properly prescribed drugs now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States! And when you add in deaths attributable to other medical care modalities, like hospital admissions and surgery, the modern medical system becomes the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

Authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, the comprehensive Death by Medicine article described in excruciating detail how everything from medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures caused more harm than good. That was in 2003. In 2010, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all.ⁱ Researchers noted:

“In a study of 10 North Carolina hospitals, we found that harms remain common, with little evidence of widespread improvement.”

They revealed that 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person's death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery. In all there were over 25 injuries per 100 admissions! In other words you have a one in four chance of getting injured if you are admitted to the hospital -- not very good odds by any stretch.

Medical Care Often Dictated by Your Providers' Financial Interests

In her book, "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer," Shannon Brownlee also talks about the number of people who die in hospitals due to incorrect care, drug dosage or hospital-acquired infections. Even with new safety regulations in place, 180,000 hospitalized Americans still die every year from largely preventable causes – and the worst part about it, Brownlee says, is that as much as a third of that care does nothing to improve your health!

What happens is that you often get certain medical tests because of what your physician's specialty is, not because that's necessarily the test you need. For example if you have low back pain and see different specialists you will get different tests: rheumatologists will order blood tests, neurologists will order nerve impulse tests, and surgeons will order MRIs and CT scans.

But no matter what tests you get, you'll probably end up with a spinal fusion because it's one of the "more lucrative procedures in medicine," Brownlee says – even though the best success rate for spinal fusions is only 25 percent!

Angioplasties and certain types of chemotherapy with similar low success rates are just as prone to be ordered, Brownlee says, because that's where hospitals' investments lie. You see, they have all this equipment and they need to use it to get a return on it – but they also need to get you out of there as quickly as possible, so they can get the next patient in. What ensues is a type of aggressive patient therapy that can end in disaster: according to the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 7 Medicare recipients will be harmed every year as a result of the medical care they received in the hospital.

Some Physicians are Recognizing the Power of "Alternative" Care

It seems that even while physicians continue to promote the drugs and surgeries upon which this flawed system is based, some health care workers are also poignantly aware of many of the pitfalls of modern medicine … and as such are embracing more holistic modalities when it comes to their own care.

In fact, 76 percent of health care workers use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), compared to 63 percent of the general population, according to research in the journal Health Services Research.ⁱⁱ Even more revealing, health care providers, including doctors and nurses, were more than twice as likely to have used practitioner-based CAM, and nearly three times as likely to use self-treatment with CAM, during the prior year than support workers.

Alternative medicine, or as I prefer to call it, “traditional” medicine (because many of these therapies have been used for many centuries), typically offers a more positive treatment experience and often produces better results with less risk. And Americans are also increasingly distrustful of prescription medicines -- rightfully so! If more physicians would begin to embrace traditional medicine practices like nutritional-based therapies, as well as advocate for preventive health care strategies like healthy diet, exercise and stress relief, we would likely begin to see a real turnaround in rates of chronic disease, not to mention deaths due to medical care.

As Dr. Brawley wrote on CNN:

“The triad of obesity, lack of physical activity and high caloric intake (bad diet) is creating a tsunami of chronic disease. If the system persists as is, medical costs will grow dramatically over the next several decades as the number of patients with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and orthopedic injury dramatically grows.

The current course is not sustainable. Medical costs will rise until the economy collapses. We all need to realize that some Americans are harmed by lack of treatment and others by overtreatment. The cold hard reality is America does not need to reform health care, we need to transform health care.”

You Can Make Your Own Health Care Decisions, and Even Influence Your Doctor

What is the proof that the health care system is in need of urgent transformation? Hundreds of thousands are killed by medical care itself, while others are walking around with far less than stellar health due to these treatments. Rates of chronic diseases are through the roof, and we're facing epidemics of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression and too many others to list. As a whole, Americans are not healthy – they're tired, depressed, stressed out and often in pain.

As patients, many people have taken their health into their own hands by abandoning this fatally flawed medical model and embracing holistic modalities that can help heal on a body-wide level.

It’s important to remember that the more you take responsibility for your own health -- in the form of nurturing your body to prevent disease -- the less you need to rely on the "disease care" that passes for health care in the United States. If you carefully follow some basic health principles -- simple things like exercising, eating whole foods, sleeping enough, getting sun exposure, reducing stress in your life, and nurturing personal relationships -- you will drastically reduce your need for conventional medical care, which in and of itself will reduce your chances of suffering ill side effects.

But in the event you do need medical care, seek a health care practitioner who will help you move toward complete wellness by helping you discover and understand the hidden causes of your health challenges ... and create a customized and comprehensive -- i.e. holistic -- treatment plan for you.

What's more, you can have an impact on your doctor's tendency to recommend natural alternatives, as when you inquire about them, some health care providers do in fact listen. Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, an internist and integrative medicine fellow at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, did just that, because of her patients’ requests.

As reported by CommonHealth:ⁱⁱⁱ

"Nerurkar, 35, says she was "inspired by her patients," to pursue the research because so many of them kept telling her how much better they felt — that their insomnia or anxiety had ceased — after taking a meditation or yoga class."

So many people are now asking their health care providers about alternative options that even medical schools have had no choice but to listen -- many are now offering courses in alternative medicine, such as the use of herbs, acupuncture and mind-body medicine! Remember, when you do go to the doctor, know that it's OK to ask questions and opt for less medical intervention while choosing a more natural way of healing your body.

If your physician is not open to such options, it may be time to find one who is, who can help coach you and your family to Take Control of Your Health.

REFERENCES:

• ⁱ New England Journal of Medicine November 25, 2010
• ⁱⁱ Health Services Research August 22, 2011
• ⁱⁱⁱ CommonHealth May 9, 2011

• CNN January 20, 2012

  Two Charts that Prove the Government is Making You Sick

  The #1 Cause of Accidental Death in the U.S. - Are You at Risk?

  Nearly 250,000 Deaths From ONE Common Mistake: Here's How to Protect Yourself

By Dr. Mercola

Agent Orange, produced by both Monsanto and Dow Chemicals, was used to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam War.

During that time, millions of gallons of the toxic chemical mixture were sprayed on trees and vegetation, and the aftermath left hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese sick, with countless numbers of their children suffering birth defects, and a still growing group of U.S. veterans with related diseases ranging from cancer to Parkinson's disease.

Agent Orange was a horrific chemical concoction that never should have been used, and if you want to see some of its effects on children who were exposed in the womb, you can do so here -- but I warn you the photos are very graphic and upsetting.

Agent Orange is no longer produced -- so why am I bringing it up now?

Because Dow AgroSciences (a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals), who was one of the original manufacturers of Agent Orange (AO), has developed a new generation of genetically modified (GM) crops -- soybeans, corn and cotton -- that are designed to resist a major ingredient in AO: the herbicide called 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D).

The use of 2,4-D, however, is not new, as it is actually one of the most widely used herbicides in the world.

What is new – and disturbingly so – is that now that staple crops like soy and corn have been engineered to be resistant to 2,4-D, it may soon be applied to U.S. arable land on an unprecedented scale -- not unlike its indiscriminate application during Vietnam.

The whole point of engineering resistance to an herbicide within a GMO plant, of course, is so that you can "carpet bomb" an entire field, leaving only your "Frankenfoods" standing, without having to exert even a fraction of the effort required raise crops organically and sustainably.

In fact, if 2,4-D resistant crops receive approval and eventually come to replace Monsanto's failing Roundup-resistant crops as Dow intends, it is likely that billions of pounds will be needed, on top of the already insane levels of Roundup now being used (1.6 billion lbs were used in 2007 in the US alone!).

Agent Orange Ingredient to be Used in GMO Crops

Dow's new GM product, dubbed "Enlist," is a three-gene, herbicide-tolerant soybean that has been engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's popular Roundup herbicide, along with glufosinate and 2,4-D. The company expects to earn $1.5 billion in additional profit in 2013 by selling these triple herbicide-resistant seeds. As noted by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs:

"The two active ingredients in the Agent Orange herbicide combination were equal amounts of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), which contained traces of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)."

Ironically, while Dow's new crops would seriously escalate the use of 2,4-D, Monsanto is currently facing a class-action lawsuit involving the other Agent Orange ingredient, 2,4,5-T. The suit alleges that homes and schools near one of its 2,4,5-T chemical plants are now contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin, a byproduct of the manufacturing process. This should be a wake-up call to those considering widespread application of any toxic Agent Orange ingredient.

Dow, however, is touting the new product as a solution to Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM crops, which currently dominate the GM seed market but are now being overshadowed by problems with weed resistance (not to mention that glyphosate itself is also incredibly toxic, and has been linked to infertility, among other serious health problems).

Where Monsanto has failed, Dow and other chemical rivals like DuPont, Syngenta, and Bayer (which are also working on their own herbicide-resistant GM seeds) see opportunity. So Dow has trotted in on their white horse to offer a new variety of GM crop, which they say will not pose the "superweed" problem that Roundup Ready crops have created.

This is not so, according to an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in which researchers state that suggesting 2,4-D will not lead to widespread weed resistance "misrepresented the potential for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)–resistant weeds in 2,4-D–resistant cropping systems and exaggerated the sustainability of their approach to addressing glyphosate-resistant weed problems in agriculture."

They, in fact, note 28 species across 16 plant families that have already evolved resistance to similar herbicides to 2,4-D. Further, as stated on GreenMedInfo, the new Enlist crops are setting the stage for even greater and simultaneous herbicide use, the health ramifications of which are completely unknown:

"Instead of learning from Monsanto's colossal mistakes (which happens when you play geneticist-as-God and use a broad spectrum poison to kill all but your "chosen" plants) Dow AgroScience's solution is to multiply the problem by a factor of three, creating the "first-ever, three-gene," herbicide-tolerant staple crops.

What this means is that instead of using only one highly toxic herbicide (Roundup), three will be used simultaneously, further increasing the risk of serious exposures, and setting up the conditions for synergistic toxicities – something that toxicological risk assessments on singular herbicide ingredients, which establish "an acceptable level of harm," never account for."

Studies Show Increases in Cancer, Birth Defects With Use of 2,4-D

What is known about 2,4-D so far is not reassuring, considering the devastation caused by Agent Orange. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding 2,4-D specifically:

"Health effects of chronic or acute 2,4-D exposure reported for adults included blood, liver, and kidney toxicity. Specific effects included a reduction in hemoglobin and red blood cell numbers, decreased liver enzyme activity, and increased kidney weight. Acute exposure can result in skin and eye irritation. Acute exposure to very high concentrations of 2,4-D can cause the following clinical symptoms: stupor, coma, coughing, burning sensations in lungs, loss of muscular coordination, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness.

Experimental animal studies of chronic oral exposure have reported adverse effects on the eye, thyroid, kidney, adrenals, and ovaries/testes. In addition, some experimental animal studies have reported teratogenic effects (birth defects) at high doses, including increased fetal death, urinary tract malformation, and extra ribs.

When adult female experimental animals were exposed to 2,4-D during their pregnancy and lactation periods, their exposed offspring exhibited neurological effects, including delayed neurobehavioral development and changes in several neurotransmitter levels or binding activities and ganglioside levels in the brain. Delayed neurobehavioral development was manifested as delays in acquisition of certain motor skills such as the righting reflex."

The glaring problem, of course, is that with approval of Dow's new GM crops, the use of 2,4-D could skyrocket out of control. As reported by The Cornucopia Institute:

""The concern is that, just like Monsanto's genetically engineered corn that is resistant to RoundUp™ (glyphosate) herbicide, the approval of a cultivar resistant to 2,4-D will cause an exponential increase in the use of this toxic agrichemical," says Mark A. Kastel, senior farm policy analyst with The Cornucopia Institute.

And again, as the EPA acknowledges, this is far from a benign chemical. The Cornucopia Institute continues:

"2,4-D is a chlorophenoxy herbicide, and scientists around the world have reported increased cancer risks in association with its use, especially for soft tissue sarcoma and malignant lymphoma. Four separate studies in the United States reported an association with chlorophenoxy herbicide use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

… Research by the EPA found that babies born in counties with high rates of 2,4-D application to farm fields were significantly more likely to be born with birth defects of the respiratory and circulatory systems, as well as defects of the musculoskeletal system like clubfoot, fused digits and extra digits. These birth defects were 60% to 90% more likely in counties with higher 2,4-D application rates. The results also showed a higher likelihood of birth defects in babies conceived in the spring, when herbicide application rates peak."

Weed Scientist Says, "We Told You So"

In the same way that Dow is now certain that its new three-gene, herbicide-tolerant soybean will not spur the creation of more herbicide-resistant "super weeds," Monsanto was also historically adamant that Roundup Ready crops would not cause weed resistance either.

Of course, now that the die has been cast, the United States is reaping the consequences with 13 resistant weed species covering more than 11 million acres, mostly those planted with Monsanto's GM soy, corn and cotton crops. Around the world, 21 weed species are now resistant to glyphosate, up from zero in 1996.

The weeds are making Monsanto's promises that their GM crops would reduce pesticide use completely laughable -- since farmers are being forced to use multiple, and more, pesticides to keep weeds in their GM crops under control -- and are turning out to be a very big thorn in Monsanto's proverbial side.

Monsanto's solution is similar to Dow's … add more herbicide-resistant genes to the plants so even more potent herbicide cocktails can be poured over U.S. farmland! According to Monsanto Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant, who was interviewed in Business Week, the company plans to add resistance to Dicamba, another weedkiller, to Roundup Ready crops by 2015, noting that:

"The cavalry is coming."

The cavalry is coming indeed … unfortunately they are working for the wrong side, with their "war on weeds" causing massive collateral damage to environmental and human health alike. William G. Johnson, a weed scientist at Purdue University, told Business Week, these new technologies may control Roundup-resistant weeds and leave us in "wedded bliss for 10 or 15 years" but "they do select for their own failure:"

 "Now that it has kind of blown up, it's like, 'We told you so,'" he says.

Adding further insult to injury, Johnson explains that "Dicamba and 2,4-D both tend to volatilize, turning the chemicals into vapor that can drift onto neighboring land … " accidentally killing nearby crops and exposing greater expanses to its toxic effects.

Let us also not forget that all the "weeds" these herbicides were designed to kill represent biodiversity, without which we would be left with only a handful of staple crops -- upon which our entire subsistence now precariously depends. Only because we do not find obvious value in a plant, does not mean it is not there.

Emerson once said: "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."

Indeed, when we target as "the enemy" any living plant that does not bear the favored qualities of a GM plant, and use the slash-and-burn, herbicidal approach to eradicate any competing plant life form, we are basically declaring war on the biosphere itself, and thereby setting up the future conditions for the collapse of our entire food production system, as well as poisoning ourselves in the process. Without biodiversity, monoculturing puts "too many eggs in one basket," virtually guaranteeing future crop collapses and famine. In a nutshell, industrial herbicides (and the GM plants designed to thrive when exposed to them), are a dead end – both figuratively, and literally.

Now's the Time to Take Action!

Dow has applied for non-regulated status of its 2,4-D-resistant corn, and you have until February 27, 2012 to comment on the petition. Please let your opinion be heard that approving more herbicide-tolerant crops is not the solution to ending "super weeds"; the real solution lies in eliminating the genetically modified crops that created them in the first place! 

As Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides told The Cornucopia Institute:

"In 2012 the USDA is proposing approving a new GE corn variety that is resistant to a different toxic herbicide, escalating the toxic treadmill in chemical-dependent agriculture. This is nothing more than a band-aid solution to a serious problem, and will only give rise to more superweeds, more herbicide pollution in our environment, more herbicide poisoning, while likely leading to the need for even more toxic herbicides a couple of years down the line. This foolish circle has to end."

It's quite clear that genetically engineered foods are not only threatening the food supply with the creation of herbicide-resistant weeds, but they can also pose potentially serious threats to animal and human health when consumed. Fortunately, now you, too, can let your opinion be heard on this issue. Several organizations, including Mercola.com, the Organic Consumers Association, the Institute for Responsible Technology, and the Environmental Working Group, are working to generate a tipping point of consumer rejection to make GMOs a thing of the past.

Here's how you can get involved:

• If you live in California and are willing to attend a short training session and then start collecting petition signatures (you will be part of a team of 2-4 people) for the California Ballot Initiative, sign up here. (For more information see: The California Ballot Initiative: Taking Down Monsanto.) Also remember to share this information with family and friends in California!
• Whether you live in California or not, please donate money to this historic effort.
• Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the California Ballot. It may be the only chance we have to require the proper labeling of genetically engineered foods.
• Distribute WIDELY the Non-GMO Shopping Guide to help you identify and avoid foods with GMOs. Look for products (including organic products) that feature the Non-GMO Project Verified Seal to be sure that at-risk ingredients have been tested for GMO content. You can also download the free iPhone application that is available from the iTunes store. You can find it by searching for ShopNoGMO in the applications.
• For timely updates, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter
• Look for in-depth coverage of the issue at the Institute for Responsible Technology, subscribe to Spilling the Beans, and check out their Facebook or Twitter.
• You can also join the Non-GMO Project on Facebook, or Twitter

In the meantime, the simplest way to avoid GM foods is to buy whole, certified organic foods. By definition, foods that are certified organic must never intentionally use GM organisms, must be produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and come from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. Additionally, grass-fed beef will not have been fed GM corn feed, although now that GM alfalfa is approved, grass-fed will not always mean GMO free. You can also look for foods that are "non-GMO verified" by the Non-GMO Project.

Important Action Item: Support California's Ballot Initiative to Label GMO's!

In 2007, then-Presidential candidate Obama promised to "immediately" require GM labeling if elected. So far, nothing of the sort has transpired.

Fortunately, 24 U.S. states have (as part of their state governance) something called the Initiative Process, where residents can bring to ballot any law they want enacted, as long as it has sufficient support. California has been busy organizing just such a ballot initiative to get mandatory labeling for genetically engineered foods sold in their state. The proposed law will be on the ballot for 2012.

Michigan and Washington are also starting similar campaigns.

Since California is the 8th largest economy in the world, a win for the California Initiative would be a huge step forward, and would affect ingredients and labeling nation-wide. Last month, a coalition of consumer, public health and environmental organizations, food companies, and individuals submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General. Now, they need 800,000 signatures to get the Act on next year's ballot.

I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can.

If you live in California, volunteer to gather petition signatures. If you live outside of California, please donate to help support this Initiative and spread the word to everyone you know in California. Be assured that what happens in California will affect the remainder of the US states, so please support this important state initiative, even if you do not live there!

• Green Med Info December 27, 2011

• Reuters August 22, 2011

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States March 15, 2011; 108(11): E37

  Monsanto Defeated by Super Weeds

  Monsanto Chemical Shown to Cause Infertility and Super Weeds

  50% of Rats Given this Died -- Why is it On Your Dinner Plate?

Travel can increase the stress on your immune system, even if it's for fun.

If you're not careful, you may come home from your trip with an unwelcome memento - like a cold or flu.

Some people even expect to get sick during a trip. But it doesn't have to be that way!

It's very important to take care of your immune health while traveling, whether it's for business or pleasure.

Acupressure is the practice of pressing or massaging certain points on your body, which can stimulate your body's self-curative abilities.

CNN Go has collected a list of 8 Acupoints¹, which could be useful for travelers.

Here are a few:

1. Motion sickness and nausea: Press on the inside of your forearm, two thumbs' width above your wrist crease, between the two tendons.

The point is actually located below surface level so pushing deep is more effective.

2. Sore throat and lightheadedness: Loosely interlock your thumbs at the webbing, with both palms facing down.

Keep your wrists straight, and extend your index finger to the skinny edge of your wrist. Under the pad of your index finger you'll find a small depression in the prominent bone; that's the point. Rubbing or pressing this point relieves symptoms associated with colds.

3. Insomnia or disturbed dreams: Find the styloid process muscle on the side of your neck, and follow it up to where it meets your skull. The point is at the A-like depression going toward the back of your head.

For the complete list, please review the original article.²

Does Flying Increase Your Chances of Getting Sick?

Occasional travel exposes you to environmental toxins and pathogens that you aren't routinely exposed to - new people, new places, and toxic airplane cabin air. If you have a strong immune system, your body will be able to handle these insults without much trouble. But if your immune system is compromised, you can end up getting sick.

Air travel, with its frequent delays, security hassles, cramped quarters, and jet lag effects, can be stressful, but does it inherently make you more likely to contract an infectious illness?

A recent WHO report found there is no evidence that recirculation of cabin air facilitates the transmission of infectious disease agents on board.

Additionally, a University of California, San Francisco study found recycled air on short-term flightsis no more likely to cause colds than flights using fresh air. The researchers interviewed 1,100 passengers before and one week after an approximate two-hour flight and reported that the frequency of colds and runny noses were virtually the same between recycled air and fresh air flyers.

As that report confirmed, it is the strength of your body's own immune system that determines whether or not you will get sick. The infectious bacteria and viruses that circulate around an airplane cabin are merely triggers for an already weakened immune system. Cold and flu viruses can last up to 72 hours on plastic surfaces and the nasty Norovirus³ can survive for two to four weeks - so chances are you're very likely to touch a surface with some germs on it while you're in a confined space with many other people, like on an airplane (or in public places general). The best way to prevent getting sick then, is to build up your immunity well in advance of traveling and practice good health habits while away.

The Basics for Protecting Your Immune System While Traveling

So, let's start with the basics.

I actually recommend you follow these tips year-round, regardless of your travel plans, because you will inevitably be exposed to bacteria and viruses in your daily life. The following general guidelines will help you optimize your health and immune function, and by doing so, minimize your risk of becoming ill.

Astaxanthin Can Help Prevent Cellular Damage from Radiation Exposure

The above tips are the very basics. But there are some additional steps you can take that can further increase your odds of staying well. Astaxanthin is a naturally occurring but still little known carotenoid that may be the most potent antioxidant in nature. Carotenoids are the compounds in your foods that give them that vibrant cornucopia of color - from green grasses to red beets, to the spectacular yellows and oranges of your bell peppers. Astaxanthin is what gives wild salmon their vibrant red color.

Not only does astaxanthin give your immune system an enormous boost, but it's also a potent UVB absorber and can help reduce DNA damage. Hence it can help protect you from the increased radiation you are subjected to while flying, and may even offer protection against any harmful radiation exposure from airport scanners.

I recommend taking 4-8 mg of astaxanthin for several weeks prior to flying, and continue taking it throughout your trip.

Avoid X-Ray Airport Scanners if You Can

I recommend avoiding airport X-ray scanners if at all possible. Although some experts claim that X-ray scanners expose you to "1,000 times less radiation than a chest X-ray" and "far less than what you are exposed to in-flight," these analogies are deceptive. As Dr. Russell Blaylock has pointed out, radiation damage depends on the volume of tissue exposed.

Some of the most damaging radiation barely penetrates the skin and is concentrated on top few millimeters of skin surface where some very radiation-sensitive tissues exist, such as your eyes, genitals, and circulating blood cells.

Zinc and Mushrooms: Two More Immune System Defenders

Zinc is another simple, inexpensive antiviral supplement you can take if you suspect you might not be getting enough in your diet. There is some fairly convincing scientific research suggesting zinc can shorten the duration of a cold as well as decreasing the severity, if taken within 24 hours of your onset of symptoms.

It's not completely understood how zinc curbs a cold, but it appears it may prevent the virus from replicating or attaching to your nasal membranes. I recommend supplementing with no more than 50 to 65 milligrams of zinc per day. Again, only consider supplementing if you think you are not getting adequate zinc from your diet, as a little zinc goes a long way.

Foods richest in zinc include oysters, meat and poultry, nuts and seeds, and unsweetened chocolate (cacao). High grain diets impair zinc absorption, so if you eat a fair amount of grain-based foods, you may be zinc deficient.

Medicinal mushrooms offer another powerful immune boost, besides being nutritional powerhouses. They have anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. A supplement consisting of a blend of several medicinal mushrooms is thought to be more powerful than one containing a single mushroom type.

The Best Breakfast on the Road

It is often a challenge to adhere to a good diet when traveling. I travel often, and I have had to develop a dietary plan that is convenient and manageable for me while away from home.

Many eat breakfast in a diner while traveling, or succumb to the in-house breakfast that many hotels now offer. Unfortunately, the food choices are often not very nutritious and usually consist of mostly processed food and sugar, which will NOT help you stay healthy. Typically, what you'll find is an assortment of pancakes, waffles, donuts, cereal, or scrambled eggs… or something that sort of passes for scrambled eggs that I dare guess is loaded with stuff you shouldn't be eating.

I believe a far better option is making a whey shake in your hotel room for breakfast, which will start your day off right with some high-quality protein. Whey shakes have become a staple for me, and they're easy to prepare in any hotel room.

Of course, you DO have to plan, and bring the food with you!

You want a whey product that is specifically from grass-fed, non-hormonally treated cows, and minimally processed. This maximizes its beneficial immune-supporting components and all the key amino acids and other important nutrients.

My Personal Recipe for a Healthy Breakfast

My breakfast recipe has evolved over a number of years but it works well for me so I thought I would share it. Most of the time, I am able to take the ingredients with me so I can consume them when I travel. First I start with a bed of dehydrated cucumber pulp which is broken down to about the size of breakfast cereal. The crunchy texture serves as a healthy bread substitute. This is leftover from my juicing and seasoned with crushed red peppers and Himalayan salt.

I then melt two tablespoons of raw grass fed organic butter over the cucumber flakes. Then I put some chopped organic red onions and a whole cut up organic avocado, and top it off with four raw organic pastured egg yolks. My latest and best addition is about 6-8 ounces of fermented organic vegetables like cabbage, carrots, celery etc. This is one of the healthiest breakfasts that I could come up with, and fully believe it would help many improve their own health.

Up and At 'Em: The Art of Hotel Room Exercise

If you want to stay healthy while traveling, it is a good idea to get some exercise every day. Some hotels have a small workout room, but even if yours doesn't, there are plenty of options for exercising right there in your hotel room. You can always take a brisk walk to a nearby park, climb some stairs, or take advantage of the swimming pool many hotels offer (just beware of heavily chlorinated pools!). Many gyms offer daily or weekly passes for a minimal charge.

But you can get an aerobic workout without ever leaving your room. Try some of the following:

• Jumping jacks
• Pushups
• Tricep dips off a chair
• Squats
• Lunges

You can also do things like yoga and Pilates anywhere you have a floor… and of course, that's pretty much anywhere! The best type of exercise equipment for packing in a suitcase is a resistance band. These are made of strong, thin rubber and come in a variety of resistances, and have handles at the ends. With resistance bands, you can do just about anything - chest presses, rows, shoulder presses, tricep extensions, bicep curls, and even squats - without the need for heavy weights.

Take a look at these exercise videos and you'll see how many exercises you could do with a little "improv" in a standard hotel room. And here is an exercise video demonstrating an exercise routine specifically designed for a hotel room.⁵ Going on vacation doesn't mean a death sentence for your health. With a little planning and attention to your immune system, you can enjoy your vacation and come home refreshed - rather than infected.

References:

• ¹ 8 Secret Acupoints to Cure Travel Ills, CNN GO, November 2, 2011: Toffler Niemuth.
• ² 8 Secret Acupoints to Cure Travel Ills, CNN GO, November 2, 2011: Toffler Niemuth.
• ³ Norovirus, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• ⁴ EFT Eases Nausea – Tapping Without Actually Tapping, EFTUniverse.com.
• ⁵ Best Hotel Room Workout, 5minLife Videopedia.

• CNN Go November 2, 2011

  Good Bacteria Fight the Flu

  Top 12 Foods for Healthy Immune Response

  Optimism Strengthens Your Immune System

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a senior scientist at MIT where she's conducted research for over three decades, and has published hundreds of papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

She also has an undergraduate degree in biology from MIT, and a minor in food and nutrition.

I've previously published two articles detailing Dr. Seneff's groundbreaking views on sulfur and cholesterol—both of which are important in relation to the discussion in this segment about statin drugs.

If you missed the previous two segments, I highly recommend reviewing them now in order to get a more complete picture of how vitamin D, dietary cholesterol, and statin drugs work in tandem to affect your health, for better or worse.

What makes Dr. Seneff uniquely qualified to talk about statins is not clinical experience but rather her expertise in mining and evaluating the available research to reach conclusions about health.

Why it's So Difficult to Learn the Truth about Statin Drugs...

One of the papers Dr. Seneff wrote was on the detrimental impact of low cholesterol and statin drugs on Alzheimer's disease.

"I was very interested in the connection between Alzheimer's and low cholesterol... and statins in particular because they lower cholesterol, [which is] going to make that problem worse," she says.

Her paper was summarily rejected.

"Part of the grounds of rejection had to do with the mention of statins," Dr. Seneff explains. "So we took out all the mentions of statins and resubmitted the paper to a different journal, and then it got accepted. You can read this paper in the European Journal of Internal Medicine."

This is a classic example of what's wrong with the current paradigm. The pharmaceutical industry effectively controls the entire health care system, from research to publication to education.

"I think many people are aware that they cannot get their paper published in one of the high end journals if it mentions something negative about statins," Dr. Seneff says. "It's extremely difficult to get such papers accepted by these journals because of the influence of the statin industry on the journal. I think that's a very serious problem."

Many Doctors are Shockingly Ill- or Misinformed about Statin Risks

Shockingly, one in four Americans over the age of 45 is now taking these drugs, and few are properly warned about the related health risks. Part of the problem is that many doctors are not even aware of all the risks. Needless to say, this is not entirely surprising when you consider how difficult it is for any researcher to publish negative findings about this class of drugs!

A study published last spring highlighted this dilemma.

Most disturbingly, the researchers found that physicians were lacking in awareness of the teratogenic risksⁱ (ability to cause fetal malformations) of statins and other cardiovascular drugs they prescribed for their pregnant patients. The study followed an earlier reportⁱⁱ, which had concluded statins should be avoided in early pregnancy due to their teratogenic capability. An even earlier 2003 studyⁱⁱⁱ had already established that cholesterol plays an essential role in embryonic development, and that statins could play a part in embryonic mutations or even death...

Indeed, it's difficult to look at these facts and not reach the conclusion that the pharmaceutical industry is quite willing to sacrifice human lives for profit. Statins are in fact classified as a "pregnancy Category X medication"^iv; meaning, it causes serious birth defects, and should NEVER be used by a woman who is pregnant or planning a pregnancy.

"It disturbs me greatly that they are prescribing statins to women in their reproductive years and the doctor doesn't even bother to tell the woman that statins are class X for pregnancy, just like thalidomide," Dr. Seneff says. "[Statin drugs] cause severe damage to the neural tube in the embryo—likely leading to a miscarriage if you're lucky, because otherwise you'll have an extremely disabled child. I don't understand why they're not making this clear to women!"

Cholesterol is Essential for a Healthy Pregnancy

Besides the direct harm caused by the drug, it's also important to understand that cholesterol sulfate is essential for babies in utero, and this is one of the reasons Dr. Seneff states that you do not want your cholesterol levels to be too low.

A woman has about 1.5 units of cholesterol sulfate normally in her blood. When she gets pregnant, her blood levels of cholesterol sulfate steadily rise, and it also begins to accumulate in the villi in the placenta—which is where nutrients are transferred from the placenta to the baby. At the end of pregnancy the cholesterol sulfate in the villi rises to levels of about 24 units—a dramatic rise! This is also why it's especially important to get plenty of sun exposure before and during pregnancy, to make sure you're optimizing not only your vitamin D levels, but also your sulfur levels, as the two are connected.

Did You Know? Statins Can Also Cause Diabetes and Heart Failure...

Another discovery is that statins can cause diabetes. One of the most recent pieces of evidence for this came from a meta-analysis published in September last year.^v The analysis looked at 72 trials which together involved close to 160,000 patients. It found that statin treatments significantly increased the rate of diabetes and liver damage.

But that's not all. Dr. Seneff also points out that statins make you age faster in general, causing muscle weakness, arthritis, mental decline, and even heart failure. It's worth noting that "heart failure" is a different disease category from "cardiovascular disease," despite the fact that both involve your heart.

"That's why I think they keep talking about cardiovascular disease," Dr. Seneff says. "They're careful to use that term… which is very convenient because then people don't realize it's the statins that are causing the heart failure!"

Indeed. Few would assume that a drug taken to prevent cardiovascular disease would be a major cause of heart failure, but that's exactly what appears to be happening. Considering the fact that conventional medicine has been telling us that heart disease is due to elevated cholesterol and recommends lowering cholesterol levels as much as possible, Dr. Seneff's claims may come as a complete shock:

"Heart disease, I think, is a cholesterol deficiency problem, and in particular a cholesterol sulfate deficiency problem," she says.

Heart Disease More Likely Caused by Cholesterol Deficiency Rather than Excess!

Through her research, Dr. Seneff has developed a theory in which the mechanism we call "cardiovascular disease" (of which arterial plaque is a hallmark) is actually your body's way to compensate for not having enough cholesterol sulfate. To understand how this works, you have to understand the interrelated workings of cholesterol, sulfur, and vitamin D from sun exposure.

Cholesterol sulfate is produced in large amounts in your skin when it is exposed to sunshine. When you are deficient in cholesterol sulfate from lack of sun exposure, your body employs another mechanism to increase it, as it is essential for optimal heart- and brain function. It does this by taking damaged LDL and turning it into plaque. Within the plaque, your blood platelets separate out the beneficial HDL cholesterol, and through a process involving homocysteine as a source of sulfate, the platelets go on to produce the cholesterol sulfate your heart and brain needs. However, this plaque also causes the unfortunate side effect of increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease.

So how do you get out of this detrimental cycle?

Dr. Seneff believes that high serum cholesterol and low serum cholesterol sulfate go hand-in-hand, and that the ideal way to bring down your LDL (so-called "bad" cholesterol, which is associated with cardiovascular disease) is to get appropriate amounts of sunlight exposure on your skin.

She explains:

"In this way, your skin will produce cholesterol sulfate, which will then flow freely through the blood—not packaged up inside LDL—and therefore your liver doesn't have to make so much LDL. So the LDL goes down. In fact... there is a complete inverse relationship between sunlight and cardiovascular disease – the more sunlight, the less cardiovascular disease."

What this also means is that when you artificially lower your cholesterol with a statin drug, which effectively reduces the bioavailability of cholesterol to that plaque but doesn't address the root problem, your body is not able to create the cholesterol sulfate your heart needs anymore, and as a result you end up with acute heart failure...Backing up this theory is the fact that in the first decade statin drugs were on the market, from 1980 to 1990, the incidence of heart failure doubled. And heart failure keeps going up right along with the increased use of statins...

"It is very clear to me that statins are causing heart failure," Dr. Seneff says.

Statins Impair Numerous Biological Functions

Statin drugs also interfere with other biological functions, including an early step in the mevalonate pathway, which is the central pathway for the steroid management in your body. Products of this pathway that are negatively affected by statins include:

• All sterols, including cholesterol and vitamin D (which is similar to cholesterol and is produced from cholesterol in your skin)
• All your sex hormones
• Cortisone
• The dolichols, which are involved in keeping the membranes inside your cells healthy
• Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which is critical to the energy generation in the Krebs cycle in the cell

Why You MUST Take a CoQ10 Supplement if You're on Statin Therapy

The depletion of CoQ10 is particularly troublesome, and may be one of the primary driving mechanisms behind many of the more horrific side effects of statins. CoQ10 is used by every cell in your body, but especially your heart cells. Cardiac muscle cells have up to 200 times more mitochondria, and hence 200 times higher CoQ10 requirements, than skeletal muscle. So if you take a statin drug, taking a CoQ10 or ubiquinol (the reduced version) supplement is absolutely imperative in order to limit the damage. As mentioned by Dr. Seneff, premature aging is a side effect of statin drugs, and it's also a primary side effect of having too little CoQ10. Deficiency in this nutrient also accelerates DNA damage, and because CoQ10 is beneficial to heart health and muscle function this depletion leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, soreness and, again, heart failure.

As for dosage, Dr. Graveline, a family doctor and former astronaut, made the following recommendation in a previous interview on statins and CoQ10:

• If you have symptoms of statin damage such as muscle pain, take anywhere from 200 to 500 mg
• If you just want to use it preventively, 200 mg or less should be sufficient

In my view it is medical malpractice to prescribe a statin drug without recommending one take CoQ10, or better yet ubiquinol. Unfortunately, many doctors fail to inform their patients of this fact.

If You're Over 25, the Reduced Form of CoQ10 May be Better

If you're under 25 years old your body is capable of converting CoQ10 from the oxidized to the reduced form. However, as you age, your body becomes more and more challenged to convert the oxidized CoQ10 to ubiquinol. Aside from aging, numerous other factors can also impact this conversion process, including:

If you're over 40, I would highly recommend taking the reduced form of coenzyme Q10 because it's far more effectively absorbed by your body. Some reports say your CoQ10 level decline becomes apparent as early as your 20's, however, so I generally recommend it from age 25 and beyond. If you're younger than 25, your body should absorb regular CoQ10 just fine.

References:

• ⁱ Teratogen Use in Women of Childbearing Potential: An Intervention Study, Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, May to June 2011: 24(3); 262-71, K. A. Morrical-Kline, et al.
• ⁱⁱ Defects in Cholesterol Synthesis Genes in Mouse and in Humans: Lessons for Drug Development and Safer Treatments, Drug Metabolism Reviews, February 2011: 43(1); 69-90, S. Horvat, et al.
• ⁱⁱⁱ Early Embryonic Lethality Caused by Targeted Disruption of the 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Gene, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, October 31, 2003: 278; 42936-42941, Ken Ohashi, et al.
• ^iv Statins and Pregnancy, eMed TV.
• ^v Adverse Events Associated with Individual Statin Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease: An Indirect Comparison Meta-Analysis, QJM, February 2012: 105(2); 145-57, M. Alberton, et al.

• Video Transcript

  Dr. Stephanie Seneff on Sulfur

  Dr. Stephanie Seneff on Cholesterol

  The Dark Truth About the "Wonder Drug" Millions Swear By

The latest data on the leading causes of deathⁱ in the United States has been released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report, which is based on 2010 data, lists the 10 leading causes of death as follows:

1. Diseases of the heart
2. Cancer
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
4. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
6. Alzheimer's disease
7. Diabetes mellitus
8. Nephritis, nephritic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease)
9. Influenza and pneumonia
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide)

In an analysis, 24/7 Wall St. determined that the costs to the economy for these top 10 causes, including not only direct medical care but also the indirect loss of productivity, amounts to a whopping $1.1 trillion!

However, there is one leading cause of death that was left off of this list, and when that is factored in the costs to the economy, and the death toll itself, is actually even higher.

The CDC Left Conventional Medical Care Off of Their Death List -- It Should be #1

Over a decade ago, Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. More recently, an article authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, describes in excruciating detail how the modern conventional American medical system has bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

From medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures, heart disease, cancer deaths and infant mortality, the authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), and showed that on the whole, American medicine caused more harm than good.

In 2010 (the same year from which the CDC data came), years after the original article was written, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicineⁱⁱ piqued my interest – as the researchers found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all.

Instead, 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person's death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery.

In all there were over 25 injuries per 100 admissions! In my update to the original Death by Medicine article, you can get an idea of just how deadly the conventional medical care system actually is:

• In a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, study authors said that in looking over recordsⁱⁱⁱ that spanned from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) they found that, of 62 million death certificates, almost a quarter-million deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
• An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year.
• The costs of adverse drug reactions^iv to society are more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
• Adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
• The reason there are so many adverse drug events^v in the U.S. is because so many drugs are used and prescribed – and many patients receive multiple prescriptions at varying strengths, some of which may counteract each other or cause more severe reactions when combined.

How Many Deaths by Medicine are Disguised as Other Causes?

Another issue is just how many "accidents" or "suicides" are actually the result of accidental drug overdoses. Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing -- and this is according to the CDC's own data^vi.

In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related visits^vii to U.S. emergency rooms nationwide, with more than half due to adverse reactions to prescription medications – most of which were being taken exactly as prescribed^viii.

Further, between 2001 and 2008, there was a 36 percent increase in hospital admissions^ix, and a 28 percent increase in emergency room visits, among children 5 and younger who had accidentally ingested medication. ER visits for ingestion of prescription opioid painkillers, such as Oxycodone, increased 101 percent! So it is unclear how many deaths from accidental drug overdose are classified as accidents or suicides.

The 9th and 11th Top Killers Might Also be Linked to Medical Care

The 11th leading cause of death according to the CDC is septicemia (sometimes called blood poisoning), which is bacteria in your bloodstream that is often caused by an infection in your body -- an infection that is often acquired in the hospital! A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine^x showed that sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000 patients and ramped up health care costs by over $8 billion in 2006. The study also found that 20 percent of people who developed sepsis died; 11 percent of those who developed pneumonia died.

Pneumonia is the 9th leading cause of death, and in some cases may again be related to the high risk of acquiring an infection should you enter the hospital.

A different study in 2006 showed that "central-line-associated" bloodstream infections^xi caused by catheters placed directly into veins resulted in a $26,839 loss for each patient that came down with this type of hospital-acquired infection. This same study estimated that 2 million people come down with hospital-acquired infections of any type in every year, and that approximately 100,000 die from those infections. Despite their high death toll, hospital-acquired infections make no appearance in the CDC's report.

Most of the Leading Causes of Death are Preventable

Most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Even infectious diseases like the flu can often be warded off by a healthy way of life.

Imagine the lowered death toll, not to mention costs to the economy, if more people decided to take control of their health … heart disease and cancer alone accounted for 47 percent of deaths in the United States in 2010, and there are many strategies you can implement to lower your risk of these diseases … and most of the leading causes of death in the United States.

The added bonus to this is that the healthier you are, the less you will need to rely on conventional medical care, which is a leading cause of death. So what does a "healthy lifestyle" entail?

• Proper Food Choices

For a comprehensive guide on which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home.

For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Personally, I aim to eat about 80-85 percent of my food raw, including raw eggs and humanely raised organic animal products that have not been raised on a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation).

Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and fructose in particular, acts as a toxin in and of itself, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging.

• Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness

Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor. I've discussed the importance of Peak Fitness for your health on numerous occasions, so for more information, please review this previous article.

• Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking

You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.

• Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D

We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing numerous illnesses ranging from cancer to the flu.

The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used as a last resort. Most adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.

• High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.

• Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible

This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.

References:

• $1.1 Trillion: What the 10 Leading Causes of Death Cost the U.S. Economy, 24/7 Wall St., January 18, 2012.
• ⁱ Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2010, National Vital Statistics Reports, January 11, 2012: 60(4); 1-69, Sherry L. Murphy, BS, et al. (PDF)
• ⁱⁱ Temporal Trends in Rates of Patient Harm Resulting from Medical Care, New England Journal of Medicine, November 25, 2010: 363(22); 2124-34, C. P. Landrigan, et al.
• ⁱⁱⁱ Are Hospitals Really More Deadly in July, When Novice Doctors Arrive?, JetLib News.
• ^iv Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions: A Focus on Drug Interactions, Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics. (PDF)
• ^v Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions: A Focus on Drug Interactions, Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics. (PDF)
• ^vi Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009, National Vital Statistics Reports, March 16, 2011: 59(4); 1-51, Kenneth D. Kochanek, MA, et al. (PDF)
• ^vii InfoFacts: Drug-Related Hospital Emergency Room Visits, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
• ^viii Highlights of the 2009 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits, The DAWN Report, December 28, 2010.
• ^ix The Growing Impact of Pediatric Pharmaceutical Poisoning, Journal of Pediatrics, February 2012: 160(2); 265-270.e1, G. Randall Bond, MD, et al.
• ^x New Study Shows Sepsis and Pneumonia Caused by Hospital-Acquired Infections Kill 48,000 Patients, EurekAlert, February 22, 2010. (Press Release)
• ^xi Economics of Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections, American Journal of Medical Quality, November/December 2006: 21(6); 7S-16S, Richard P. Shannon, MD, et al.

• 24/7 Wall St. January 18, 2012

• National Vital Statistics Reports January 11, 2012, Volume 60, Number 4

  How to Save Your Life if You Ever Go to the ER

  Nearly 250,000 Deaths From ONE Common Mistake: Here's How to Protect Yourself

  The New Epidemic Sweeping Across America (and it's Not a Disease)

By Dr. Mercola

A nearly decade-long civil investigation into the fraudulent marketing of Johnson & Johnson's antipsychotic drug Risperdal may soon be coming to a close, with the drug giant agreeing to pay more than $1 billion to the United States and individual states to resolve the matter.

Negotiations over a criminal plea are still ongoing, and individual states may choose to pursue their own cases rather than join in to the federal government's settlement.

This means J&J may be liable for far more money… considering the state of Texas alone is asking for more than $1 billion over Risperdal marketing.

In most cases, a billion-dollar (or more) fraud settlement would be a death-sentence for a business, but for the drug industry, it's just another cost of doing business.

J&J Markets Drug for Unapproved Uses to Boost Profits at the Expense of Patients' Health

At the heart of the latest settlement is J&J's, and particularly their Janssen unit's, attempt to market Risperdal for bipolar disorder, dementia, mood and anxiety disorders, when it had only been approved, initially, for psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.

Of course, only so many people have schizophrenia, so marketing the drug for the slew of conditions noted above boosted their customer base tremendously. Never mind that it wasn't approved for those conditions …

J&J's Janssen sent out an army of salespeople to doctor's offices, nursing homes, Veteran's Administration facilities, and jails to tout Risperdal as a proverbial miracle drug for mental illness and dementia. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told the company to stop the false and misleading marketing claims not once, not twice, but three times from 1994-2004, but the company reportedly continued to include marketing the drug for unapproved uses right in their business plan. In the years to follow, the FDA did eventually approve Risperdal for bipolar disorder and autism symptoms, but it was never approved for dementia (even though it was heavily marketed as a dementia drug).

In 2006, research showed that up to two-thirds of prescriptions for Risperdal were for unapproved uses that had little or no scientific support. Worse yet, elderly dementia patients who were prescribed Risperdal for off-label uses were found to increase their chances of death by 54 percent within the first 12 weeks of taking it!

Other research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found Risperdal is no more effective than a placebo, and is associated with a long list of potentially devastating side effects.

The study included 123 veterans with PTSD who received Risperdal, and another 124 who received a placebo. After six months of treatment, about 5 percent of the participants in both groups recovered, and between 10-20 percent in each group reported minor improvement. According to the lead author, Dr. John H. Krystal, who is also the director of the clinical neurosciences division of the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD:

"We didn't find any suggestion that the drug treatment was having an overall benefit on their lives."

So it appears in many cases the joke is on the patient -- who takes a drug for no benefit, and is exposed to serious risks of side effects, some of which may be permanent, including:

And all the while, Johnson & Johnson is laughing all the way to the bank. More serious side effects include:

• Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome, which can be fatal
• Hormone disruption (including breasts producing milk and breast development in males)
• High blood sugar and diabetes

Drug Companies are the Top Thugs of the Medical World

Johnson & Johnson is no stranger to being slapped with billion-dollar lawsuits. You probably don't need to be reminded of all the recalls this company has had over the years with its pain products, specifically Motrin, Tylenol and Fentanyl (pain killer patches). The fact that Johnson & Johnson has paid out over $1 billion in the last few years in fines and judgments alone probably comes as no surprise either.

But did you know that in May 2011 the company pleaded guilty to illegally promoting its epilepsy drug Topamax for psychiatric purposes, and in so doing, settled a civil lawsuit in the case for $75 million? You probably didn't realize, either, that last January the U.S. Department of Justice accused Johnson & Johnson of paying tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks to Omnicare Inc to buy and recommend Johnson & Johnson drugs.

This latest scheme is the subject of a federal lawsuit that has 18 states suing not just Omnicare, but 14 other major drug companies, alleging that they ran this scheme together.

The bottom line is this: pharmaceutical companies – the same ones you trust to safely manufacture medications that could alter your very life – are the top corporate criminals on the planet, and this is not unique to only Johnson & Johnson. A large number of pharmaceutical companies are guilty of fraud, cover-ups of fatal side effects, and huge kickbacks paid to doctors.

Charges run the gamut from international price-setting, illegal marketing, false claims, hiding serious problems with their drugs and, in one case (Ortho, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson), obstruction of justice and eight counts of persuading employees to destroy documents in a federal investigation.

Yet toxic drugs designed, manufactured, and peddled by these top criminals are what the medical industry and government health agencies try to pass off as the "best" route to good health … despite the fact that pharmaceutical drugs, taken as prescribed, are also directly responsible for the death of at least 125,000 people annually, on top of everything else.

What Common, Illegal Drug Company Practice Earned the Most Penalties from the U.S. Government in the Last 20 Years?

Off-label drug promotion!  By scouring through comprehensive databases of all major criminal and civil settlements between federal and state governments and pharmaceutical companies occurring between 1990 and 2010, the Public Citizen's Health Research Group made some sobering discoveries.

For example, they revealed the illegal practice that has earned the largest amount of financial penalties levied by the U.S. government:

"Of the 165 settlements comprising $19.8 billion in penalties during this 20-year interval, 73 percent of the settlements (121) and 75 percent of the penalties ($14.8 billion) have occurred in just the past five years (2006-2010).

… The practice of illegal off-label promotion of pharmaceuticals has been responsible for the largest amount of financial penalties levied by the federal government over the past 20 years. This practice can be prosecuted as a criminal offense because of the potential for serious adverse health effects in patients from such activities.  

Deliberately overcharging state health programs, mainly Medicaid fraud, has been the most common violation against state governments and is responsible for the largest amount of financial penalties levied by these governments. This type of violation is also the main factor in the considerable increase in state settlements with pharmaceutical companies over time."

I have also done some of my own research into the biggest wrong-doers. The chart below shows the type of criminal activity, lawsuits and fines or judgments I was able to find for six drug companies. Keep in mind that these are conservative numbers as many records are not available without a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Also, many are not readily available online unless you know exactly what you're looking for, and what year.

What We Can Learn From How Doctors Choose to Die

What is perhaps most poignant of all of this is not the fact that corporations could be engaged in so much fraud and deception – it is the fact that so many have embraced the products of these deceptions as veritable life lines.

In the face of illness, we are taught, often from a young age, that pharmaceuticals are the answer. In reality, your own body has healing potential that is, in many cases, far superior to that offered by synthetic drugs, provided it is given the proper tools to harness its healing potential. Yet, those who are at the front lines – the doctors themselves – will often choose to forgo these "solutions" because, quite simply, they've seen the cycle before. Oftentimes, drugs only serve to create more problems – new symptoms and serious, sometimes deadly, side effects with little or no measurable benefit.

In fact, in the face of death, many doctors will choose to skip drugs and medical interventions entirely, choosing, instead, to die naturally. Ken Murray, MD, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at USC, said it well in a recent essay:

"It's not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don't die like the rest of us. What's unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

… To administer medical care that makes people suffer is anguishing. Physicians are trained to gather information without revealing any of their own feelings, but in private, among fellow doctors, they'll vent. "How can anyone do that to their family members?" they'll ask. I suspect it's one reason physicians have higher rates of alcohol abuse and depression than professionals in most other fields. I know it's one reason I stopped participating in hospital care for the last 10 years of my practice.

How has it come to this—that doctors administer so much care that they wouldn't want for themselves? The simple, or not-so-simple, answer is this: patients, doctors, and the system."

The truth is, you cannot trust that the companies making your medications have your best interest at heart. Their behavior is among the most criminal on the planet! The only way to avoid all risk, including death, from prescription drugs is to not take them at all. It is your body, not your doctor's and not your pharmacist's, so it is up to you to make the decision of what drugs to take, if any. Be SURE you are aware of the risks of any medication prescribed to you, and weigh them against any possible benefit. Then you can make a well-informed decision of whether it's a risk you're willing to take.

Of course, of paramount importance is also taking control of your health so you can stay well naturally, without the use of drugs or even frequent conventional medical care. If you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will significantly reduce your need for medications in the first place.

• Bloomberg January 6, 2012

• Of Two Minds January 11, 2012

  The 6 Top Thugs of the Medical World… As Ranked by "Top 100 Corporate Criminals" List

  The New Epidemic Sweeping Across America (and it's Not a Disease)

  The Widely Prescribed Drug that's No Better than a Placebo

When you take drugs for multiple sclerosis (MS), you may very well be trading MS for another set of health problems, including paying the ultimate price: death.

Health agencies from multiple countries, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency, are investigating reports of 11 deaths in multiple sclerosis patients who took the drug Gilenya.

Gilenya is the first oral drug approved by the FDA to reduce relapses and delay disability progression in patients with relapsing forms of MS.

But even though it is a relative newcomer to the market, having been approved in the United States in September 2010, serious side effects have already emerged.

You Have to Take the First Dose When You're in a Doctor's Office …

This is because Gilenya is known to cause heart-rate problems, so all patients must be monitored for slow heart rate for six hours after they first take the drug.

The drug's maker, Novartis, told CNN that they are aware of the reported deaths among patients taking the drug, and stated the deaths were due to sudden death, heart attack or disruption of heart rhythm.

Of course, they also said the cause of the deaths remains "unknown."

The FDA, who announced in December 2011 that they were investigating Gilenya after a 59-year-old multiple sclerosis patient died within 24 hours of taking the first dose, is aware of the heart effects, but approved the drug anyway. On their Web site, it's stated:¹

"Gilenya may cause serious side effects, such as slow heart rate (bradycardia), which may be related to slowed conduction of electrical impulses from the upper chambers of the heart to the lower chambers of the heart. These effects usually do not cause symptoms, but they can cause dizziness, fatigue, and palpitations."

Other serious risks, as noted by the drug's manufacturer Web site, include:

• Increased risk of serious infections, as the drug lowers the number of white blood cells in your blood. Two patients died who took higher-dose Gilenya, which increases the risk of infection
• Macular edema, a vision problem that can cause some of the same vision symptoms as an MS attack
• Breathing problems
• Liver problems and increases in blood pressure
• Harm to a woman's unborn baby, and therefore contraindicated during pregnancy or breastfeeding

Side effects are more the rule than the exception when it comes to MS drugs, but unfortunately they continue to be offered as a first-line treatment for those with MS, even though dietary strategies can be extremely effective.

Tysabri: Another MS Drug Linked to Deaths

Tysabri first hit the market in November 2004 under an accelerated program the FDA reserves for drugs it believes will have "extraordinary benefits" to patients. It was touted as the "miracle" drug for MS because the results from the first year of clinical trials showed that MS patients who took Tysabri for one year had a 66 percent reduction in relapses compared to those who took a placebo.

Then, just three months after it first hit the market it was pulled because one in 1,000 people who took it during clinical trials developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare brain infection that usually results in death or severe disablement. As noted on the Tysabri Web site:

"Tysabri increases your chances of getting … PML … No one can predict who will get PML. There is no known treatment, prevention or cure for PML … Your chances may be higher if you are also being treated with medicines that weaken your immune system, including other MS treatments."

Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a Stanford University professor and an MS specialist who has developed MS drugs himself, said he repeatedly warned the FDA of the potential for serious immune-system side effects with Tysabri and drugs like it prior to approval. Tysabri is a type of drug known as a monoclonal antibody, meaning it is derived from a mouse antibody that has been genetically engineered to mirror a human antibody (antibodies are proteins that help your body fight infection).

It is given by infusion directly into a vein, where the antibodies bind to immune system cells, inhibiting them from crossing over from the bloodstream to the brain.

Tysabri blocks this movement by attaching to alpha 4-integrin, a protein on the surface of immune T cells that normally enables them to pass through the blood-brain barrier. However, if destructive immune system cells break free of the bloodstream, they can reach your brain, gastrointestinal tract and joints and cause severe damage. Tysabri, however, is currently back on the market because in June 2006 the FDA voted that Tysabri be returned to the market!

In 2010 they then added a new label warning health care professionals and patients that the risks of PML increase as more infusions are received. There are other risks as well, including liver damage, an increased risk of serious or unusual infection, joint pain, allergic reactions, depression and more.  If you have MS, it is my strong recommendation to not accept this drug, Gilenya or the other commonly prescribed MS drugs like prednisone or interferon, as they can seriously harm your health.

Fresh Raw Foods are an Option for Helping Reverse MS

If you've been under the care of the conventional medical system for MS treatment, you may be surprised to hear that people have had success in reversing MS with dietary changes. You most likely will not hear this from conventional neurologists. Nonetheless, in the video above, Dr. Terry Wahls explains how she reversed multiple sclerosis after seven years of deterioration on the best conventional treatments available -- simply by changing her diet!

She began to notice significant improvement in just three months, and at the nine-month mark of her new diet, she was able to go on an 18-mile bike ride! This is astounding when you consider that over the past seven years her condition had deteriorated to the point that she had to sit in a reclined zero-gravity chair and could only walk short distances using two canes.

After looking into a number of diseases that cause brain shrinkage, including not only MS but also Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Wahls found one common denominator in these conditions is poorly functioning mitochondria. Three nutrients in particular are essential for proper mitochondrial function:

1. Animal-based omega-3 fat
2. Creatine
3. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), or better yet, the reduced version known as Ubiquinol

Just by adding those three to her diet, her decline began to slow. But it wasn't until she adjusted her diet for optimal mitochondrial-, myelin-, and neurotransmitter function that she began to improve. She also eliminated processed foods, grains, and starches (which includes potatoes and corn), and within a matter of months experienced astounding improvements. In short, she altered her diet to reflect the Paleo-style diet of the hunter-gatherers of old as follows:

• 3 cups daily (equal to one dinner plate, piled high) of green leaves, such as kale, which are high in vitamins in the B group, A, C, K, and minerals
• 3 cups daily of sulfur-rich vegetables from the cabbage- and onion- families, mushrooms and asparagus
• 3 cups daily of brightly colored vegetables, fruits and/or berries, which are a good source of antioxidants
• Wild fish for animal-based omega-3's
• Grass-fed meat
• Organ meats for vitamins, minerals and CoQ10
• Seaweed for iodine and selenium

Vital Information for Anyone Who's Been Diagnosed With MS

I do encourage you to share this information with anyone you know struggling with MS, as it is could easily change their life. Risking your life with conventional MS drugs is NOT the only option, but most people are not aware of that. Dr. Wahls story is not an isolated incident; others, too, have recovered from multiple sclerosis without drugs!

Below you will find a summary of my lifestyle recommendations for MS. Many are identical to the general-health principles I've been teaching for years, but a few stand out as being specifically applicable to the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as MS.

• Optimize your vitamin D levels – This is an essential step, as there are well over a dozen studies showing a link between MS and vitamin D deficiency. While the optimal level for general health lies between 50-70 ng/ml, when treating diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or autoimmune diseases, your level should ideally be somewhere between 70-100 ng/ml. The preferred method to raise (and maintain) your vitamin D levels is by regularly exposing large amounts of your skin to sunshine, or by using a safe tanning bed. If neither is available, you can use an oral supplement of vitamin D3.
  
  As a general guideline, vitamin D experts recommend 8,000 IU's per day for adults, and about 35 IU's per pound for children, but you should take as much as is necessary to elevate and maintain your blood levels within the optimal range.
• Get plenty of animal-based omega-3 fats – Make sure you're getting a good supply of animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. You also need to avoid damaged, oxidized fats found in most all processed foods. Especially damaging are the omega-6 fats found in soy-, canola-, and corn oil. These are usually highly oxidized and also contain trans fats and cyclic fats that imbed themselves into your cell membranes, distorting the cellular functions.
  
  Even when organic and cold-pressed, the over consumption of these omega-6 rich oils can ignite an inflammatory cascade within our bodies, as the American diet generally contains 20-40 times more omega-6 fatty acids (relative to omega-3 fatty acids) than our bodies are designed to handle; this omega-6/omega-3 imbalance results in the formation of excessive arachidonic acid – the very fuel upon which enzymes like Cox-2 feed, resulting in uncontrollable inflammation. Also, the majority of these three oils are genetically engineered, which can have its own set of adverse health ramifications.
• Eliminate sugar, particularly fructose – Another crucial element is to eliminate as much sugar and fructose as possible from your diet. Cutting out processed foods and sweetened beverages will go a long way to reduce excess fructose, in addition to eliminating the majority of damaging fats in your diet. You simply must keep your daily total fructose intake below 25 grams.
  
  If you haven't yet grasped the toxic nature and profound health dangers of fructose, now's the time to get with it. Sugar can contribute to the development of a number of autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, asthma, and multiple sclerosis. It also increases uric acid levels, which leads to chronic, low-level inflammation, which has far-reaching consequences for your health.
• Eliminate pasteurized milk and dairy—This is another critical element. Studies have shown that cow's milk consumption is correlated with MS prevalence.² In fact, a specific antibody cross-reactivity between myelin oligodendrocyte (a component of neurological tissue) and the cow's milk protein butyrophillin was identified in 2004, likely contributing to the immune system of MS patients losing self-tolerance and attacking their own nervous system.³
• Avoid aspartame and commercial fruit juices. Aspartame rapidly metabolizes to methanol, a potent neurotoxin. Additionally fruits and vegetables are also loaded with methanol but when they are consumed fresh it is bound to pectin and your body does not have the enzymes to break it down. However when fruits and vegetables are processed and put into glass jars or cans the methanol dissociates and can be liberated in high quantities.
• Eat plenty of raw food. This is an important principle for optimal health that I normally recommend for everyone. However, I've found that for people with severe autoimmune disease, it's even more important. Some of the most dramatic improvements we've seen in patients using nutritional changes have come about as the result of eating a majority of their food raw instead of cooked.
• Eat fermented vegetables. Optimizing your gut bacteria may be one of the most profound ways to improve your health. In the near future I will be doing a large number of interviews with Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride that go into great detail on how to implement these valuable foods and many other details of recovery.
• Check your iron levels. Excess iron can cause damage to the endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels, as well as create massive amounts of free radicals. It can also damage your DNA. Therefore, if you have MS it is very important to check your blood for iron overload, a process that is easily done through a simple blood test called a serum ferritin test. The healthy range of serum ferritin lies between 20 and 80 ng/ml. Below 20, you are iron deficient, and above 80, you have an iron surplus. Ferritin levels can go really high. I've seen levels over 1,000, but anything over 80 is likely going to be a problem. The ideal range is between 40-60 ng/ml.
  
  If you find that your iron levels are high, simply donate your blood. Normally a person would require 1-3 blood draws per year, up to as many as one per month if your system can tolerate it, until your ferritin levels have been sufficiently lowered.
• Low-dose Naltrexone and alpha lipoic acid. One of the newer treatment strategies for MS is low-dose naltrexone (LDN), along with alpha lipoic acid. Naltrexone (generic name) is a pharmacologically active opioid antagonist, conventionally used to treat drug- and alcohol addiction – normally at doses of 50mg to 300mg. As such, it's been an FDA-approved drug for over two decades.
  
  However, at very low dosages (3 to 4.5 mg), naltrexone has immunomodulating properties that may be able to successfully treat cancer malignancies and a wide range of autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis. As explained on the informative website www.lowdosenaltrexone.org, when you take LDN at bedtime -- which blocks your opioid receptors for a few hours in the middle of the night -- it is believed to up-regulate vital elements of your immune system by increasing your body's production of metenkephalin and endorphins (your natural opioids), hence improving immune function.
• Mercury detox. Mercury is clearly a neurotoxic poison that should be avoided, so avoiding fish unless wild caught and verified for purity, and refusing or removing mercury dental amalgams are also important aspects. Certain supplements can also help eliminate mercury from your system, such as chlorella.
• Address early childhood emotional traumas. Last but certainly not least, in my experience with MS patients, there is nearly always a precipitating traumatic emotional event that causes your immune system to crash, leading to the disease. Just as vitamin D deficiency seems to be present in most cases of autoimmune disease, there is also typically an emotional element involved. More often than not, some form of hidden emotional wound can be found in patients suffering with autoimmune diseases like MS.
  
  Typically, this wounding occurred at a very young age, often before the age of 7, and typicaly before the age of 5. Issues related to this event need to be addressed by using an effective energy psychology tool like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but only with the help of an experienced practitioner.

REFERENCES:

• ¹ U.S. Food and Drug Administration "Safety review of a reported death after the first dose of Multiple Sclerosis drug Gilenya" December 20, 2011
• ² Neuroepidemiology. 1992; 11(4-6):304-12
• ³ Journal of Immunology 2004 Jan 1;172(1):661-8.

• CNN January 20, 2012

  Eat Like a Caveman to Protect Your Brain From Shrinking

  MS Drug Continues to Cause Disastrous Side Effects

  Doctor Reverses MS in 9 Months by Eating These Foods

By Dr. Mercola

Videos like the two featured above have started making the rounds online, raising questions about what exactly that plastic-looking "peel" found on some fresh produce might be.

Let me preface this article by saying that I do not have the answer, but I will present a couple of theories here.

Fruits and vegetables—apparently even organically-grown varieties—may have cow-, pig-, and chicken collagen coatings on them rather than wax, as well as a number of other unsavory ingredients.

Wax was first applied to the skins of fruits and vegetables for longer shelf life hundreds of years ago. 

Today, that tradition is being carried on with a new generation of chemicals and compounds I'd rather NOT have on my fresh produce...

Modified Atmospheric Packaging

While I normally do not feature blog posts, this instance is a rare exception, as I thought this Reality Blog report contained quite a bit of worth-while details. In response to one of the videos above, this blogger dug up information about so-called 'modified atmosphere packaging' that could offer one potential explanation for the bizarre plastic-like coating found on lettuce:

"... [M]odified atmosphere packaging (MAP) ... involves either actively or passively controlling or modifying the atmosphere surrounding the product within a package made of various types and/or combinations of films ... Edible films may consist of four basic materials: lipids, resins, polysaccharides and proteins ...  The most common plasticizer used to cast edible films is food-grade polyethylene glycol, which is used to reduce film brittleness ... Gelatin is ... extracted from the boiled crushed bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as domesticated cattle, chicken, and pigs."

So, could that rubbery peel be a form of sprayed-on MAP, designed to prolong shelf life of fresh produce? As detailed by Reality Blog, this certainly seems like one reasonable conclusion.

Edible "Invisible Packaging" is More Common than You Might Think

According to the FDA, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), which includes so-called "smart" and "edible" types of packaging, has made great strides over the past decade or so, and has "greatly improved the quality and shelf-stability" of otherwise highly perishable produce. This type of packaging can be either "active" or "passive."

The FDA explains:

"Active modification occurs by the displacement of gases in the package, which are then replaced by a desired mixture of gases, while passive modification occurs when the product is packaged using a selected film type, and a desired atmosphere develops naturally as a consequence of the products' respiration and the diffusion of gases through the film. ... Reducing the rate of respiration by limiting O₂ (dioxygen) prolongs the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by delaying the oxidative breakdown of the complex substrates which make up the product. Also, O₂ concentrations below 8% reduce the production of ethylene, a key component of the ripening and maturation process." [Emphasis mine]

Essentially, by spraying a substance on the fresh produce, which forms a thin film, oxygen levels can be limited, which slows down the ripening process. So what might this "edible" film substance be comprised of? The list of potential ingredients is a long one, and will vary from product to product, but can be generally divided into four basic materials:

1. Lipids (waxes, oils, stearic acid)
2. Resins (such as shellac and wood rosin)
3. Polysaccharides (such as cellulose, pectin, starch, carrageenan, and chitosan)
4. Proteins (such as casein, soy, and corn-zein)

Common additives to these base materials include:

• Plasticizers (such as polyethylene glycol, glycerol, and "other cross-linking agents")
• Antimicrobials
• Antioxidants
• Texturizers (to customize the film for the particular product)

The FDA's web page on MAP's offers one fairly detailed example of a concoction used on tomatoes to successfully extend their shelf life: Most of us are used to thinking about pesticide residues when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables, but few probably consider that ON TOP of that, there's an additional layer of miscellaneous resins and plasticizers...

"Park and others (1994) reported the successful application of a corn-zein film to extend the shelf life of tomatoes. Color change, loss of firmness, and weight loss during storage were delayed, and shelf life was extended by 6 days in comparison to untreated tomatoes. The corn-zein product used in the above study was a commercial product that was brushed onto the tomatoes, and consisted of 54 grams of corn-zein, 14 grams of glycerine, and 1 gram of citric acid dissolved in 260 grams of ethanol."

Is it Safe to Eat?

Edible coatings probably won't kill you, but if you have a choice, why would you opt to eat fruits and vegetables that have been coated in a rubbery film?  And, these types of coatings DO present a very real potential health hazard. The FDA openly admits that edible coatings have been associated with a number of problems:

"For example, modification of the internal gas composition of the product due to high CO₂ and low O₂ can cause problems such as anaerobic fermentation of apples and bananas, rapid weight loss of tomatoes, elevated levels of core flush for apples, rapid decay in cucumbers, and so on," the FDA states.

Furthermore:

"... [A]t extremely low O₂ levels (that is, <1%), anaerobic respiration can occur, resulting in tissue destruction and the production of substances that contribute to off-flavors and off-odors, as well as the potential for growth of foodborne pathogens such as Clostridium botulinum."

This may help explain why fresh produce has managed to be the source of several outbreaks of food poisoning in the past several years. To combat the growth of foodborne pathogens, antimicrobial agents are added, such as:

"...metal ions supported in zeolite, isothiocyanate in cyclodextrin with cobalt ion, chitosan, allyl isothiocyanate, silver-based fungicide, quaternary ammonium salt, organic monoglycerides, copper and zinc, benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, sorbic acid and potassium sorbate and propionic acid. Researchers are also currently looking at the use of nisin, a bacteriocin, in coatings to suppress L. monocytogenes, as well as other bacteriocins for the control of C. botulinum. Successful applications of this technology have been demonstrated using sodium caseinate/stearic acid to coat peeled carrots and caseinate/acetylated monoglyceride to coat celery sticks."

The "Epidermal Peel" Theory

Another theory floating about is that this coating isn't really a coating at all, but rather an entirely natural occurrence, referred to as "epidermal peel," caused by cold weather. Lettuces in particular appear to be affected in this way when exposed to frost conditions. Epidermal peel can be likened to "chapped lips," in that the outer layer of a leaf will get damaged by freezing temperatures, causing a layer to peel away from the leaf. This peeling is typically considered unsightly, and harvesters will typically remove as many of the affected leaves as possible.

But while it sounds like what we're seeing in the featured videos could be epidermal peeling, is it really?

Unfortunately, I've not been able to find any kind of visual example of this naturally-occurring epidermal peeling to compare it with what we're seeing in the videos. In one 2011 Produce Report, the damage is described as follows, which leads me to think that what these consumers found is NOT epidermal peeling, but rather some form of MAP coating:

"Freezing causes blisters to form on the frost affected areas of Iceberg and Romaine lettuce. These blisters pop and then peel as the plant continues to grow. The epidermal peel discolors and eventually leads to decay. Harvest crews work at a reduced pace to remove all affected leaves before packing. The result is smaller heads, lighter weights and pale color."

How Can You Avoid Produce Coated in "Edible Plastic"?

Whatever the truth is with regards to the featured videos, one thing is for sure: MAP films are definitely being used on fresh produce, both conventional and organically-grown. Once you understand the reason WHY fresh foods are coated, the answer to how to avoid them becomes rather self-evident... Fresh fruits and vegetables of all kinds are "preserved" in this way in order to remain sellable even after lengthy transportation.

If you buy your produce from a local farm, they naturally will not need to process any of their foods in such a manner. This is yet another great reason to buy locally-farmed foods, even if it's not certified organic—although that would certainly be ideal.  Still, fresh, non-coated/non-treated vegetables that have been grown conventionally will likely be healthier for you than wilted organic veggies from across the world, coated with plasticizers to keep them looking fresh... 

Eight Guidelines for REAL Healthful Food

In your search for healthy food to feed your family, here is what to look for, whether you're at the grocery store or farmers' market. Foods that meet these standards will almost always be a wise choice:

1. Grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
2. Not genetically modified
3. Contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
4. Does not contain artificial anything, nor any preservatives (for fresh produce, you can now add the presence of MAP coatings or 'edible packaging')
5. Fresh (if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may be the better option)
6. Did not come from a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO, a.k.a. factory farm)
7. Grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
8. Grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

Grow Your Own

Here is my raised vegetable bed where I have planted two types of kale, collards greens, parsley and a variety of lettuces. Just planted it two weeks ago but should be able to start harvesting very soon. You can see my black composter directly below the second palm on the left. This is where I recycle the pulp from my veggies and other compostable food wastes that would normally go to the landfill.

Starting your own garden is another option. It may sound intimidating, but really all you need is a small plot of land (or several containers), some healthy soil, and the will to do it. Naturally, I encourage you to use only organic gardening methods. Once you get used to it, organic gardening is just as easy as conventional. For instance, you can make a homemade garden spray that will discourage most pests by combining mashed garlic paste with a little cayenne pepper or horseradish. Add a small amount to a gallon jug of water and let it sit for a day or two, shaking it occasionally. Just spray a small amount onto a few leaves first to make sure it's not so strong that it will burn them.

If you're not sure where to begin, Better Homes & Gardens has a free All-American Vegetable Garden Plan that can be put into a 6x6 area. It's a great starting point for beginners. For more tips, the following Web sites offer helpful advice and guidelines for the organic gardener:

• OrganicGardening.com
• BeyondPesticides.org

Where to Find Locally-Grown Foods

If eating locally is new to you, rest assured that you can find a source near you, regardless of whether you're in a remote or rural area or a big city. Here's a list of helpful resources:

• For a listing of national farmer's markets, see this link.
• Another great web site is www.localharvest.org. There you can find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
• Subscribe to a community supported agriculture program (CSA). Some are seasonal while others are year round programs. Once you subscribe, many will drop affordable, high quality locally-grown produce right at your door step. To find a CSA near you, go to the USDA's website where you can search by city, state, or zip code.
• Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
• Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
• FoodRoutes. Their "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you.
• For an even more comprehensive list of CSA's and a host of other sustainable agriculture programs, check out this link to my Sustainable Agriculture page.

• Reality Blog January 8, 2012

  Meat Glue Secrets Exposed

  Sneaky Trick Now Used by Food Manufacturers

  Organic Pesticides Not Always Best Choice

Iodine is a vitally important nutrient that is detected in every organ and tissue.

Along with being essential for healthy thyroid function and efficient metabolism, there is increasing evidence that low iodine is related to numerous diseases, including cancer.

Worldwide, it's thought that up to 40 percent of the population is at risk of iodine deficiency.

In the United States, health agencies tend to say most people are iodine "sufficient," meaning they get enough of the nutrient from their diet, however this is controversial.

According to other sources, such as Dr. David Brownstein, who has been working with iodine for the last two decades, over 95 percent of the patients in his clinic are iodine deficient.

There are serious risks to taking too much iodine, however, which is why you need to be very cautious and get informed before opting for an iodine supplement.

Too Much Iodine May Lead to Subclinical Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism occurs when your thyroid produces too little thyroid hormone, a condition that is often linked to iodine deficiency. Ironically, new research has shown that taking too much iodine may also lead to a subclinical version of the condition, which is a milder form that is often missed by laboratory tests. Along with sometimes exhibiting many of the same symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as fatigue and difficulty losing weight, people with subclinical hypothyroidism may have an increased risk of heart disease.

Some, however, may exhibit no symptoms at all.

The new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that study participants taking relatively higher doses of supplemental iodine -- 400 micrograms a day and more – paradoxically began developing subclinical hypothyroidism. The finding highlights precisely why you need to be very careful with taking supplemental iodine, as taking too much can lead to health problems.

In fact, I don't generally advise taking iodine supplements like Lugol's or Ioderol, because your thyroid only transports iodine in its ionized form (i.e. iodide). Your thyroid reduces iodide (I-) into iodine (I2) for use in formation of thyroglobulin. Your body doesn't utilize iodine directly. It has to split the I2 into two I- ions, which is an oxidative reaction that causes oxidative stress.

I recommend taking an iodine supplement in the event of some type of nuclear fallout. In this case, if you're iodine deficient taking a potassium iodide (a stable form of iodine) supplement can protect your thyroid by "flooding" your system with iodine so your thyroid has no need to take in the radioactive form. But taking potassium iodide when it is not absolutely necessary could result in thyrotoxicosis. In most cases it is far preferable to optimize your iodine through the natural intake of foods.

Why Might Your Iodine Levels be Low?

More than 11 percent of all Americans—and more than 15 percent of American women of child-bearing age—presently have urine iodine levels less than 50 mcg/L, indicating moderate to severe iodine deficiency.ⁱ An additional 36 percent of reproductive-aged women in the U.S. are considered mildly iodine deficient (<100 mcg/L urinary iodine). Iodine levels have significantly dropped in the United States in recent decades due to several factors, including:

• Bromine exposure: When you ingest or absorb bromine (found in baked goods, plastics, soft drinks, medications, pesticides and more), it displaces iodine, and this iodine deficiency leads to an increased risk for cancer of the breast, thyroid gland, ovary and prostate -- cancers that we see at alarmingly high rates today.
• Declining consumption of iodine-rich foods, such as iodized salt, eggs, fish, and sea vegetables
• Soil depletion
• Less use of iodide in the food and agricultural industry
• Fluoridated drinking water
• Rocket fuel (perchlorate) contamination in food

What's this doing to our country's health? The Japanese consume 89 times more iodine than Americans due to their daily consumption of sea vegetables, and they have reduced rates of many chronic diseases, including the lowest rates of cancer in the world. The RDA for iodine in the U.S. is a meager 150 mcg/day, which pales in comparison with the average daily intake of 13800 mcg/day for the Japanese.

There is a large body of evidence suggesting that low cancer rates in Japan are a result of their substantially higher iodine levels, as iodine has documented antioxidant and anti-proliferative properties.

If you are interested in being tested for iodine deficiency, ask your health care provider about the urine iodine challenge test. Another simple way to ensure you're getting enough iodine is to get an inexpensive prescription from your physician for SSKI, which is a super-saturated potassium iodine. You simply apply three drops to your skin and rub it in, once a day. If when you touch something with slightly wet fingertips it leaves a yellowish stain, then the iodine is coming out of your skin, indicating your body is saturated, i.e. you're getting enough iodine.

The Best Natural Sources of Iodine

If you want to optimize your iodine levels naturally, pay careful attention to your diet.  I believe that toxin-free sea vegetables and spirulina are likely the ideal way to obtain your iodine—however, make sure that these are harvested from uncontaminated waters. Raw milk and eggs contain iodine, as well. At the same time, you'll want to avoid all sources of bromine as much as possible, as this appears to play a large role in the rising levels of iodine deficiency. Here are several strategies you can use to avoid bromine and thereby help optimize your iodine levels naturally:

1. Eat organic as often as possible. Wash all produce thoroughly. This will minimize your pesticide exposure.
2. Avoid eating or drinking from (or storing food and water in) plastic containers. Use glass and safe ceramic vessels.
3. Look for organic whole-grain breads and flour. Grind you own grain, if possible. Look for the "no bromine" or "bromine-free" label on commercial baked goods.
4. Avoid sodas. Drink natural, filtered water instead.
5. If you own a hot tub, look into an ozone purification system. Such systems make it possible to keep the water clean with minimal chemical treatments.
6. Look for personal care products that are as chemical-free as possible. Remember -- anything going on you, goes in you.
7. When in a car or a building, open windows as often as possible, preferably on opposing sides of the space for cross ventilation. Utilize fans to circulate the air. Chemical pollutants are in much higher concentrations inside buildings (and cars) than outside.

• ⁱ Thyroid. 18(11):1207-14.

• Reuters January 17, 2012

• American Journal of Clinical Nutrition February 2012

  Many Symptoms Suggest Sluggish Thyroid -- Do You Have Any of These?

  Avoid This if You Want to Keep Your Thyroid Healthy

  Why 95% of Japanese May Not Suffer from Radioactive Iodine Exposure

In November 2011, about 250 Boulder County residents attended a public meeting to discuss the planting of GM (genetically modified) crops on county-owned land.

Their turnout, together with an anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) recommendation from the county's Food and Agriculture Policy Council, led county officials to vote for a phase out of genetically engineered crops on open space.

This is a powerful testimony to the influence residents can have on their local regulations when they stand together for a cause; you, too, can work toward enacting such a phase out in your area as well.

Boulder Residents, County Officials Say "No" to GMOs

Boulder's Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee voted 5-4 in support of the Food and Agriculture Policy Council's recommendation to phase out the planting of GM crops on the county's open space.

Currently, about 16,000 acres of county-owned land are planted with genetically engineered corn; the new rule will mean these crops will be transitioned out in favor of traditional GMO-free farming practices.

The area has been a hot-spot for GMO debate since 2009, when local farmers wanted to plant genetically engineered sugar beets in the county.

Following public outcry, County commissioners delayed the farmers' request. Since then, a local survey showed that 56 percent of Boulder County residents supported a ban on GM crops, and now their voices have been heard.¹ As reported by the Boulder Daily Camera², Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee member John Nibarger said:

"There's the voters' side of this, and there's the farmers' side of this … I think we heard rather strongly ... (that a lot of voters) don't want to see GM crops."

Americans Already Eating GM Foods, While Other Countries Have Banned Them

GM corn, soybeans, canola, and sugar beets have made their way into approximately 80 percent of current U.S. processed grocery store items, now that up to 90 percent of several U.S. grown crops are grown with genetically engineered seed. So if you live in the United States, you have most certainly already been exposed to GM foods -- most likely a lot of them.

This is why Boulder's move to phase out GM crops is such a breath of fresh air, as finally a governing body in the United States is stepping up to protect its residents from this massive, uncontrolled experiment -- a move that has already taken place in other parts of the world, and in four counties in California and a city in Maine.

Genetically engineered seeds are banned in Hungary, as they are in several other European countries, such as Germany and Ireland. Peru is also following the precautionary principle, and has even passed a law that bans genetically modified ingredients within the nation for 10 years.³

The issue of protecting farmland from invading GMOs is a serious one, so much so that Hungary recently destroyed nearly 1,000 acres of corn crops because they were found to be mistakenly grown with GM seeds. The discovery that the farmland was planted with GM seeds came when the season was already underway, so the harvest was completely lost.

What would prompt the Hungarian government to take such a drastic step?

Perhaps it is the fact that GM crops simply cannot be contained, and inevitably will contaminate the environment with GM DNA. Or it could be that they do not want superweeds, triggered by the overuse of Roundup herbicide on GM Roundup Ready crops, overtaking their farmland the way they are now doing in the United States. Then again, it could be the unknown threats to human health -- and the fact that new research shows toxins from GM crops are now appearing in human blood -- that made them think twice.

The other, and more serious issue, is the hidden one. Nearly all GM crops are designed with genes to resist a potent herbicide called Round Up or glyphosate.  The newest science is showing that glyphosate is actually FAR more dangerous than people realize. It just is not widely appreciated yet, and the U.S. is spreading massive amounts of it every year. The consequences of this chemical abuse will have profoundly devastating consequences and the longer we wait to remove this toxin the worse it will be.

Either way, they, and a growing number of people around the world, are clearly well educated about the dangers of GM foods … which is a lesson the U.S. government still needs to learn.

Genetically Engineered "Pesticide" Toxin Now Found in Human Blood

Upwards of 65 percent of U.S. corn crops contain a special gene added that allows them to produce an insecticide. This way, when bugs attempt to eat the corn they're killed right away (specifically their stomach is split open) because the plant contains an invisible, built-in pesticide shield.

The particular gene added to most corn crops is a type of Bt-toxin -- produced from Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria. Genetic engineers remove the gene that produces the Bt in bacteria and insert it into the DNA of corn (and cotton) plants. They claim that Bt-toxin is quickly destroyed in human stomachs -- and even if it survived, it won't cause reactions in humans or mammals...

But studies are now showing that this is not the case, as Bt toxin is readily passing into the human bloodstream and animal studies have already shown that Bt-toxin does cause health effects in animals, including potentially humans. As Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, wrote:

"Mice fed natural Bt-toxin showed significant immune responses and caused them to become sensitive to other formerly harmless compounds. This suggests that Bt-toxin might make a person allergic to a wide range of substances. Farm workers and others have also had reactions to natural Bt-toxin, and authorities acknowledge that "People with compromised immune systems or preexisting allergies may be particularly susceptible to the effects of Bt."

In fact, when natural Bt was sprayed over areas around Vancouver and Washington State to fight gypsy moths, about 500 people reported reactions—mostly allergy or flu-like symptoms. Six people had to go to the emergency room.

… The Bt-toxin produced in the GM plants is probably more dangerous than in its natural spray form. In the plants, the toxin is about 3,000-5,000 times more concentrated than the spray, it doesn't wash off the plants like the spray does, and it is designed to be more toxic than the natural version. In fact, the GM toxin has properties of known allergens and fails all three GM allergy tests recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and others."

It's reasons such as this why the precautionary principle should absolutely be used in regard to exposing humans and the environment to GM crops. Unfortunately, it appears Cry1Ab, a specific type of Bt toxin from GM corn, is already quite prevalent in humans; upon testing 69 pregnant and non-pregnant women who were eating a typical Canadian diet (which included foods such as GM soy, corn and potatoes), researchers found Bt toxin in:

• 93 percent of maternal blood samples
• 80 percent of fetal blood samples
• 67 percent of non-pregnant women blood samples

Other potential dangers have also been uncovered, including:

Intense Lobbying Efforts Aim to Keep Americans in the Dark about GM Foods

The food and agriculture biotechnology industry has spent more than $572 million in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures in just over a decade, according to an analysis by Food & Water Watch.⁵ Key among the goals of this intense lobbying effort is to prevent GM food labeling and keep Americans in the dark about the contents of their food. The analysis states:

"The food and agriculture biotechnology industry has been flexing its financial political muscle to ease the regulatory oversight of genetically modified foods. Lobbying efforts for some of these firms and groups have included approval of cloned food and genetically engineered food, animals and livestock.

Companies are also fighting to eliminate or prevent labeling on genetically modified foods in the United States and preventing other countries from regulating genetically modified foods. These efforts have dovetailed with lobbying to tighten intellectual property law protections over patented seeds and animals in attempts to further benefit the biotech industry."

Over 95 percent of Americans polled said they think GM foods should require a label, stating it's an ethical issue and consumers should be able to make an informed choice.

Like Europeans, Americans are suspicious of GM foods, and a large part of why many continue to buy them is because they are unaware that they're already in the food. A prominent GM food label would be a death sentence to U.S. GM crops, which are right now enjoying a free for all when it comes to entering the food market.

Industry lobbying is clearly working, as to date biotech companies have evaded mandatory labeling laws (although a new California initiative may change all of that). They also succeeded in getting GM alfalfa approved, which quite literally threatens the entire organic industry.

A large part of the problem, and one of the reasons why the United States has not taken a precautionary stance the way other countries have, is that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are heavily influenced by biotech giant Monsanto. In the first quarter of 2011 alone, Monsanto spent $1.4 million on lobbying the federal government -- and this was a drop from a year earlier, when they spent $2.5 million during the same quarter.

The FDA, the USDA, and the U.S. Trade Representative all have a special set of revolving doors leading straight to Monsanto, which has allowed this transnational giant to gain phenomenal authority and influence, as well as get their genetically engineered crops planted on the lion's share of U.S. farmland.

However, just as changes in Boulder could prove to be a tipping point that begins a trend toward eliminating GM crops from American soil, a 2012 ballot initiative has been launched in California, which will require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods and food ingredients -- also an important step toward ultimately eliminating these toxic foods from the market.

You Can Join the Fight Against GMOs

The people of Boulder County have made it clear that they will not tolerate GM crops on their local land; now you, too, can let your opinion be heard. Several organizations, including Mercola.com, the Organic Consumers Association, the Institute for Responsible Technology, and the Environmental Working Group, are working to generate a tipping point of consumer rejection to make GMOs a thing of the past.

Here's how you can get involved:

• If you live in California and are willing to attend a short training session and then start collecting petition signatures (you will be part of a team of 2-4 people) for the California Ballot Initiative, sign up here. (For more information see: The California Ballot Initiative: Taking Down Monsanto.) Also remember to share this information with family and friends in California!
• Whether you live in California or not, please donate money to this historic effort
• Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the California Ballot. It may be the only chance we have to label genetically engineered foods.
• Distribute WIDELY the Non-GMO Shopping Guide to help you identify and avoid foods with GMOs. Look for products (including organic products) that feature the Non-GMO Project Verified Seal to be sure that at-risk ingredients have been tested for GMO content. You can also download the free iPhone application that is available in the iTunes store. You can find it by searching for ShopNoGMO in the applications.
• For timely updates, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter
• Look for in-depth coverage of the issue at the Institute for Responsible Technology, subscribe to Spilling the Beans, and check out their Facebook or Twitter.
• You can also join the Non-GMO Project on Facebook, or Twitter

In the meantime, the simplest way to avoid GM foods is to buy whole, certified organic foods. By definition, foods that are certified organic must never intentionally use GM organisms, must be produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and come from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. Additionally, grass-fed beef will not have been fed GM corn feed, although now that GM alfalfa is approved, grass-fed will not always mean GMO free.

You can also look for foods that are "non-GMO verified" by the Non-GMO Project.

Important Action Item: Support California's Ballot Initiative to Label GMO's!

In 2007, then-Presidential candidate Obama promised to "immediately" require GM labeling if elected. So far, nothing of the sort has transpired.

Fortunately, 24 US states have (as part of their state governance) something called the Initiative Process, where residents can bring to ballot any law they want enacted, as long as it has sufficient support. California has been busy organizing just such a ballot initiative to get mandatory labeling for genetically engineered foods sold in their state. The proposed law will be on the ballot for 2012.

Michigan⁶ and Washington are also starting similar campaigns.

Since California is the 8th largest economy in the world, a win for the California Initiative would be a huge step forward, and would affect ingredients and labeling nation-wide. Last month, a coalition of consumer, public health and environmental organizations, food companies, and individuals submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General. Now, they need 800,000 signatures to get the Act on next year's ballot.

I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can.

If you live in California, volunteer to gather petition signatures. If you live outside of California, please donate to help support this Initiative and spread the word to everyone you know in California. Be assured that what happens in California will affect the remainder of the U.S., so please support this important state initiative, even if you do not live there!

References:

• ¹ Survey: 56% Would Vote to Ban GMOs on Boulder County Open Space, Daily Camera, November 6, 2011: Laura Snider.
• ² Second Committee Votes to Phase Out Boulder County GMOs, Daily Camera, November 17, 2011: Laura Snider.
• ³ Peru Passes Monumental Ten-Year Ban on Genetically Modified Foods, Natural Society, June 24, 2011: Anthony Gucciardi.
• ⁴ Ultrastructural Analysis of Testes from Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean, European Journal of Histochemistry, October 2004: 48 (4); 448-454, Vecchio, L. et al. (PDF)
• ⁵ Food and Agriculture Biotechnology Industry Spends More Than Half a Billion Dollars to Influence Congress, FoodAndWaterWatch.org, November 2010. (PDF)
• ⁶ Michigan GMO Labeling Campaign.

• Daily Camera November 17, 2011

  Take Heed - Nearly Every Processed Food You Eat is Contaminated with this Material

  Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields

  Why Aren't GMO Foods Labeled?

In 2006 health agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva began warning of the imminent onset of an avian flu pandemic of lethal proportions. 

The pandemic never materialized, but sales of Tamiflu, touted as effective in reducing complications of flu such as bronchitis and pneumonia, skyrocketed. 

In 2009 it was again presented as the drug of choice to stave off swine flu.

Back in 2006, Dr. Tom Jefferson had issued an analysis concluding that the drug was effective.

But when another physician later pointed out that 8 of the 10 studies he had relied on were still unpublished, Jefferson decided to seek out the raw data -- only to find he was unable to do so. 

His concern turned to outrage when two employees of a communications company admitted that they had been paid to ghostwrite some of the studies, with explicit instructions to come to the "correct" conclusion regarding Tamiflu's effectiveness.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

"After reanalyzing the raw data finally made available (they still don't have it all) ... there was no proof that Tamiflu reduced serious flu complications like pneumonia or death. 

In short, it appears the pharmaceutical companies had been ... conning the public on matters of health..."

Interestingly, the author of this LA Times piece, David Finkelstein, actually sued Genentech Corp. (a U.S. affiliate of Hoffmann-La Roche that holds the marketing rights to Tamiflu) in small claims court for "alleged breach of contract by way of fraud" after he discovered these facts.

And guess what? Genentech settled the case for $200—the price of the drug Finkelstein had purchased but not yet used, plus court costs. If only the remedy was that easy for everyone that has been scammed, not to mention severely harmed, by this modern-day snake oil...

Conning the Public on Matters of Public Health

The source of the information that prompted Finkelstein to sue to get his money back for this fraudulently hawked drug was a story originally published in Discover Magazine in November 2010. The article, titled, "The Problem With Medicine: We Don't Know If Most of It Works," became available online in February last year, and I highly recommend reading through it. It's a very revealing piece...

In it, authors Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee write:

"In a recent poll conducted by the Campaign for Effective Patient Care, a nonprofit advocacy group based in California, 65 percent of the 800 California voters surveyed said they thought that most or nearly all of the health care they receive is based on scientific evidence. The reality would probably shock them.

A panel of experts convened in 2007 by the prestigious Institute of Medicine estimated that "well below half" of the procedures doctors perform and the decisions they make about surgeries, drugs, and tests have been adequately investigated and shown to be effective. The rest are based on a combination of guesswork, theory, and tradition, with a strong dose of marketing by drug and device companies. Doctors are often as much in the dark as their patients when they implant new devices... perform surgery, or write prescriptions."

... Many widely adopted surgeries, devices, tests, and drugs also rest on surprisingly thin data... [A]ccording to an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report published in 2001: More than 770,000 Americans are injured or die each year from drug complications, including unexpected side effects, some of which might have been avoided if somebody had conducted the proper research."

The same goes for Tamiflu. Had proper research been conducted rather than concocted, staggering amounts of money could have been saved or allocated for something more useful, and lives could have been spared...

According to Lenzer and Brownlee:

"Although Jefferson had trusted the unpublished study conclusions at the time, the challenge sent him on a hunt for the raw data in 2009. He was stymied when several study authors and the manufacturer gave one excuse after another for why they couldn't supply the actual data. Jefferson's concern turned to outrage when two employees of a communications company came forward with documents showing that they had been paid to ghostwrite some of the Tamiflu studies.

They had been given explicit instructions to ensure that a key message was embedded in the articles: Flu is a threat, and Tamiflu is the answer.

... Health officials around the world had assumed the drug was as effective as claimed and recommended Tamiflu for patients during the recent h1n1, or swine flu, pandemic. That pandemic turned out to be far milder than expected, and it is anybody's guess whether better information about Tamiflu—or better drugs—will appear before a more serious flu outbreak hits. "We shouldn't have taken anybody's word for it. We took it on good faith. Never again," Jefferson says today."

Jefferson's update was published in December 2009, in which he concluded that:

"Neuraminidase inhibitors have modest effectiveness against the symptoms of influenza in otherwise healthy adults. The drugs are effective postexposure against laboratory confirmed influenza, but this is a small component of influenza-like illness, so for this outcome neuraminidase inhibitors are not effective. Neuraminidase inhibitors might be regarded as optional for reducing the symptoms of seasonal influenza. Paucity of good data has undermined previous findings for oseltamivir's prevention of complications from influenza. Independent randomised trials to resolve these uncertainties are needed."

The Dangers of Tamiflu

Back in 2008, the FDA started reviewing reports of abnormal behavior and disturbing brain effects in more than 1,800 children who had taken Tamiflu. The symptoms included convulsions, delirium and delusions. In Japan, five deaths were reported in children under 16 as a result of such neurological or psychiatric problems. Seven adult deaths have also been attributed to Tamiflu, due to its neuropsychiatric effect.

According to a 2009 study, more than half of children taking Tamiflu experience side effects such as nausea and nightmares. Other more rare and bizarre side effects have also been reported, such as the case of a 19-year old British girl who developed toxic epidermal necrolysis and blindness after taking Tamiflu last year.

A few years ago, Dr. Lawrence G. Roberts, the authentic "father of the internet" also shared his first-hand experience with Tamiflu with me:

"A few years ago, as I returned from Japan, I took Tamiflu on the plane as I arrived into SFO. I thought my symptoms felt like the flu and I (at that time) carried it. As I drove home, I was observed drifting off the road from time to time, but all I noticed was I suddenly was over too far and I corrected. Then at the exit, which was a slow right turn, I blanked out just into the turn and went straight into a tree.

I totaled my BMW and caused some knee damage ... I realized somewhat later that the blank out was due to the Tamiflu, but not until other reports came out. Too late to argue the point. Anyway, this was a $100 K side effect caused by the drug, and there most likely have been many more that were never connected to Tamiflu."

Studies Show Flu Vaccines are Also Ineffective and NOT an Ideal Form of Prevention

While antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu have been used with greater frequency, the traditional first line of defense against the flu has been vaccines. Alas, when you start looking around, you'll realize that the evidence against flu vaccines is rapidly mounting as well.  In recent years, we've seen a number of truly damaging studies published in the medical literature—although you've not seen them publicized in the media!

Here's a sampling of studies demonstrating the ineffectiveness of flu vaccines. Many of these studies also explain that earlier positive results appear to have been due to various types of bias, and when the bias is removed, the alleged benefits of vaccinating against the flu disappear. There are many more... For another list of additional studies demolishing the claim that the flu vaccine is an effective prevention strategy, see this previous article:

How to Effectively Prevent Influenza

Avoiding influenza and flu-like illness during the flu season or any season doesn't require a flu vaccine. By following the simple guidelines below, you can help keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you're far less likely to get sick or, if you do get sick, you are better prepared to move through it without complications. For more details, follow the hyperlinks provided.

• Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I've previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu -- not the flu virus itself. This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. Regularly monitor your vitamin D levels to confirm your levels are within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml.
  
  Ideally, you'll want to get all your vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed, but as a last resort you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. According to the latest review by Carole Baggerly (Grassrootshealth.org), adults need about 8,000 IU's a day.
• Avoid Sugar, Fructose and Processed Foods. Sugar impairs the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a healthy immune system is one of the most important keys to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.
• Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night's Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
• Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.
• Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads.
• Take a Good Source of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also crucial to avoid excessive and/or oxidized omega-6 fatty acids, as well as trans fatty acids commonly found in processed foods, as they will seriously damage your immune response.
• Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap for this -- antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
• Use Natural Antibiotics. Examples include colloidal silver, oil of oregano, and garlic. These work like broad-spectrum antibiotics against bacteria, viruses, and protozoa in your body. And unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, they do not appear to lead to resistance.
• Avoid Hospitals. I'd recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you're having an emergency and need expert medical care, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infectious microorganisms of all kinds. The best place to get plenty of rest and recover from illness that is not life-threatening is usually in the comfort of your own home.

Taken together, these strategies lay the groundwork for a robust immune system that can stand up to all kinds of viral and bacterial assaults. However, there are also a number of all-natural therapies that can help you combat colds and flu's on a more short-term basis. Here's a listing of some of the most effective ones:

• Los Angeles Times January 15, 2012

• Discover Magazine February 11, 2011

  Flu Drugs Don't Work

  Half of Kids Given Flu Drug Have Side Effects

  Did a Flu Drug Manufacturer Withhold Evidence From Drug Trials?

Humans evolved with a staple source of the essential omega-3 fat docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in their diets, namely seafood.

Animal based omega-3 fats are considered essential because they cannot be synthesized in appropriate quantities by your body and must be supplied through your diet.

The introduction of high-quality, easily digested nutrients from seafood into the human diet coincided with the rapid expansion of grey matter in the cerebral cortex -- a defining characteristic of the modern human brain.

The DHA molecule has unique structural properties that provide optimal conditions for a wide range of cell membrane functions, and grey matter is a particularly membrane-rich tissue.

There's no doubt you need omega-3 fat for proper brain function. In fact, mounting evidence suggests that deficiency in this essential fat may lead to brain degeneration. According to a recent article published in the journal Nutrients¹:

"An emerging body of research is exploring a unique role for DHA in neurodevelopment and the prevention of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders."

Plant-Based versus Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Before we go any further, it's important to recognize that animal-based omega-3 fat is not interchangeable with plant-based sources of omega-3. And while you do need both in your diet, animal-based omega-3 fats are particularly important for your brain health.

Dietary fish and marine oil supplements such as krill oil are a direct source of EPA and DHA. Plants, on the other hand, contain the parent omega-3, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which can be converted into eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA). However, as stated in the featured article, this conversion is ineffective in general, and appears to get progressively more ineffective with age:

"Unlike the photosynthetic cells in algae and higher plants, mammalian cells lack the specific enzymes required for the de novo synthesis of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the precursor for all omega-3 fatty acid syntheses. Endogenous synthesis of DHA from ALA in humans is much lower and more limited than previously assumed.

... [A]fter much intense research, the 1989 NATO Advanced Research Workshop on dietary n-3 and n-6 fatty acids on biological effects and nutritional essentiality, agreed by consensus that n-3 fatty acids generally: (1) have anti-inflammatory properties; (2) lower serum triglycerides and cholesterol; and (3) decrease thrombosis and platelet aggregation. Therefore administration was recommended as beneficial in cardiovascular disease, hypertension and rheumatoid arthritis.

Since then, however, there has been a wealth of evidence to support the notion that the omega-3 fatty acids are not bioequivalent and that the longer chain EPA and DHA are much more important than their precursor ALA." [Emphasis mine]

The reason why EPA/DHA are more important is because although ALA (that you get from plant sources) is an essential nutrient, the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA is typically severely impaired by inhibition of delta 6 desaturase; an enzyme necessary for the conversion. Elevated insulin levels impair this enzyme, and over 80 percent of the U.S. population has elevated insulin levels, so chances are high that you'll be part of this significant majority... Therefore, you want to make sure you get the bulk of your omega-3 from animal sources, not plant sources, to make sure you won't develop a deficiency.

DHA: One of the Most Important Nutrients for Brain Function

Sixty percent of your brain is fat. DHA alone makes up about 15 percent to 20 percent of your brain's cerebral cortex, as well as 30 percent to 60 percent of your retina, making it an essential nutrient for both brain and eye health.

It's found in high levels in your neurons; the cells of your central nervous system, where it provides structural support. When your omega-3 intake is inadequate, your nerve cells become stiff as the missing omega-3 fats are substituted with cholesterol and omega-6 instead. Once your nerve cells become rigid, proper neurotransmission from cell to cell and within cells become compromised.

The influence of omega-3 fat on physical and mental health has been the subject of intense research over the last four decades, and there's compelling evidence that animal-based omega-3 fats can help reduce the symptoms of a variety of psychiatric illnesses and degenerative brain disorders. For example, low DHA levels have been linked to:

• Memory loss
• Alzheimer's disease
• Depression
• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder

EPA: Of Particular Importance for Depression...

The EPA found in animal-based omega-3 also plays a very significant role in the signaling within nerve cells, and it has been suggested that normalizing communications within nerve cells may be an important factor for alleviating depressive symptoms. Additionally, EPA can lower the levels of three important immune chemicals; all of which are elevated in depression:

1. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa)
2. Interleukin 1 beta (IL-1ß)
3. Prostaglandin E2

DHA Found to Significantly Improve Cognition in the Elderly

In more recent years, researchers discovered that DHA is a precursor for a newly identified signaling molecule called protectin. (When found in your central nervous system it's referred to as neuroprotectin, or NPD1.) This molecule is synthesized in response to oxidative stress.

As explained in the featured article:

"NPD1 induces nerve regeneration, reduce leukocyte infiltration and maintains homeostasis through ageing by reducing pro-apoptotic and pro-inflammatory signaling. NPDI is induced by oxidative stress and protects retinal and neuronal cells from oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. Many mechanisms have been implicated, including suppression of the IL-1β induced stimulation of COX.

The discovery of NPD1 offers new therapeutic opportunities for a range of neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease. It also provides an exciting potential for DHA in helping to delay or minimize the "normal" cognitive decline during ageing."

This is great news, as it's becoming quite clear that degenerative conditions can be not only prevented but also reversed. For example, in one study, 485 elderly volunteers suffering from memory deficits saw significant improvement after taking 900 mg of DHA per day for 24 weeks, compared with controls.² Another study found significant improvement in verbal fluency scores after taking 800 mg of DHA per day for four months compared with placebo³. Furthermore, memory and rate of learning were significantly improved when DHA was combined with 12 mg of lutein per day.

Interestingly, research suggests that the unsaturated fatty acid composition of normal brain tissue is age-specific, which could imply that the older you get, the greater your need for animal-based omega-3 fat to prevent mental decline and brain degeneration. According to the featured article:

"The glycerophospholipids in the cerebral cortex of the normal ageing brain show steady increases in the concentration of DHA with corresponding reductions of AA [arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fat]. Svennerholm demonstrated⁴, in tissue samples from 11 brains from fetal to 82 years, that the percentages of AA and DHA methyl esters in cerebral cortex ethanolamine glycerophospholipids was roughly equal or 1:1 (16.5 percent AA and 16.1 percent DHA) in the one month old human infant, but by the 82nd year the percentage of DHA has more than doubled and increased in proportion to AA close to approximately 1:4 (10.3 percent AA and 33.9 percent DHA)."

How Much DHA Do YOU Need?

For clarity, let me point out that, as with most studies, very high dosages were used in the trials above, and the participants were elderly patients with memory loss and other degenerative conditions. This likely does not describe you, and hopefully, by taking proper precautions now, you won’t develop that kind of degeneration to begin with.

I prefer krill oil compared to all other animal-based omega-3’s, because while the metabolic effects of krill oil and fish oil are “essentially similar,” krill oil is as effective as fish oil despite the fact that it contains less EPA and DHA.⁵ This is because krill oil is absorbed up to 10-15 times as well as fish oil, due to its molecular composition.

Fish oil is in a triglyceride molecule that has to be broken down in your gut to its base fatty acids of DHA and EPA. About 80-85 percent is never absorbed and is eliminated in your intestine (this is why fish oil can cause you to experience burp back and why about half of all people cannot tolerate fish oil). Then once the fatty acids are absorbed into your blood stream, your liver has to attach it to phoshphatidyl choline for it to be used by your body.

The beauty of krill is that all of it is in the correct form in the original pill, so your body uses virtually 100 percent of it.

As a result, most people only need two to three 500 mg capsules of krill oil per day (each capsule typically contain about 50 mg of DHA and 90 mg of EPA).

What's the Best Source of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fat?

It is typically a wise practice to obtain most of your nutrients from the food you eat. However, animal-based omega-3's are one exception where I believe taking a supplement is very important, for a couple of reasons.

First, the food source of omega-3, which is fish and other seafood, is just not a safe option anymore. The vast majority of our fish supply is now so heavily contaminated with industrial pollutants and toxins like mercury, PCBs, heavy metals and radioactive poisons that I just can't recommend it any longer. Even the slow-to-react FDA and EPA have put out health advisories warning against certain fish and shellfish consumption for young children, women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, and nursing mothers...

The second major reason why a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat supplement is so important is because so many people are deficient. In fact, omega-3 deficiency is likely the sixth biggest killer of Americans, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. In my view, krill oil is your best option when it comes to obtaining important high-quality animal-based omega-3 fats for the following reasons:

• Krill oil contains essential EPA and DHA in a double-chain phospholipid structure that makes it far more absorbable than the omega-3s in fish oil
• It also contains vitamin E, vitamin A, and vitamin D
• Krill oil naturally contains astaxanthin, a potent antioxidant. Research has shown the antioxidant potency of krill oil is, in terms of ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorptance Capacity) values, 48 times more potent than fish oil. So with krill oil, you can ensure that you're getting the incredibly healthy yet highly perishable fats (EPA and DHA) without having to worry about oxidation issues
• Your risk of getting any mercury contamination is much lower than with fish oil as the krill are so small they don't have the chance to accumulate toxins before being harvested

More Tips for Maintaining Healthy Brain Function

More than 5 million Americans currently have Alzheimer's, and by 2050 that could increase to between 11 million and 16 million people in the United States alone. But neither dementia nor Alzheimer's are a normal part of aging! Truly, your memory and brain functioning do not have to decline simply because you are getting older. This is especially true if you make sure you supply your brain with the essential nutrients it needs to perform its job, namely DHA and EPA.

Aside from optimizing your omega-3 intake, ideally by taking a krill oil supplement, the following guidelines can also greatly increase your chances of avoiding any kind of cognitive decline:

• Eat a nutritious diet with plenty of vegetables, paying special attention to avoiding all forms of sugar, especially fructose. Experts are starting to look at memory problems like Alzheimer's as a form of brain starvation, and glucose metabolism appears to play an important role in the disease. It's already known that diabetics have four times the risk of developing Alzheimer's, and  those with prediabetes have triple the risk.
• Avoid and remove mercury from your body. Dental amalgam fillings are one of the major sources of mercury, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed. Once you have adjusted to following the diet described in my Nutritional Plan, you can follow the mercury detox protocol and then find a biological dentist to have your amalgams removed. ONLY see a high-quality biologically trained dentist to remove your amalgams or your health could get ruined.
• Avoid aluminum, such as in antiperspirants, cookware, etc.
• Exercise for three to five hours per week. According to one study, the odds of developing Alzheimer's were nearly quadrupled in people who were less active during their leisure time, between the ages of 20 and 60, compared with their peers.
• Avoid flu vaccinations as they contain both mercury and aluminum!
• Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.
• Challenge your mind daily. Mental stimulation, such as traveling, learning to play an instrument or doing crossword puzzles, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.

REFERENCES:

• ¹ Nutrients May 2011; 3(5): 529-554
• ²Alzheimer's and Dementia 2010 Nov;6(6):456-64
• ³Nutritional Neuroscience 2008 Apr;11(2):75-83
• ⁴Journal of Lipid Research 1968 Sep;9(5):570-9
• ⁵Lipids. 2011 Jan;46(1):37-46

• Nutrients May 2011; 3(5): 529-554

• Green Med Info

  What You Eat Could Raise Your Risk of Alzheimer's

  An Expert Guide to Reducing Your Dementia Risk

  This Powerful Nutrient Improves Concentration by 60% and Fights ADHD

It's becoming common knowledge that vitamin D is important for far more than bone health.

In the last several years, research has been pouring showing that higher levels of vitamin D are necessary to provide protection from serious chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, infections, multiple sclerosis and, now, researchers have revealed an important role in aging -- particularly eye aging.

Vitamin D is Good for Your Eyes

When most people think of nutrients and eye health, they immediately think "vitamin A. or beta carotene."

However, new evidence suggests that vitamin D may be more crucial.

New research from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London revealed striking eye benefits from vitamin D3 supplementation in older mice.

Specifically, after receiving the supplement for just six weeks. Improvements included:

• Improved vision
• Reductions in retinal inflammation and levels of amyloid beta accumulation, which is a hallmark of aging
• Significant reductions in retinal macrophage numbers and marked shifts in their morphology (macrophages are immune cells that can cause inflammatory damage)

The findings suggest vitamin D3 may very well help prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. AMD is associated with both amyloid beta accumulation and inflammation, and vitamin D supplementation appears to benefit both of these conditions.

Researchers concluded:

"These changes were reflected in a significant improvement in visual function, revealing that vitamin D₃ is a route to avoiding the pace of age-related visual decline. Excess amyloid beta deposition and inflammation are risk factors leading to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the largest cause of blindness in those older than 50 years in developed countries. Recently, vitamin D₃ has been linked epidemiologically to protection against age-related macular degeneration.  Hence, vitamin D₃ enrichment is likely to represent a beneficial route for those at risk."

As researchers noted, separate research has also implicated vitamin D deficiency in the development of macular degeneration, with those whose vitamin D intake was among the top one-fifth of participants having a 59 percent lower risk of developing AMD compared to women whose intake was among the lowest fifth.^[i]

How This Might Relate to Alzheimer's, Heart Disease and Other Age-Related Conditions

Interestingly, amyloid beta accumulation is not only associated with blindness; it's also the protein that tends to accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, causing plaque buildup. It is believed that amyloid beta destroys nerve cells, contributing to the cognitive and behavioral problems typical of the disease. Given that vitamin D affects accumulation of amyloid beta in the eyes, there is reason to believe it may do so in your brain and other areas as well, and the researchers did find a reduction in amyloid beta in the animals' aorta as well. The study's lead researcher explained, as reported by LifeExtension:

"People might have heard of amyloid beta as being linked to Alzheimer's disease and new evidence suggests that vitamin D could have a role in reducing its build up in the brain. So, when we saw this effect in the eyes as well, we immediately wondered where else these deposits might be being reduced.

… Finding that amyloid deposits were reduced in the blood vessels of mice that had been given vitamin D supplements suggests that vitamin D could be useful in helping to prevent a range of age-related health problems, from deteriorating vision to heart disease."

Additionally, research performed in 2009 and published in the Journal of Alzheimer Disease showed that vitamin D3 enhanced the beta amyloid clearing effect of curcumin in the brains of patients with Alzheimer disease.  Considering that optimizing your vitamin D levels is a relatively straightforward and inexpensive fix -- and is linked to numerous other health advantages, including cancer prevention -- there's really no reason to miss out on these important benefits.

Additional Important Nutrients for Eye Health

As with all aspects of health, your lifestyle will play a role in how well your eyes "hold up" as you age. For instance, obesity and diabetes are at epidemic proportions right now, and both can impact your eyesight. Similarly, if you smoke or spend a lot of time in front of the computer, this too can take a toll on your vision health.

Basic healthy lifestyle principles, like eating right, limiting environmental toxins, and exercising, are important for eye health. But if you're looking for more specific strategies to maintain healthy vision, certain antioxidants and nutrients stand out above the rest. Among those that have been shown to be of particular benefit to your eyes are:

Lutein and Zeaxanthin

Of all the carotenoids, only zeaxanthin and lutein are found in your retina, which has the highest concentration of fatty acids of any tissue in your body. This is because your retina is a highly light and oxygen rich environment, and it needs a large supply of free radical scavengers to prevent oxidative damage there.

It is theorized that your body concentrates zeaxanthin and lutein in your retina to perform this duty. The concentration of these two pigments in the macula of your retina are what give it its characteristic yellow color. (The macula is actually called the "macula lutea" which literally means "yellow spot.") Zeaxanthin and lutein both cross the blood-brain-retina barriers, as astaxanthin (see below) does.

It is interesting that your eye preferentially concentrates zeaxanthin over lutein in the central macular retinal area (called the fovea), where the greatest amount of light impinges -- and zeaxanthin is a more effective singlet oxygen scavenger than lutein. Your body seems to naturally "know" this and accumulates it where it's most needed! Lutein and zeaxanthin are found in green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale, and also in egg yolks.

Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is the ultimate carotenoid for eye health and the prevention of blindness. It's even more powerful an antioxidant than both lutein and zeaxanthin, and easily crosses into the tissues of the eye and exerts its effects safely and with more potency than any of the other carotenoids.

Specifically, astaxanthin may help ameliorate or prevent light-induced damage, photoreceptor cell damage, ganglion cell damage, and damage to the neurons of the inner retinal layers. It has also been found to have protective benefits against a number of eye-related problems, including:

Astaxanthin is produced only by the microalgae Haematoccous pluvialis when its water supply dries up, forcing it to protect itself from ultraviolet radiation. It's the algae's survival mechanism—Astaxanthin serves as a "force field" to protect the algae from lack of nutrition and/or intense sunlight. There are only two main sources of astaxanthin: the microalgae that produce it, and the sea creatures that consume the algae (such as salmon, shellfish, and krill).

Anthocyanins from Bilberry and Black Currant

The most noted water-soluble antioxidants for the eye are the anthocyanins found in black currant and bilberry. They are important for eye health because they are soluble in the aqueous humor, thick watery substance filling the space between the lens and the cornea. The aqueous humor maintains the intraocular pressure, provides nutrition for other ocular tissues and serves to transport antioxidants.

Anthocyanins can also reduce intraocular pressure and help in maintaining collagen, which is the main component of the eye lens and is the connective tissue that supports your eye.

Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats

Omega-3 fats like those found in krill oil may help protect and promote healthy retinal function. One type, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is concentrated in your eye's retina and has been found to be particularly useful in preventing AMD. Further, inflammation is likely involved in AMD progression, and omega-3 fats have anti-inflammatory effects.

Research has shown that those who had the highest intake of animal-based omega-3 fats had a 60 percent lower risk of advanced AMD compared to those who consumed the least.^[ii] A 2009 study also found that those with the highest consumption of omega-3 fats were 30 percent less likely to progress to the advanced form of the disease over a 12-year period.^[iii] Adding further support for omega-3 fats, another 2009 study showed that participants with diets high in omega-3 fats, along with vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, lutein and zeaxanthin, had a lower risk of AMD as well.^[iv]

A Comprehensive Plan to Optimize Your Eye Health

Keeping your eyes in pristine working order as you get older is more about a comprehensive strategy than simply honing in on one nutrient or another. Ultimately, a multi-faceted approach will protect your eyes on multiple levels. This includes:

• Optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D from sun exposure is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels; exposing a large amount of your skin until it turns the lightest shade of pink, as near to solar noon as possible, is typically necessary to achieve adequate vitamin D production. If sun exposure is not an option, a safe tanning bed (with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields) can be used, or, as a last resort, a vitamin D3 supplement can be taken orally.
• Care for your cardiovascular system. High blood pressure can cause damage to the miniscule blood vessels on your retina, obstructing free blood flow.
  
  One of the primary ways to maintain optimal blood pressure is to avoid fructose. Research by Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the division of kidney disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado, shows that consuming 74 grams or more per day of fructose (equal to 2.5 sugary drinks) increases your risk of having blood pressure levels of 160/100 mmHg by 77 percent!
• Normalize your blood sugar. Excessive sugar in your blood can pull fluid from the lens of your eye, affecting your ability to focus. And, it can damage the blood vessels in your retina, also obstructing blood flow. To keep your blood sugar in a healthy range, follow my comprehensive nutrition guidelines, exercise and avoid excess sugar, especially fructose.
• Eat plenty of fresh dark green leafy vegetables, especially kale. Studies have shown that a diet rich in dark leafy greens helps support eye health, and those with the highest consumption of carotenoid-rich vegetables, especially ones rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, had increased vision health.
• Get plenty of healthy animal-based omega-3 fat. As noted above, omega-3 fatty acids like those in krill oil are protective of your healthy vision.
• Avoid trans fats. A diet high in trans fat appears to contribute to macular degeneration by interfering with omega-3 fats in your body. Trans fat is found in many processed foods and baked goods, including margarine, shortening, fried foods like French fries, fried chicken and doughnuts, cookies, pastries and crackers.
• Avoid aspartame. Vision problems are one of the many potential acute symptoms of aspartame poisoning.
• Quit smoking. Smoking increases free radical production throughout your body, and puts you at risk for less-than-optimal health in many ways, including the risk of decreased vision.

• ^[i] Archives of Ophthalmology April 2011, Vol. 129, No. 4
• ^[ii] Opthalmology 117 (12): 2395-2401, December 2010
• ^[iii] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2009 Dec;90(6):1601-7.
• ^[iv] Ophthalmology. 2009 May;116(5):939-46.

• Neurobiology of Aging January 2, 2012

• Life Extension Magazine January 20, 2012

  How to Get Your Vitamin D Within to Healthy Ranges

  3 Ways to Improve Your Eyesight

  The Most Important Food for Healthy Eyes (No, it's Not Carrots)

Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD is well known for his successful treatment of neurological illness and chronic pain with Integrative Medicine.

Here, he shares his latest insights into Lyme disease, including its causes, confounding factors that can make proper diagnosis elusive, and how to get around them, along with his own treatment protocol.

By Dr. Mercola

Some experts feel that almost everyone has been exposed to Lyme disease and may have it in one way, shape or form.

Whether that's true or not is up for debate, but clearly there are those who have it and are severely disabled by it.

Dr. Klinghardt—who is one of my earliest mentors in natural health and always on the leading edge—has actually suffered with Lyme disease himself, and as a result, he's passionate about finding effective natural treatments for Lyme.

The Ongoing Discovery of Lyme Disease

It's now been fairly well-established that chronic infection is an underlying factor in most chronic illnesses. Diseases such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue are all turning out to be expressions of chronic infections.

"Right at the center of that is the ongoing discovery of Lyme disease," Dr. Klinghardt says.

Lyme disease has recently received a new definition. It now refers to illnesses transferred by insects, as opposed to simply a tick-borne disease. Mosquitoes can carry Lyme disease and many other serious infections, as can spiders, fleas and mites.

"Today I take a very different approach to Lyme disease," Dr. Klinghardt says. "I look at it as nature mingling with our genes. They are trying to incorporate their genome into our genome… Most of the time it goes wrong but sometimes it goes well. This is like the point I want to make upfront; that I take this more evolutionary view of it.

… We know that Lyme spirochetes were around for a long time but something happened maybe 30-40 years ago, where the creatures became more aggressive, more penetrating, and more illness-producing than they were before. Some of us suspect it's a man-made element. Some of us suspect that the global warming may play a role in it.

I personally suspect that the exposure to electromagnetic fields in the home and the microwaves from cell phone radiation are driving the virulence of many of the microbes that are naturally in us, and makes them aggressive and illness producing. There is probably evidence for all sides of the discussion."

Why Lyme Disease is So Tough to Diagnose…

Lyme disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose using conventional tests. And there's great variation in the presentation of the disease as well, depending on where you contracted it, and whether or not you have any other coexisting infections. There is a group of seven or eight microbes that are the most common. The worst ones are Babesia microti and the different forms of Bartonella.

"Underneath that, there's often an infection with Mycoplasma. We still don't know if it's really transferred with the same bite or if the people had it all along and become symptomatic when the immune system is suppressed by the spirochetes," Dr. Klinghardt says.

Other than the co-infections, there is what I call the "opportunistic infections." The combined effect of the initial infection is an immune suppressive effect, and then the patient becomes vulnerable to all sorts of other things. The most common things people contract early on in the course if the illness are different forms of parasites, such as protozoa; Babesia itself being one of them.

There is Giardia, amoebas, Trichomonas, malaria, and different forms of infections that aren't labeled yet. There is a new one, called FL1953. Stephen Frye discovered that. It's a protozoan organism that's causing severe fatigue and illness in chronically ill people. It's almost always present in a patient with Lyme disease.

And then we find a lot of worms in people. They may be microscopic and they may be macroscopic. That means they may be visible in the stool or they may not be visible."

Common Presentations of Lyme Disease

The most simple presentation is the orthopedic forms of Lyme disease as they're typically more superficial, affecting the larger joints. Interestingly, Dr. Klinghardt injects ozone into the joint in these cases, which he claims is:

"100 percent effective if the Lyme disease or… whatever the microbe is, lives in the joint and is confined to the joint space. Simply putting ozone in the joint will kill the spirochetes, and often with one, sometimes two treatments, make the joint completely pain free. That's one form of the expression of Lyme."

When the microbes and the associated immune reactions are situated in the connective tissue, the infection presents as a "vague, dispersed pain," which oftentimes ends up being labeled as fibromyalgia by conventional doctors. The immunological expression of Lyme covers a wide variety of immune system disorders, typically with some aspect of autoimmunity.

"I did my thesis in 1976 on autoimmune diseases and how the autonomic nervous system interacts with the immune system," Dr. Klinghardt says. "We found then that the determining factor of the outcome of an autoimmune disease was the presence of microbes that were catastrophically unresponsive to antibiotics.

Any autoimmune disease, including rheumatoid arthritis, we suspect has an underlying level of Lyme disease that needs to be treated appropriately before the patient has a chance to recover from the illness."

The gastroenterological presentation, where you have constant stomach problems, constipation, recurring stomach ulcers and/or indigestion, is very common, especially with the Babesia infection. This is sometimes the direct outcome of pancreatitis or hepatitis, but it can also be due to parasites acquired after contracting Lyme disease. In these cases, aggressive treatment of the parasites typically resolves the problem.

"The most startling form of the expression of Lyme disease is a wide variety of neurological illnesses," Dr. Klinghardt says.

"That is what we specialize in… We see a lot of cases with multiple sclerosis (MS)… ALS… [and] everything in between: the chronic fatigued patients, the patient with vague, undistinguishable neurological symptoms, the feeling of buzzing in the head, buzzing on the skin, crawling under the skin…"

How to Diagnose Lyme Disease

Insomnia is one of the key symptoms in many cases of Lyme disease, along with neurological symptoms such as headaches and a wide variety of pain syndromes. But you cannot diagnose Lyme disease on symptoms alone, because they're so varied.

Testing is required, but even that is not a sure-shot…

Most commercial tests designed to detect chronic infections are based on measuring your immune reaction—the presence of antibodies—to the invading microbe. However, one of the primary cells that get infected with Lyme spirochetes are the white blood cells themselves, which is a bit of a game-changer… because if your white blood cells are infected, they lose the ability to produce antibodies.

Hence it is relatively common to get a negative test result…

Dr. Klinghardt refers to this as "the Lyme paradox," because in order to diagnose Lyme disease properly with one of the accepted commercial tests, you have to first treat the Lyme disease, in order for your white blood cells to be able to mount an appropriate immune response. Only then can a lab test be used to detect the presence of Lyme disease.

"An exception to that are the test based on direct microscopy, where you're not depending on the immune responses for the patient," he explains.

However, this too has its drawbacks and difficulties. For example, the FISH test for Babesia is done on blood. But Babesia lives in the central nervous system, joints, and connective tissue. It doesn't live in your blood stream, at least not in significant amounts, so it can easily be missed when looking at blood.

To get around the many testing conundrums surrounding Lyme, whenever he suspects Lyme, Dr. Klinghardt treats his patients for Lyme disease for at least six to eight weeks, followed by a Western blot test, which measures immune response. The treatment is initially based on the clinical symptoms presented, along with a form of muscle testing he developed, called autonomic response testing (ART), which incorporates both classical neurological testing and kinesiology.

"It's not related to the applied kinesiology system that's quite distinct," Dr. Klinghardt explains. "It... may look similar… [but] we're looking for very specific reflexes that are connected to very specific illnesses. We arrive at a tentative diagnosis through history taking, through looking at skin signs; palpating the tissues; testing the normal neurological reflexes; orthopedic tests, and then we add the muscle testing as an additional tool."

Tests and Lab Recommendations

Dr. Klinghardt exclusively uses the IGeneX Lab in Palo Alto for his blood tests, and Fry Labs in Arizona for direct microscopy testing.

"I don't have a financial investment in it, but it's the gold standard in our field," he says. "They use two different antigens. The commercial labs and hospitals and so forth, they use one antigen and are notorious in under-diagnosing Lyme disease. We recommend to rather not test it than get a false negative, which will sometimes lead the patient 20 years on the wrong track. With the other co-infections, the detection rate drops way down.

… We do the FISH test [for Borrelia] at IGeneX Lab. It's a direct microscopy test which has more false negatives than the western blot.

… The leading test for Bartonella that we use is Fry Labs in Arizona. Steven Fry, who does a wonderful direct microscopy test, often comes back positive with the diagnosis of hemobartonella. Hemo means simply blood – Bartonella in the blood. Remember, he's testing the blood where the Bartonella typically does not live. It lives in the nervous system. So if you find it in the blood in small amounts it generally is an indicator that there is a high amount in other tissues in the body."

An indirect test is the CD57 test. "CD-57" is a specific group of natural killer cells that are particularly damaged by the Lyme spirochetes. Therefore, if your numbers drop to a certain level, it is an indirect indicator that you may have Lyme disease, because the only known infection to suppress CD57 is that of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Normally, your CD57 value should be over 100. If it's lower than that, you're infected with Borrelia. If it's below 60, you probably have both Borrelia and Mycoplasma, and, most likely, some other co-infections.

Dr. Klinghardt's Treatment Approach

Dr. Klinghardt takes microwave radiation and electromagnetic fields very seriously, as it can have a profound impact on Lyme disease.

"One of my primary treatments for Lyme disease is to put people in protective clothing that shields them from incoming microwaves," he says. "We shield the bedside. We turn off the wireless internet at home. We put shielding paint on the houses. That has been a more successful strategy to treating Lyme disease and to get people neurologically well than any of the antibiotics or any of the antimicrobial compounds."

He's convinced that the increased virulence we're now seeing is related to the dramatic increase in electromagnetic fields and microwave radiation from cell phones, cell towers, and all manner of wireless technologies. Therefore, EMF and microwave radiation mitigation are part of the standard protocol, as any subsequent treatment of Lyme disease will not be as effective unless these external factors are addressed.

Below is a summarized outline of Dr. Klinghardt's treatment for Lyme disease. For more information and details, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript.

1. First, external factors that act upon the body 24/7 are evaluated.
   
   This includes electrosmog, EMF, microwave radiation from wireless technologies, and molds. To test for the presence of mold, he uses the ERMI score, which is a semi-quantitative assessment of how much mold is in your home.  The score should not exceed 2. However, most of his patients score between 15 and 20. For more information on mold, Dr. Klinghardt recommends www.SurvivingMold.com.
2. Once external influencing factors have been determined, they're remediated and mitigated. (For mold remediation, please refer to this previous article.)
   
   To mitigate microwave radiation, Dr. Klinghardt recommends shielding your home with a graphite paint called Y Shield outside, and use special silver-coated cloth for your curtains. These measures will compromise your ability to receive cell phone calls, so depending on your situation, you may opt to shield just your bedroom, or shield your entire home and just use a landline.
   
   All cordless telephones are removed, and patients are instructed to turn off all the fuses at night, until they have recovered from Lyme disease.
3. Next, the emotional component of the disease is addressed using Energy Psychology tools, including psychokinesiology (PK) which is similar to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), but more refined and advanced...
4. Dr. Klinghardt begins the treatment for Lyme disease by addressing parasites, followed by "the Klinghardt antimicrobial cocktail," which addresses the Lyme spirochetes, Babesia, and Bartonella. For more details and complete recipes to all his treatment cocktails, see www.KlinghardtAcademy.com or send an email to info@KlinghardtAcademy.com.  Some of the ingredients in his formula include: wormwood (artemisinin)—which has been found to be extremely effective for malaria—combined with phospholipids; vitamin C, and specific herbs.
   
   Lastly, viruses are addressed using a tincture of Native American herbs called Viressence, by BioPure.
5. Additional lifestyle factors are also addressed, including diet and vitamin supplementation.

A Word on Antibiotics

Conventional Lyme treatment hinges on long-term use of antibiotics. While this treatment can indeed be effective, there are many reasons to opt for alternatives such as those detailed by Dr. Klinghardt, as antibiotics will disrupt your gut flora, thereby exposing you to a whole host of other pathologies.

More Information

In Dr. Klinghardt's experience, the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) is by far the best and most responsible group, so to learn more about Lyme disease, see www.ILADS.org.

"Depending on where you live in the U.S., consider the treatment that is offered to you through a Lyme literate physician. Most of them have been through the training at ILADS and I do recommend that," Dr. Klinghardt says.

"But there is a level beyond that, which I'm hoping I'm introducing here. If you just do antibiotics, okay, you just do antibiotics. But if you think more holistically and do the things that I recommend, then you no longer will need to resort to antibiotics because you cover your system on so many other fronts. And with that you're not only treating Lyme disease but you're preventing cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease—you're preventing pretty much all the other things that we didn't know were associated with Lyme.

So by treating the mold, by getting electrosmog under control, by treating the infections, by treating insulin resistance, we are preparing the patient for a much happier, healthier, longer, and more productive life, which is of course what I'm hoping for…"

Again, Dr. Klinghardt provides free access to all his recipes on his web site, so to learn more about his treatment, please see www.KlinghardtAcademy.com.

• Video Transcript

  Dr. Klinghardt's Treatment of Lyme Disease (2009)

  Lyme Disease: The Unknown Epidemic

  Rheumatoid Arthritis And Lyme Disease And New Testing for Lyme Disease

By Dr. Mercola

Jeff Green has been an activist in the movement to eliminate a toxic fluoride from your water supply for the past 15 years.

With more than 60 percent of U.S. water supplies currently fluoridated, chances are you're one of the 170 million Americans who drink fluoride on a daily basis.

In a previous interview, Green delved into the sordid history that made water fluoridation a reality in the first place.

If you missed it, I highly recommend taking the time to watch it now.

But fluoridated water is not the sole source of harmful fluoride. Here, the discussion focuses on some of the lesser known sources of fluoride exposure.

A Primary Source of Fluoride: Your Food!

While toothpaste and drinking water would appear to be the leading sources of fluoride exposure, probably the most common source of exposure is actually non-organic foods! The reason for this is because of the widespread use of fluoride-based pesticides.

According to Green, non-organic food could account for as much as one-third of the average person's fluoride exposure!

This is important, as many people are under the mistaken assumption that by avoiding fluoridated water, they've eliminated the primary source of fluoride. But if you're still eating conventionally-farmed foods, your fluoride exposure is still likely very high.

"Cryolite is actually sodium aluminum fluoride... This sodium aluminum fluoride is especially effective at killing bugs," Green explains. "It's also very sticky, so when they spray it, it's more likely to stick on your produce, unless you're... really working at trying to get it off of it. As time has gone on, and... everybody said fluoridation must be really great, they ramped up the amount of residue [allowed on food] from these fluoride-based pesticides. They have petitioned the EPA to be able to allow it, and they come out with larger and larger [allowable] amounts."

Amazingly, based on the assumed safety of such fluoride-based pesticides, iceberg lettuce can now contain a whopping 180 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride—that's 180 times higher than what's recommended in drinking water!

"The assumption is that on a head of lettuce, you're going to peel off those outer layers and you're not going to eat much of that. Whether you do or not; that's up to you... Romaine lettuce and what we call leaf lettuce are allowed to have 40 ppm, with the assumption that it's down inside there and you're going to have to do more cleaning. But because it's so sticky, it's almost impossible [to wash off] unless you go back to the old ideas of the Fuller brush... produce brushes that you... scrape this stuff off with. The majority of people don't make that extra effort to be able to take it off."

Citrus fruits are allowed to be contaminated with 95 ppm's of sodium aluminum fluoride. Potatoes may have 22 ppm's on the outside and up to two ppm's on the inside. Raisins can have up to 55 ppm's. But of all the foods, grapes are perhaps one of the foremost sources of fluoride exposure.

Bet you would not have guessed that!

Grapes are a major source of fluoride because, first of all, they're heavily sprayed with cryolite, and second, white grape juice is typically used as the base, or filler juice in all sorts of juice drinks. So if you drink any kind of juice on a regular basis, you're probably getting hefty doses of cryolite, i.e. fluoride-based pesticide... Cereals, mechanically deboned meats, and black or green tea are a few other sources that may surprise you.

"Wheaties for example was measured at 10 parts per million," Green says. "Shredded Wheat: 9.4 parts per million. Why is it so high? One, they use pesticides on the grains. Two, they use [fluoridated] water... So you actually have higher concentrations than you ever found in the water where it was being made.

As for mechanically deboned meats, the source of the fluoride is the animal itself, which is exposed in the same manner as humans—through feed and water—which then comes out during the manufacturing process. Black and green teas are naturally high in fluoride, even if organically-grown without pesticides. This is because the plant readily absorbs fluoride thorough its root system, including naturally-occurring fluoride in the soil. According to Green, there are reports of people who have developed crippling skeletal fluorosis from drinking high amounts of iced tea alone.

Is Bottled Water More Pure than Tap Water?

Besides food though, drinking water is certainly a primary source of fluoride exposure. Many mistakenly believe that bottled water is the answer, but this is a serious misconception.

As a general rule, I don't recommend or encourage using bottled water on a regular basis—for a number of reasons. Not only does it contribute to profound amounts of environmental pollution, but a variety of toxins can leach from the plastic, contaminating your water. Not to mention the fact that you're not guaranteed a more pure product to begin with. An estimated 40 percent of all bottled water is just bottled tap water that may or may not have received additional water treatment. No, buying bottled water certainly is not a guarantee of getting either pure or fluoride-free water!

For pure drinking water, your best bet, from a practical perspective, is to filter the water coming into your own home. Unfortunately, fluoride can be quite difficult to remove from the water once added in. Reverse osmosis systems have typically been recommended to remove fluoride, but according to Green, many home systems may not be very efficient at this task. Commercial systems are typically much better, as they have redundancy features not found in smaller-scale residential models.

"[Y]ou've got to remember that the free fluoride ion, which is the part that we are concerned with... is smaller than the water molecule. You can't... "filter" it out. You can't screen it out because of the size, obviously... If you look at what the literature tells you, when you're looking at reverse osmosis, they almost always say that if you had eight parts per million of fluoride [which is eight times higher than recommended]... they could bring it down to 0.9. So you get a 90 percent reduction.

But nobody says take your 0.9 and take it down to 0.1. Because what it's basically doing is it's taking out the fluoride compounds, which is still a good thing in some ways, especially if you had eight parts per million in it... but you're still not getting out that free fluoride ion."

To Distill or Not to Distill... That is the Question...

Distillation is another alternative. However, while distilled water is very clean, it also lacks structure and minerals, which is inadvisable for long-term daily use as it can deplete your body of essential trace minerals. Distilled water can be quite useful for short-term detoxification though.

Despite these drawbacks, Green prefers the distilled water over reverse osmosis, primarily because the amount of water that is wasted with the reverse osmosis (R/O) filtration systems. A reverse osmosis system can use anywhere between three to eight gallons of water to create one gallon of drinkable water.

I disagree with Green's recommendation as the example he gave is quite skewed. The typical level of fluoride in most fluoridated municipal water supplies is about one part per million, not eight, like the example he gave. So if you reduce that by 90 percent with an R/O system you are in relatively safe range of 0.1 parts per million. You can use distilled water to remove nearly all of it, but the distillation process is a form of more severe processing than R/O and it is more difficult to restore the water minerals and structure.

Add Fluoride, and Other Chemicals Become More Dangerous...

Interestingly, not to mention importantly, fluoride has the ability to affect other toxins and heavy metals; in some cases making them even more harmful than they would be on their own. For example, when you combine chloramines with the hydrofluorosilicic acid added to the water supply, they become very effective at extracting lead from old plumbing systems—essentially, together; they promote the accumulation of lead in the water supply!

"In fact the two of them have been combined, and I believe patented to be put together so that they could extract lead," Green says. "... In fact, you've seen from reports in Washington D.C. about the lead content [in the local water] that this combination can have tremendous effects."

Studies have also showed that hydrofluorosilicic acid increases lead accumulation in bone, teeth, and other calcium-rich tissues. According to Green, this is because the free fluoride ion acts as a transport of heavy metals, allowing them to enter into areas of your body they normally would not be able to go, such as into your brain.

"Industry prizes what we call fluoride compounds," Green says. "What's amazing is there is so much [information] out there that's never explained to the general public. But [fluoride] is… the most aggressive seeker of another electron. It's the most electromagnetically negatively charged element in the entire world. It basically is the most interactive of all the elements… It will give up whatever it's with to be with something else…

So it's prized by industry because it actually disrupts molecular bonds… Industry also wants it because it creates tighter molecular bonds. So Scotchgard, Stain Master, Gore-Tex, ski gear… These are all fluoride-type compounds as well because they actually make it a tighter molecular bond that is more impervious to penetration.

… By the time you get to the enzyme activity, and knowing what it can do to disrupt enzyme activity, the effects are so widespread, it's just amazing... Once [people] learn the nature of fluoride, they would never want to put it in their water."

Are Health Epidemics Spurred by Water Fluoridation and Pesticides?

While fluoride has been linked to a long list of health problems, two that are currently epidemic are thyroid disease and neurodegenerative diseases.

"I think the important thing is to realize that fluoride affects your endocrine system," Green warns. "... [I]n December 2006... the National Academy of Sciences... came to the unanimous conclusion that the levels of fluoride thought to be the maximum contaminant level and was safe to be in the water, weren't protective of human health at all... and that the places where you could see that very dramatically would have to do with the endocrine system."

Fluoride also calcifies your pineal gland, which can lead to a number of health problems, from precocious puberty to cancer—both of which are also burgeoning epidemics... So, what, if anything, can you do to protect your health if you suspect you're getting too much fluoride?

One early sign of over-exposure to fluoride is dental fluorosis, which typically begins as white specks on your teeth, which then progress to more unsightly yellow and brown mottling of the enamel. At the first signs of dental fluorosis, if you haven't done so already, you'll want to immediately eliminate as many sources of fluoride as possible.

But, according to Green, you also need to make sure you have certain nutrients in your system. These three will help bind the free fluoride ions, allowing it to be excreted from your body more effectively:

• Magnesium
• Calcium
• Vitamin C

Join the Fight to Get Fluoride Out of Drinking Water

In summary it would seem like most rational people would conclude you should avoid using fluoride for its "preventive" benefits. You can easily choose not to take fluoride supplements or buy fluoride-free toothpaste and mouthwash. You can also dramatically reduce your fluoride exposure by opting for organic foods, on which fluoride-based pesticides are not permitted to be used. However, you're still going to be stuck with whatever your community puts in the water, and as discussed, it's very difficult to filter out of your water once it's added. Many do not have the resources or the knowledge to do so.

It's really time to stop the archaic practice of water fluoridation.

Earlier this year I joined forces with Dr. Paul Connett to help put an END to water fluoridation in the U.S and Canada. The Fluoride Action Network has a game plan to do just that. Our fluoride initiative will primarily focus on Canada since 60 percent of Canada is already non-fluoridated. If we can get Calgary and the rest of Canada to stop fluoridating their water, we believe the U.S. will be forced to follow. I urge you to join the anti-fluoride movement in Canada and the United States by contacting the representative for your area below.

Contact Information for Canadian Communities:

• If you live in Ontario, Canada, please join the ongoing effort by contacting Diane Sprules at diane.sprules@cogeco.ca.
• The point-of-contact for Toronto, Canada is Aliss Terpstra. You may email her at aliss@nutrimom.ca.
• The point-of-contact for the Peel region in Ontario, Canada is Rob Brewer. You may email him at FluorideFreePeel@ymail.com. Also see Fluoride Free Peel's Facebook pageⁱ.

Contact Information for American Communities:

We're also going to address three US communities: New York City, Austin, and San Diego:

• New York City, NY: The anti-fluoridation movement has a great champion in New York City councilor Peter Vallone, Jr. who introduced legislation on January 18 "prohibiting the addition of fluoride to the water supply."
  
  A victory there could signal the beginning of the end of fluoridation in the U.S. If you live in the New York area I beg you to participate in this effort as your contribution could have a MAJOR difference. Remember that one person can make a difference.
  
  The point person for this area is Carol Kopf, at the New York Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). Email her at NYSCOF@aol.com. Please contact her if you're interested in helping with this effort.
• Austin, Texas: Join the effort by contacting Rae Nadler-Olenick at either: info@fluoridefreeaustin.com or fluoride.info@yahoo.com, or by regular mail or telephone:
  
  POB 7486
  Austin, Texas 78713
  Phone: (512) 371-3786
• San Diego, California: Contact Patty Ducey-Brooks, publisher of the Presidio Sentinel at pbrooks936@aol.com.

References:

• A Special Interview with Jeff Green, Video Transcript
• ⁱ Fluoride Free Peel, Facebook.

• Video Transcript

  Jeff Green on Fluoride Dangers, Part 1

  Fluoride Exposure May Contribute to Early Puberty

  Fluoride and Thyroid Dysfunction

An organized mind can enable you to fully engage in a health-giving lifestyle. And the reverse is also true -- the symptoms of a disorganized mind, such as impulsivity, chronic negativity, high stress and multitasking, all correlate with higher weight.

Writing for CNN, Dr. Paul Hammerness and Margaret Moore, co-authors of "Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life," list six ways to attain a calm, wise, positive, strategic perspective.

1. Tame your frenzy: Before you can focus your attention, you need to take charge of your worry, anger, sadness, and irritation.
2. Sustain your focus: Once your mind is calm, identify one task and one task only.
3. Apply the brakes: Your focused brain also needs to be able to stop when necessary.
4. Access your working memory: Accessing your short-term memory helps you problem-solve and generate new ideas and insights.
5. Shift sets: When you focus on a new task, move all of your attention to it and give it your undivided attention.
6. Connect the dots: Put all of these rules together to change not only your habits of attention, but the way you look at your life.

To read more, you can click on the link below.

• CNN January 22, 2012

  The System I Use to Get and Stay Organized

  10 Ways to Organize Your Desk Effectively

  Learn the Secrets of the Super-Organized

By Dr. Mercola

I believe many of our country's chronic health problems would simply disappear if attention was paid, at the highest levels of government, to the root problem—our agricultural subsidies.

We are subsidizing junk food in one federal office, while across the hall another department is funding an anti-obesity campaign.

This hypocrisy shows just how broken and wasteful our regulatory system really is.

"Farm" subsidies bring you high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, animal factories, monoculture, and a host of other contributors to our unhealthful contemporary diet.

The recently published report called "Apples to Twinkies," discussed in the news video above, compares federal subsidies of fresh produce and junk food.

It was prepared by U.S. PIRG, a non-profit organization that takes on special interests on behalf of the public.The report is part of their Stop Subsidizing Obesity campaign. The report's findings reveal where your tax dollars are really going, and it's quite shocking.

If you were to receive anannual federal subsidy directly, you would receive $7.36 to spend on junk food and just 11 cents to buy apples. In other words, every year, your tax dollars pay for enough corn syrup and other junk food additives to buy 19 Twinkies, but only enough fresh fruit to buy less than a quarter of one red delicious apple.

This is what the government's priorities REALLY are with respect to your health.

With all of the current focus on deficit reduction and wasteful government spending, you would think there would be pretty much universal agreement that there are far better uses for your tax money than subsidizing the ingredients of a Twinkie. Yet, this practice goes on year after year, and whatever feeble efforts emerge to change the status quo end up filed in the "circular file" at the end of the day.

But why is progress so impeded in this area when common sense would suggest practically everyone would be in favor of eliminating such an egregious waste of resources?

Agribusiness and Pharmaceutical Lobbies Are Formidable Forces in Public Health

The Department of Agriculture is deeply entrenched with agribusiness, and current legislations protect the profits of these large industries at the expense of your health. According to PIRG:

"Our tax dollars should only go to things that serve the public good, yet we're handing out taxpayer subsidies to big agribusinesses to help subsidize junk food. Huge, profitable corporations like Cargill and Monsanto are pocketing tens of billions in taxpayer dollars, and turning subsidized crops into junk food ingredients—including high fructose corn syrup. These taxpayer giveaways are all the more absurd at a time when one in three kids is overweight or obese, and obesity-related diseases like diabetes are turning into an epidemic."

You don't hear about it as often, but the political influence of agribusiness is just as hazardous to your health as that of Big Pharma. They may not write checks quite as large as those issued by the pharmaceutical industry, but the fact that they are controlling something as basic and essential as your food supply gives them a great deal of influence over your health.

U.S. PIRG reports that agribusiness spent 200 million dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions in 2008. However, OpenSecrets.org reports 142 million dollars for that year. According to sector rankings, the agribusiness lobby ranks tenth among the most powerful, in terms of dollars spent, with the pharmaceutical lobby occupying the number one position. Agricultural industry agenda, plus the agenda of Big Pharma, add up to one gigantic obstacle between you and optimal health.

Sadly, you also see the influence of Big Ag in nutrition science. Current policy is actually not designed to help you make sound dietary choices but rather to allow food companies to make health claims to increase profits, and this is a primary reason why you cannot get sound dietary advice from your government. Take the Food Pyramid, for example. Back in 2005, when the updated food pyramid was unveiled, nutritionist Luise Light, a former USDA insider and contributing architect of the original version of the Food Guide Pyramid, exposed how the US government bows to industry interests and plays a key role in the obesity epidemic.

According to the California PIRG (CALPIRG), more than 50 percent of farm subsidies went to only four percent of American farms. Since 1995, 90 percent of the $245 billion in agricultural subsidies went to producers of just five crops—and 30 percent went to corn. This is why high fructose corn syrup is found in nearly every single processed food on the shelf.

Didn't You Know? Pizza is a Vegetable

Presently, the tomato sauce on a slice of pizza counts as a serving of vegetables in your child's school cafeteria lunch. Absurd, but true! The USDA proposed guidelines that would have raised the amount of tomato sauce required to qualify for vegetable status. Provisions to limit the use of starchy vegetables (such as French fries and tater tots) in school lunches were also proposed. Of course, food companies, including those that manufacture frozen pizzas for school lunches, as well as potato growers, lobbied against the proposed changes, complaining that the new standards were too strict.

Congress caved under the pressure of the lobbyists and vetoed the bill.

Making matters worse, manufacturers of sugar-laden processed foods pay "rebates" (aka "kickbacks") to food service companies that serve school districts across the United States, which likely contributes to their reliance on heavily processed foods like muffins, pizza, tater tots and flavored milk in lieu of fresh produce. It's been established that when kids eat more nutritious lunches, they behave better, are less likely to be obese, and improve their grades. So, malnourished kids are not only at risk of chronic disease, but their performance in school inevitably suffers.

Cost of Heart Disease to Approach a Trillion Dollars by 2030

Want to cut the federal budget?  Have a country of healthy people. Stop subsidizing Happy Meals. Stop lying to children by telling them pizza is a salad. Medical costs are skyrocketing as average health is deteriorating, and as chronic illness appears earlier and earlier in people's lives. For the first time in history, your child may have a lifespan that is 10 years shorter than yours. Obesity now costs more than smoking, in terms of healthcare dollars spent. Diet-related disease is the number one killer in the U.S., and other countries are not far behind.

Heart disease is a direct reflection of poor dietary choices. Heart disease costs us $189.4 billion per year. However, statistics show that by 2030, these costs will triple, resulting in a mind-bending $818 billion!

A few famous chefs are leading movements to combat childhood obesity and malnutrition. For example, Chef Ann Cooper's National Food Challenge is a movement to make school lunches more healthful using practical strategies, such as increasing the availability of salad bars in schools. And well-known British chef Jamie Oliver has been leading a decade-long Food Revolution to battle childhood obesity and malnutrition, trying to revamp school lunches. In 2010, he launched a campaign to "save the health of America's next generation."

You can sign his petition here—his goal is one million signatures, and he has less than one quarter million to go. I also encourage you to watch Jamie's passionate, entertaining, and award-winning TED speech about food and childhood obesity.

An Argument For KEEPING Agricultural Subsidies

Mark Brittman of the New York Times wrote an interesting commentary in March of 2011 about fixing agricultural subsidies, as opposed to nixing them. He argues that reformed subsidies can be used to move us forward toward economic—and nutritional—recovery. He writes:

"Imagine support designed to encourage a resurgence of small- and medium-size farms producing not corn syrup and animal-feed but food we can touch, see, buy and eat — like apples and carrots — while diminishing handouts to agribusiness and its political cronies… Farm subsidies were created in an attempt to ameliorate the effects of the Great Depression, which makes it ironic that in an era when more Americans are suffering financially than at any time since, these subsidies are mostly going to those who need them least."

Brittman argues that subsidy money, which is already IN the budget, could be redirected toward leveling the playing field and helping smaller farmers to compete in the marketplace. The money could be redirected, for example, in the following ways:

• Funding research and innovation in sustainable agriculture
• Providing incentives to attract new farmers
• Saving farmland from development
• Assisting farmers who grow currently unsubsidized fruits and vegetables, while providing incentives for monoculture commodity farmers (corn, soy, wheat, rice) to convert some of their operations to more desirable foods
• Leveling the playing field so that medium sized farms can more favorably compete with agribusiness as suppliers for local supermarkets

If we're going to subsidize, let's subsidize in a way that helps restore the health of our citizens and our land—programs that might just pay for themselves by the reduction in healthcare costs they bring about. But these changes are not going to be an easy hill to climb, given the pressures to maintain the status quo. If you're curious about which farms and commodities are subsidized in your state, you can visit the Environmental Working Group's 2011 Farm Subsidy Database, which breaks down subsidies by category and by region.

The Secret Farm Bill of 2011

A 2011 farm bill designed to create a new handout that would guarantee income to the biggest farmers—despite their near-record profits—thankfully died, for the time being. EWG called it the "Secret Farm Bill" of 2011. Big agribusiness and their powerful Congressional allies tried to slip the bill into law through the top-secret Super Committee process without justification, open debate, or a single vote. Although the 2011 bill imploded under pressure from concerned representatives and a feeding frenzy of lobbyists, there is sure to be "episode two" of the saga in 2012.

According to US PIRG, Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona has introduced a bill for 2012 that would reform the worst of the agricultural subsidies—cutting $28 billion over the next 10 years.

If you don't like the idea of your tax dollars lining the pockets of wealthy corporations that flood the market with sugary sodas and corn chips, now is the time to speak up, as Congress is preparing to vote on the legislation that perpetuates this system. US PIRG provides a handy link on their website to help you send a letter to your state representatives.

But remember, you can also voice your opinion every day by voting with your checkbook. Support small family farms in your area. Even if it means buying just one or two items at your local farmers market, instead of the big box store, those little purchases add up.

Return to a diet of real, whole foods—fresh organic produce, meats from animals raised sustainably on pasture, without cruelty, and raw organic milk and eggs. Say no to junk food producers by not buying it. Eating this way will earn you a long, healthy life—whereas the typical American diet may set you on the path toward a triple bypass.

References

• Environmental Working Group 2011 Farm Subsidy Database
• Rand Corporation 2001 and 2002
• Huffington Post April 21, 2011
• Chef Ann Cooper's National Food Challenge
• Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
• New York Times March 1, 2011
• Environmental Working Group December 20, 2011

• CBS News December 27, 2011

• California PIRG

• U.S. PIRG Stop Subsidizing Obesity

• OpenSecrets.org

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Dying from a broken heart may seem more like a scene from a Shakespearean drama than reality, but extreme grief really can "break" your heart.

In the days after losing someone close to you, your risk of suffering from a heart attack goes through the roof -- increasing by up to 21 times!

If You Lose a Loved One, You're at Serious Risk of Having a Heart Attack

It's well known that psychological stress exacts a great physical toll on your health, but new research reveals just how extreme that toll can be.

In comparing how grief affects your heart disease risk within a period of time, researchers found that losing a significant person in your life raises your risk of having a heart attack the next day by 21 times, and in the following week by 6 times. 

The risk of heart attacks began to decline after about a month had passed, perhaps as levels of stress hormones begin to level out.

The study did not get into the causes of the abrupt increase in risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack, but it's likely related to the flood of stress hormones your body is exposed to following extreme stress.

For instance, adrenaline increases your blood pressure and your heart rate, and it's been suggested it may lead to narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to your heart, or even bind directly to heart cells allowing large amounts of calcium to enter and render the cells temporarily unable to function properly.

Interestingly, while your risk of heart attack increases following severe stress, so does your risk of what's known as stress cardiomyopathy -- or "broken heart syndrome" -- which is basically a "temporary" heart attack that occurs due to stress.

Did Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno Die from a "Broken Heart"?

Joe Paterno, the beloved former head football coach at Penn State University, died just 74 days after he was fired from his position in the wake of a sex abuse scandal. It was last November that child sex allegations were brought up against Jerry Sandusky, Paterno's assistant at Penn State, and many blamed Paterno for not doing more to protect the boys.

Paterno had been quoted as saying the incident was "one of the great sorrows in my life," and noted he was "absolutely devastated" by the allegations against Sandusky. This undoubtedly placed great stress on Paterno, and in combination with also losing his position at Penn State, may very well have contributed to his demise.

While it's officially said that Paterno died from complications from lung cancer, stress, grief and a broken heart would be hard to rule out as contributing factors.

Broken Heart Syndrome Often Mimics a Heart Attack

The symptoms of stress cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome are very similar to those of a typical heart attack -- chest pain, shortness of breath, low blood pressure and even congestive heart failure can occur. There are some important differences, however.

In broken heart syndrome, the symptoms occur shortly after an extremely stressful event, such as a death in the family, serious financial loss, extreme anger, domestic abuse, a serious medical diagnosis, or a car accident or other trauma. This stress and the subsequent release of stress hormones are thought to "stun" or "shock" the heart, leading to sudden heart muscle weakness.

This condition can be life-threatening and requires immediate medical attention, however it is often a temporary condition that leaves no permanent damage. In most cases a typical heart attack occurs due to blockages in the coronary arteries that stop blood flow and cause heart cells to die, leading to irreversible damage. But people with broken heart syndrome often have normal arteries without significant blockages. The symptoms occur due to the emotional stress, so when the stress begins to die down, the heart is able to recover.

Stress Impacts Far More than Your Heart...

The fact is, you can't separate your health from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some part of your body. And stress can wreak havoc even if you're doing everything else "right."

Extreme, sudden stress like the examples noted above can obviously have near-immediate impacts on your health, but so can lingering everyday stressors that we all juggle, particularly when they're not dealt with over time. This causes your body to remain in "fight or flight" mode for far too long -- much longer than was ever intended from a biological standpoint.

One of the most common consequences of this scenario is that your adrenal glands, faced with excessive stress and burden, become overworked and fatigued. This can lead to a number of related health conditions, including fatigue, autoimmune disorders, skin problems and more. Stress has also been linked to cancer by acting as a pathway between cancerous mutations, potentially triggering the growth of tumors. In fact, stress, and by proxy your emotional health, is a leading factor in virtually any disease or illness you can think of.

Are There Any Proven Ways to Deal With Grief?

Getting back to the original study, the grief experienced following the loss of a loved one is easily one of the most devastating experiences a person can face. So what can you do to get through it?

Generally speaking, the emotional intensity of feelings of grief will recede over time, but the grieving process itself will be unique to you. You might feel denial and anger, but you might not. You might feel depressed or a yearning for your loved one, or you might not. It's important to open your mind to the notion that whatever you feel during your grieving process is OK, and likely exactly what you need.

While grief can feel insurmountable and become understandably all-consuming, take comfort in the fact that virtually everyone is able to move past the dark feelings. Typically within six months, you'll begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

During the grieving process, be gentle with yourself and take steps to support positive mental health. Exercise is very helpful for this aspect. Other common stress reduction tools with a high success rate include prayer, meditation and yoga. The Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, is another option; it's a psychological acupressure technique, one I highly recommend to manage stress and optimize your emotional health.

Also, please remember that both your mind and mood are significantly affected by your diet, so don't dismiss that part. While it may not be a miracle cure in and of itself, it can be extremely difficult to achieve sound mental health without the proper foundation of a sound diet and exercise plan.

Sound sleep is another critical issue. You can have the best diet and exercise program possible but if you aren't sleeping well your mental health can suffer and it is difficult to make healing progress. You can find 33 tips to help improve your sleep habits here.

Remember, left untended, emotional trauma like losing a loved one can lead to serious health problems down the road -- anything from heart attacks to depression and cancer is possible. If you've been dealing with debilitating feelings of grief that last for a year or more, professional help, including counseling or working with an EFT professional, may be warranted.

As an aside, many of these same tips, particularly my nutrition plan for proper diet along with regular exercise and attention to reducing emotional stress will drastically lower your heart disease and heart attack risk from any cause, so it's wise to implement them into your lifestyle whether you're experiencing grief or not.

One final tip... low levels of vitamin D in your blood have long been correlated with higher risk of heart disease and heart attacks, as well as problems with emotional health, such as depression. So I recommend you optimize your vitamin D levels for the sake of both your heart health and your emotional health.

• Time Magazine January 10, 2012

• Circulation January 24, 2012; 125(3):491-6

  New Ways to Think About Grief

  Having Sex Twice A Week Reduces Chance of Heart Attack by Half

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By Dr. Mercola

A new study from the Netherlands has aroused a great deal of interest, especially as it comes immediately in the wake of an ill-conceived Danish tax that unfairly targets saturated fats.

The study found that dietary intake of saturated fatty acids is associated with a modest increase in serum total cholesterol -- but not with cardiovascular disease.

However, replacing dietary saturated fats with carbohydrates is associated with an increase in cardiovascular disease risk.

Let me repeat that:

Replacing saturated fats in your diet, like those from healthy grass-fed beef, raw organic butter, and other high-quality animal foods, with carbohydrates like bread, bagels, pasta, rice and doughnuts will increase your risk of heart disease.

Saturated Fats Are GOOD for You

I can't stress this point enough, as I realize it may take some of you reading this by surprise.

Unfortunately, this is the result of misguided and downright incorrect information that has been widely circulated from public health agencies, as well as further "cemented" in people's minds with the introduction of saturated fat replacements like trans fats and vegetable oil, which are far worse for your health.

Consider this: most would agree that human breast milk is likely the ideal human food for infants and their developing bodies. Breast milk contains 54 percent saturated fat. This is not a mistake; it's there in such high quantities because it plays a crucial role in your body's development and day-to-day functioning, even as an adult. In fact, your body cannot function without saturated fats! Saturated fats are needed for the proper function of your:

As this latest study shows, you eliminate saturated fats from your diet at your own peril, as doing so will actually increase, not decrease, your risk of heart disease, particularly if you replace them with carbohydrates, which are the true dietary villain you need to be avoiding.

The Truth About Saturated Fats and Heart Disease

Do you long for a meal of a butter-drenched, rare steak but pass it up because you equate it with a "heart attack on a plate"? Well, I have good news for you, and that is you can enjoy a rare-cooked, butter-drenched steak without guilt, assuming it is grass-fed steak and raw organic butter -- it's good for you!

Heart disease is so common today, it's hard for people to remember that a mere 100 years ago this disease was really uncommon. Today, a number of indigenous tribes around the world are living proof that a high-saturated-fat diet equates to low mortality from heart disease. These include:

So why, then, does the most recent food chart issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in December of 2010 recommend reducing your saturated fat intake to a mere 7 percent of caloric intake -- down from its previously recommended 10 percent?

The demonization of saturated fat began in 1953, when Dr. Ancel Keys published a paper comparing saturated fat intake and heart disease mortality. His theory turned out to be flimsy, to say the least, but the misguided ousting of saturated fat has continued unabated ever since.

Keys based his theory on a study of seven countries, in which higher saturated fat intake equated to higher rates of heart disease. However, he conveniently ignored data from 16 other countries that did not fit his theory. Had he chosen a different set of countries, the data would have shown that increasing the percent of calories from fat reduces the number of deaths from coronary heart disease.

When you include all 22 countries for which data was available at the time of his study, you find that those who consume the highest percentage of saturated fat have the lowest risk of heart disease.

The nutrition community of that time completely accepted Keys' hypothesis, and encouraged the public to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs, dairy and other "artery clogging" fats from their diets -- a radical change at that time that is still very much in force today. Most of the experts I know believe that Dr. Keys' research was pivotal for perpetuating the flawed low-fat approach to health. This is a major part of the solid science you will need to know if anyone seeks to disagree with you when you share this information; this study is really the foundation that triggered the massive emphasis on low-fat diets and the flawed belief that cholesterol and animal fats are so pernicious.

The Latest Research Proves Saturated Fats are Not Your Enemy

Fortunately, the truth is finally starting to come out, as medical scientists have begun to seriously question Keys' findings. Research is now pouring in that the conventional dogma demonizing saturated fats is simply wrong:

• A meta-analysis published last year, which pooled data from 21 studies and included nearly 348,000 adults, found no difference in the risks of heart disease and stroke between people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.
• A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a reduction in saturated fat intake must be evaluated in the context of replacement by other macronutrients, such as carbohydrates. 
  
  When you replace saturated fat with a higher carbohydrate intake, particularly refined carbohydrate, you exacerbate insulin resistance and obesity, increase triglycerides and small LDL particles, and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol. The authors state that dietary efforts to improve your cardiovascular disease risk should primarily emphasize the limitation of refined carbohydrate intake, and weight reduction.

Several other key studies used to support the demonization of saturated fats have also been debunked in recent years, even though the media has not been picking up on this. For instance, take the Framingham Heart Study, which is often cited as proof of the lipid hypothesis (the idea that saturated fat causes high cholesterol and heart disease). This study began in 1948 and involved some 6,000 people from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts who filled out detailed questionnaires about their lifestyle habits and diets. The study is credited with identifying heart disease risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and high cholesterol.

The cholesterol link was weak, as researchers noted those who weighed more and had abnormally high blood cholesterol levels were slightly more at risk for future heart disease, but widely publicized. What you don't hear about is the fact that the more cholesterol and saturated fat people ate, the lower their cholesterol levels.

In a 1992 editorial published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. William Castelli, a former director of the Framingham Heart study, stated:

"In Framingham, Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol. The opposite of what… Keys et al would predict…We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active."

Other studies often used to justify a low-fat diet, including The U.S. Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) and the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (LRC-CPPT), are also misleading examples that used omissions of key data and statistical lies to "prove" their points. You can read the full details of these flawed studies here.

Carbs are the Real Public Health Enemy: Top Two Dietary Truths Revealed

It's frustrating, to say the least, that the U.S. dietary guidelines have long advised Americans to fill their plates with grains while limiting saturated fats, as this is the opposite of what most people need to stay healthy.

Most studies that have linked the so-called "Western diet" to an increased heart disease risk simply confirm that sugar and refined carbohydrates are harmful to your heart health. Because although the Western diet is high in red and processed meats and saturated fats, it's also alarmingly high in sugar and refined carbs like bread and pasta. And, as concluded in the latest study, when you reduce saturated fat and increase refined carbohydrates, you end up promoting heart disease, not to mention obesity and diabetes.

Gary Taubes has done an excellent job of explaining the connection between carbs and obesity and its related health issues in his book Why We Get Fat: and What to do About It. I believe there are two primary dietary recommendations that could make all the difference in the world for most people, leading to a swift reversal in the horrific disease trends we're currently facing:

1. Severely restrict carbohydrates (sugars, fructose, and grains) in your diet
2. Increase healthy fat consumption (saturated fats, omega-3 fats, monounsaturated fats)

I recently wrote about this recommendation in-depth, so for more details please see This Substance Fools Your Metabolism - and Tricks Your Body into Gaining Pounds. If you want to shed excess pounds and maintain a healthy weight long-term, and RADICALLY reduce (and in many cases virtually eliminate) your risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer, then get serious about restricting your consumption of fructose to no more than 25 grams per day, with a maximum of 15 grams a day from fresh fruit.

If you're already overweight, or have any of these diseases or are at high risk of any of them, then you're probably better off cutting that down to 10-15 grams per day, fruit included.

That's the first step. My nutrition plan lays out the rest in a simple to follow, step-by-step manner. In a nutshell, eating saturated fats will not increase your risk of heart disease … but excess carbohydrates will.

• Conditioning Research October 18, 2011

• The Netherlands Journal of Medicine September 2011; 69(9):372-8

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