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| I'm ba-ack!!! |
| 09.01.04 (9:39 am) [edit] |
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Hello all!
Well, it has been a busy summer for me and will be a busy fall yet as we get ready to put our house on the market. Very excited about moving!!!
Just wanted to post that I will be back at finding and posting information that is related to real health and what true health really is, and the the false information that we are led to believe. Can't wait to keep you posted on the truth, instead of the lies we are fed.
Hope your summer was fantastic!
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| returning in the fall! |
| 07.24.04 (7:13 am) [edit] |
Just wanted to make a quick post here to say that it may be a few weeks before I get back into posting or maybe even six weeks or more. With getting renovations done and my book done, and with company coming throughout the summer etc. I just don't have the time to find the information to keep posting for now.
I will resume posting this information come closer to fall! :)
[b]So have a great summer all!!![/b]
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| skin problems! |
| 07.10.04 (5:22 pm) [edit] |
All skin problems, such as eczema, acne, pimples, dry skin, dandruff, and psoriasis, are a result of the body not being able to eliminate toxins through other channels of elimination. And as a result these toxins must leave your body through your skin.
Skin problems are a sure sign that the body needs to go through detoxification. Skin problems are also a sign of intestinal toxemia, so cleansing the bowel is very important in restoration of the skin.
The body needs many things in order to remain healthy, including; rest, exercise, fresh air, clean water, sunshine, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and essential oils. The enzymes, vitamins and minerals must be in a whole food form though and not ISOLATES.
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| Re: [1] Mass measles vaccination may not be wise move. [2] LIVE VIRUS DISCOVERED IN RABIES VACCINE |
| 06.29.04 (7:33 am) [edit] |
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/4/9/nation /7728525&sec=nation
The Star, Malaysia
April 9, 2004
[b]CAP: Mass measles vaccination may not be wise move[/b]
KUALA LUMPUR: The Consumers Association of Penang has urged the Health Ministry to conduct a proper evaluation before carrying out mass measles
vaccination to immunise 4.5 million children nationwide.
CAP president S.M. Mohd Idris claimed in a statement that the ministry had made the decision based merely on the fact that it expected an outbreak of
the disease in 2005 or 2006.
He was commenting on a recent ministry announcement that it aimed to immunise children aged between seven and 15 against measles through its National Measles Immunisation Campaign.
The immunisation programme will be carried out in schools by a health team. Mohd Idris said the plan was to use a combination vaccine against three diseases, namely mumps, measles and rubella (German measles), or what is better known as MMR vaccine.
He said that studies overseas had shown that measles continued to occur even in children who had been fully vaccinated.
Previously, he said, those who contacted measles were usually below the age of 10, but now, following years of vaccinations, more adults were being infected.
He also pointed out that soon after the measles vaccine was in use, a new problem arose where children were contracting a condition known as atypical
measles, a more serious form of measles that may not respond to treatment.
"Many children already receive a dose of MMR vaccine when they are around one year old, with a booster a few years later.
"The health authorities have informed one parent that, although her child has received her booster jab the year before, the vaccination under this programme is still necessary.
"Is there any guarantee that there will be no adverse effects on the child following these repeated jabs?"
Mohd Idris called on the Health Ministry to put the measles immunisation plan on hold pending a proper review, as "there is much evidence against the
need for mass vaccinations as much as there is for them." - Bernama
[b]LIVE VIRUS DISCOVERED IN RABIES VACCINE[/b]
ORLANDO SENTINEL
Posted April 8, 2004
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/science/o rl-asecrabies08040804apr" title="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/science/o rl-asecrabies08040804apr" target="_blank"http://www.orlandosentinel.co...
08,1,7905843.story?coll=orl-home-headl ines
[b]LIVE VIRUS DISCOVERED IN RABIES VACCINE[/b]
By Daniel Yee | The Associated Press
ATLANTA -- A rabies vaccine for humans is being recalled in the United States and 23 other countries because a live strain of the virus was found
in another batch made at the same time.
Testing of Aventis Pasteur's IMOVAX vaccine revealed the presence of a live Pittman-Moore strain of the rabies virus, when the drug was not supposed to contain live virus, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
While the tested lot of the vaccine was never distributed for public use, Aventis recalled four other lots in the United States because they were made during the same time as the faulty lot. The CDC said those lots had all
passed quality tests.
The CDC said it was theoretically possible but unlikely that anyone who received rabies shots from the recalled lots could have been exposed to the live form of the virus.
As a result, the CDC has recommended that people who have taken recalled rabies shots receive additional shots of the vaccine that have not been recalled.
The recalled lots, X0667-2, X0667-3, W1419-2 and W1419-3, were distributed between Sept. 23 and Friday, company officials said.
Twenty-one other lots were being recalled in 23 other countries, according to information from the vaccine manufacturer posted Wednesday on a Web site
for infectious-disease doctors. The lots recalled overseas also passed quality tests, the CDC said.
There is no scientific data on the effect of exposure to the Pittman-Moore rabies virus, which differs from the wild rabies virus, but according to anecdotal accounts lab workers exposed to it "never had any adverse
consequences," said Len Lavenda, a spokesman at the company's offices in Swiftwater, Pa.
A vaccine expert said Aventis did not have to recall the lots because they had been tested and did not carry the live virus.
"This really was an excess of caution and a very elaborately cautious response," said Dr. William Schaffner, head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He called it "exceedingly
responsible."
The other countries affected by the recall were: Angola, Australia, Botswana, Croatia, Denmark, Chad, Germany, Hong Kong (China), Ireland, Italy, Malawi, Mozambique, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Nigeria, Oman, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
NVIC's Barbara Loe Fisher Note:
Despite government and industry assurances that no lots of rabies vaccine contaminated with live rabies virus were released for public use, it is interesting that government and industry are urging those who got vaccine from the lots in question be immediately revaccinated.
Getting a series of rabies shots is not risk-free. The fact that revaccination is being urged calls into question whether there is more than a theoretical possibility lots of rabies vaccine containing live virus were indeed released in the US and around the world.
For more information on this story, go to the CDC website:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Qu es&Ans/q&a_vaccine_recall .htm" title="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Qu es&Ans/q&a_vaccine_recall .htm" target="_blank"http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvr...
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| Online Journal! |
| 06.22.04 (7:40 am) [edit] |
:D Good day!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I have started a daily online raw journal. Come follow me as I share with you the wonder of living a life on raw and living foods!
http://rawesome.com/boards/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=131&s=00 8a829a081716de01a73738b2b fa751" title="http://rawesome.com/boards/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=131&s=00 8a829a081716de01a73738b2b fa751" target="_blank"http://rawesome.com/boards/in... to my raw journal
Have a totally RAWESOME day!
Amanda
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| Microwaved veg 'loses nutrients' |
| 06.14.04 (8:31 am) [edit] |
[b]Vegetables cooked in the microwave may lose ingredients that could help fight cancer. [/b]
Broccoli "zapped" in the microwave with a little water lost up to 97% of some of the antioxidant chemicals it contains, say Portuguese researchers.
By comparison, steamed broccoli lost 11% or fewer of its antioxidants.
Writing in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, experts said that many nutrients simply dissolved away during the cooking process.
The researchers examined the levels of three major antioxidant groups in broccoli after cooking.
These chemicals are thought to protect cells against damage which could in theory increase the change of cancerous changes.
Washed out
Microwaved broccoli lost between 97% and 74% of the three compounds.
One antioxidant was not removed at all during steaming .
Dr Cristina Garcia-Viguera, from the University of Porto in Portugal, said: "Most of the bioactive compounds are water soluble - during heating they leach in a high percentage to the cooking water, reducing their nutritional benefits in the foodstuff.
"Because of this it is recommended to cook vegetables in the minimum amount of water in order to retain their nutritional benefits."
Separate research from Finnish researchers suggested many antioxidants are removed before the produce even left the supermarket shelf.
Blanching of vegetables - momentarily dipping them in boiling liquid - prior to freezing caused losses of up to a third of their antioxidant content.
Dr Anne Nugent, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, said it was the presence of water rather than the cooking process in itself which was the problem.
She said: "It is not the microwaving per se that is causing the antioxidant loss but the presence of water, and boiling.
"In other words, the antioxidants would also be lost upon boiling rather than steaming.
"I think the important thing to take from this article is that when boiling or microwaving broccoli, it is important not to over-cook or over-boil it as this will result in excess antioxidant loss. "
Steaming is a good option - however, there will always be losses of vitamins and antioxidants during the storage and processing of all fruits and vegetables, so it is also important to store the broccoli in a dark airy cupboard rather than in direct sunlight as this will help protect the antioxidants."
link to this article! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/he...
Just a little bit of information to maybe help you make a healthier choice! :D
Have a great day!
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| Low-Carb Diets: New Concerns about Cholesterol and Regained Weight |
| 06.07.04 (7:01 am) [edit] |
[b]Low-Carb Diets: New Concerns about Cholesterol and Regained Weight[/b]
posted 05/18/04
Tomorrow’s Annals of Internal Medicine contains two reports that raise more cautions about low-carbohydrate diets. The first, conducted at Duke University, showed that LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels rose in 30 percent of low-carbohydrate dieters. The second, conducted at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, showed that weight lost during low-carbohydrate dieting started to return after six months.
Normally, weight loss causes cholesterol levels to fall. However, some low-carbohydrate dieters have experienced the opposite effect—significant increases of cholesterol levels. In the Duke University study, LDL rose only slightly (and nonsignificantly) for the group overall. However, some participants had marked LDL increases. Two dropped out because of high LDL cholesterol levels: One had an LDL increase from 182 mg/dl to 219 mg/dl in four weeks; the second had an increase from 184 mg/dl to 283 mg/dl in three months. (Normal levels are < 100 mg/dl, and some experts call for lower limits.) A third participant developed chest pain and was subsequently diagnosed with coronary heart disease. In all, 45 people followed the low-carbohydrate diet for 6 months. But 30% of them had an LDL cholesterol increase of more than 10%. >
In the Philadelphia VA study, low-carbohydrate dieters lost substantial amounts of weight over the first six months. But after that point, the average weight began to climb so that weight loss after one year (11.2 pounds) was not significantly better than that seen with comparison diets. Two study participants died, one from hyperosmolar coma five months into the study, and the second from severe ischemic cardiomyopathy ten months into the study.
Here are the references:
Yancy WS, Olsen MK, Guyton JR, Bakst RP, Westman EC. A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia. Ann Int Med 2004;140:769-777.
Stern L, Iqbal N, Seshadri P, et al. The effects of low-carbohdrate versus conventional weight loss diets in severely obese adults: one-year follow-up of a randomized trial. Ann Int Med 2004;140:778-85.
Subscribe to PCRM's Breaking Medical News.
Breaking Medical News is a service of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 5100 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20016, 202-686-2210. Join PCRM and receive the quarterly magazine, Good Medicine.
link to this article! http://www.pcrm.org/news/arch...
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| Human Mad Cow Disease Could Be Wider-UK Scientists |
| 06.01.04 (5:31 am) [edit] |
[b]Human Mad Cow Disease Could Be Wider-UK Scientists[/b]
Fri May 21, 2004
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Just as concerns were abating, research published on Friday suggests that the human form of mad cow disease in Britain could be more widespread than thought.
Scientists have estimated that 3,800 people in Britain could be unwittingly carrying the prion protein responsible for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (news - web sites) (vCJD), a fatal brain-wasting condition.
"Our findings need to be interpreted with caution, but cannot be discounted," said David Hilton, of Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, and lead author of the report published in The Journal of Pathology.
Hilton and scientists from the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland and Imperial College in London studied 12,674 stored appendix and tonsil samples removed during routine operations in the late 1990s from people in their 20s. Three showed evidence of prion protein accumulation associated with vCJD.
Based on their findings, they came up with the 3,800 figure.
"There is still much to learn about vCJD and the presence of the protein in these tissue samples does not necessarily mean that those affected will go on to develop vCJD," Hilton added.
The scientists stressed that only one of the three positive samples showed a pattern of the prion accumulation similar to that seen in known vCJD cases. The other two were different so their significance is uncertain.
Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, of Imperial College in London, said the figures are not in the alarmist range but warrant further investigation to get to more accurate answers.
"They scream out at me that we still need better diagnostic tests," he said in an interview.
"It is a relatively unusual condition but every case is one more than you would want," he added.
Since vCJD was first detected and linked to eating meat contaminated with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), in the mid-1990s, 141 people have died of the illness, which is caused by prion brain proteins that transform themselves into infectious agents.
It is difficult for scientists to predict how may people may get the illness or when it will peak because of the long incubation period, which experts say can be from 10-20 years or longer, and genetic factors that could influence susceptibility to the illness.
Previous estimates have ranged from less than 100 to up to 50,000.
"Although the numbers of cases are currently in decline, the possibility of further rises cannot be excluded," the researchers said in the report.
They added that the findings reinforce the importance of safety measures to reduce the spread of vCJD through blood transfusions or surgical equipment.
Britain banned people who have had transfusions in the past two decades from donating blood after a report of what is thought to have been the world's first case of vCJD caused by a blood transfusion.
[LINE]
Just yet another reason to not eat meat!!!
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| Patient safety stats staggering |
| 05.27.04 (9:46 am) [edit] |
[b]Patient safety stats staggering[/b]
Up to 24,000 Canadians died due to error, says study
Sun May 23 2004
By Mia Rabson
WINNIPEG'S top health official says the public shouldn't panic over a new study that shows as many as 24,000 patients died in Canadian hospitals in 2000 after preventable medical mistakes.
The statistic -- which even health officials acknowledge is staggering -- is one of the key findings of the Canadian Adverse Events Study. It is the first national study estimating the number of medical mistakes made in Canadian hospitals every year.
Overall, the study estimates 185,000 adverse events occurred during the care of surgical and medical patients in 2000. Of that number, 70,000 -- or 38 per cent -- were deemed to have been preventable.
Dr. Brian Postl, CEO of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said he hopes the public doesn't overreact when it sees these numbers.
He noted it's important for the public to understand that while the numbers seem large, there are far more people who are treated in hospital each year without any mistakes or adverse events.
"If you look at the percentage of activities, which measure in the millions even in Manitoba, that actually have an impact that is adverse on the patient, it's very small," Postl said.
The study found that one in every 13 patients in Canadian hospitals suffered an adverse event while receiving medical care that resulted in death, disability or prolonged hospital stay. And 1.6 per cent of patients admitted to hospital in 2000 died following a preventable medical mistake. The study estimates that amounts to between 9,000 and 24,000 deaths.
"We're not trying to alarm you, but this is reality," said Dr. Ross Baker, the study's lead investigator.
"We're not trying to alarm you, but this is reality," said Dr. Ross Baker, the study's lead investigator. "And the reality is, over seven per cent of people admitted to Canadian hospitals are harmed because of hospital care."
Adverse events ranged from an abdominal aneurysm that was diagnosed as kidney stones (the patient died) to a missed but obvious case of uterine cancer to the unscheduled removal of ovaries in what was meant to be a partial hysterectomy.
Baker said the goal of the study was to draw attention to the problem and encourage the health system to improve it. He said by knowing the number and types of adverse events, hospital staff can develop better systems to prevent them.
He said one of the major problems associated with improving patient safety is the punitive consequences of making mistakes. Doctors and nurses worried they are going to be sued are not likely to admit their errors and learn from them, he said. The study was conducted by seven Canadian universities in conjunction with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Institute for Health Research. It examined 3,745 patient charts, randomly selected from 20 Canadian hospitals in five provinces from 2000. Manitoba was not one of the five.
Baker said it's important to note some of the patients who died following an adverse event died because they were sick, not because of a mistake. He said it is not possible to determine exactly who died solely because of the complications caused by a mistake.
Dr. Peter Norton, the study's other principal investigator, said there are a number of recommendations for hospitals and policy makers out of this study, including the need for investments of time and money into the area of patient safety.
"We want to emphasize that system changes -- the way the medical system works -- will be necessary to improve safety in hospitals," Norton said.
Specifically, Norton said evidence is clear that electronic medical records reduce medication errors.
"We would encourage policy makers, managers and care givers to consider that and enter into a debate about how we might accelerate the adoption of the electronic medical record across Canada," Norton said.
Similar studies of adverse events in the U.S., Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark showed Canada's adverse event rate was higher than in the United States, but on par with Britain and lower than the other three.
"Our system is as good or better than other systems that are comparable," Norton said.
Postl said the public has to understand that there will never be a time when no mistakes are made in hospitals. "The truth of the matter is a complex health-care system makes flying an airplane look like a picnic," Postl said.
He said he hopes this study will force the public to ratchet down its expectations of the system and of health providers, and recognize doctors and nurses are human beings, not robots.
[LINE]
[b]1 in 13 is affected [/b]
SOME facts from the Canadian adverse events study, published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal:
One in 13 people who go into hospital suffer an adverse event.
Based on 2.5 million admissions in 2000, that means 140,000 to 232,000 people experienced adverse events.
37 per cent of those were preventable.
Adverse events added an average of six days to a hospital stay.
One in five people who had an adverse event went on to die; nine per cent of the adverse events were categorized as highly preventable.
The most common types of adverse events related to surgeries, followed by drug- or fluid-related events.
One in 20 patients who had an adverse event -- or 9,250 people -- ended up with a permanent disability.
The mistake rate was the same for men and women, but the average age of patients experiencing an adverse event was higher than that of those who didn't.
-- Staff and Canadian Press
[LINE]
This information is from an article in the Winnipeg Free Press Dated May 23rd 2004.
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| Toxic Tampons Pose Health Risks |
| 05.22.04 (12:42 pm) [edit] |
[b]Toxic Tampons Pose Health Risks [/b]
by Sara Chamberlain
Earth Island Journal
An American woman uses as many as 11,000 tampons in her lifetime. Most tampons sold by companies such as Tampax, OB, Playtex and Kotex are made of rayon or rayon-cotton blends. Rayon, a woodpulp derivative commonly bleached with chlorine, contains dioxin, an organochlorine formed during the bleaching process.
Mounting evidence suggests that low levels of dioxin may be linked to cancer (especially breast cancer), immune system suppression and low sperm counts. A February 7 Village Voice article estimated that 73 million US women regularly risk dioxin exposure when they put bleached sanitary products in contact with highly absorbent mucous membranes.
In 1992, a congressional subcommittee discovered a March 1989 memo stating that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists had detected trace levels of dioxin in tampons.
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The memo warned that "the risk of dioxin in tampons can be quite high," and that "the most effective risk-management strategy would be to assure that tampons contain no dioxin." Subcommittee chair Ted Weiss accused the FDA of purposely ignoring the dioxin danger in tampons. A New York University School of Medicine study, published in the July 1994 issue of Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology, suggested that rayon also produces Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which cause toxic shock syndrome (TSS). When researchers tested 20 varieties of tampons for their ability to induce TSS toxins, the bacteria were detected in all US brands.
Despite the deaths of 38 women in 1980 from tampon-related TSS, the tampon industry continues to deny that there is a connection between TSS and rayon. A class- action lawsuit has been filed against Tambrands Inc., the makers of Tampax, and Playtex Family Product Corp. by Jeannie Harding and Sandra Hayes, two Kansas women who allege that they contracted TSS from the company's tampons. According to a May 31, 1994 Wall Street Journal article, the lawsuit "seeks to require manufacturers to adequately notify women of the alleged dangers of their products and to pay restitution, as well as establish a fund for long-term monitoring and treatment of the illness."
Fortunately, dioxin-free, 100-percent cotton tampons have been available to American women since September, 1993. Natracare, a British company, offers a full line of sanitary products, including panty-liners that contain woodpulp bleached with hydrogen peroxide (which has no negative impacts on human health or the environment).
In January, the California Assembly will consider a bill (A1963) to require the state Department of Health Services to determine if sanitary products contain dioxin residue. The bill would also require warning labels on all sanitary products found to contain dioxin residue. Tampon companies are currently not required to list the contents of their products on their packaging.
[b]What You Can Do:[/b]
A1963 is sponsored by Assemblywoman Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont): (916) 445-7874. For free educational material and ordering information, write Natracare at 191 University Blvd., Suite 294, Denver, CO 80206; natra@indra.com; (303) 320-1510
About the Author:
copyright 1995, Earth Island Journal.
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| More facts on the spraying crisis |
| 05.20.04 (6:59 am) [edit] |
[b]STATEN ISLAND FACT/ACTION SHEET 20001[/b]
[b]FACT:[/b] West Nile Virus is not the virulent plague as being portrayed in the press. West Nile has been declared a mild disease by the NYC Department of Health and by Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. It is also relevant that not one case of West Nile Virus has been detected on Staten Island.
[b]FACT:[/b] The seven people who were reported to have died from West Nile died after pesticide spraying began. In the absence of toxicological reports and even autopsy reports, there is no way of knowing to what degree the virus or pesticides exposure contributed to their deaths.
[b]FACT:[/b] Dr. Steven Davidson of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, reports that "this year's version of the flu is early and more severe . We are also seeing a lot more cases than last year." It is notable that the symptoms of pesticide poisoning mimic those of the flu, such as tiredness, weakness, dizziness, nausea, pain, blurred vision, etc.
[b]FACT:[/b] Many Staten Islanders were seriously affected by the blanket pesticide spraying that took place last Fall. The more than 1000 fish that turned up dead in Clove Lakes pond on Staten Island were definitively diagnosed by the Department of Environmental Conservation as having perished from pesticide spraying. It is extraordinarily negligent that no City agency was set up to record or document the many adverse medical effects on the population, their pets and our wildlife.
[b]FACT:[/b] Children absorb greater concentrations of pesticides per pound of body weight through inhalation, ingestion and contact with the skin. Children are at greatest risk because their blood brain barriers are not fully developed until the age of 15. The residues of spraying have been shown to stay for long periods in soil, grass and playground surfaces where children sit and play. In addition, small doses of neurotoxins can drastically impair learning in children.
[b]FACT:[/b] Aerial spraying is the least effective way to get rid of pests. It is not target efficient and it breeds super resilient insects. We should call upon experts that can advise on proven, alternate long-term procedures that call upon the cooperation of citizens and officials.
[b]FACT :[/b] The effect of pesticide exposure is cumulative and is contributing to the high incidence of cancer, asthma, and autoimmune diseases on Staten Island. Our borough already has a higher than normal burden of environmental toxins as a result of the Fresh Kills Landfill and from the petrochemical refineries in New Jersey. Enough is enough!
[b]FACT:[/b] Being sprayed upon with pesticides is extremely dangerous and can induce asthma attacks, respiratory failure, permanent neurological damage, and cardiac irregularities resulting in an instant heart attack. A second or continued exposure can cause the same or more violent reaction than the initial exposure. This dramatically intensifies our already high incidence of respiratory illness in this Borough.
[b]FACT:[/b] An alarming 45% of the population are most susceptible to chemical poisoning. That includes children, pregnant and nursing mothers, the elderly, those with cancer, HIV and compromised immune systems.
[b]FACT:[/b] Since the crop spraying of NYC neighborhoods last Fall, the Environmental Protection Agency has formally declared malathion a probable carcinogen. Five months after the spraying, air conditioner filters from Manhattan and Suffolk county were tested positive for the pesticides that were sprayed.
[b]FACT:[/b] Integrated Pest Management and public education can eradicate the problem. IPM has been used successfully in California and Oregon and includes monitoring and testing bird populations; the application of larvacidal oils, targeted bacteria, and Mosquitofish to mosquito breeding areas; among other strategies. Public education includes removing standing water in the vicinity; following the Cornell Cooperative with regard to lawn watering, etc.
[u][b]ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE[/b][/u]
1. Call each of the following representatives to demand a halt to all future spraying; to report any adverse effects from the spraying; and to request a public hearing on Staten Island to allow citizens to express their outrage and concern:
Borough President Guy Molinari (718) 816-2000 Councilmen: Jerome X. ODonovan (718) 727-9730; James Oddo (718) 980-1017; Stephen Fiala (718) 984-5151 State Senators John Marchi (718) 447-1723; Vincent J. Gentile (718) 491-2350 Senators Daniel Moynihan (212) 661-5150 and Chuck Schumer (212) 486-4430 Congressman Vito Fossella (718) 356-8400
2. For further information and action, contact Staten Island Citizens for Healthy Alternatives.. - Katherine Barbera (718) 273-5489 - Louis Blois (718) 981-2131 email: Blois@Prodigy.net
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| The Case Against Circumcision |
| 05.18.04 (6:09 pm) [edit] |
[b]The Case Against Circumcision [/b]
Issue 85, Winter 1997
By Paul M. Fleiss
Western countries have no tradition of circumcision. In antiquity, the expansion of the Greek and Roman Empires brought westerners into contact with the peoples of the Middle East, some of whom marked their children with circumcision and other sexual mutilations. To protect these children, the Greeks and Romans passed laws forbidding circumcision.1 Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has passed many similar laws.2,3 The traditional Western response to circumcision has been revulsion and indignation.
Circumcision started in America during the masturbation hysteria of the Victorian Era, when a few American doctors circumcised boys to punish them for masturbating. Victorian doctors knew very well that circumcision denudes, desensitizes, and disables the penis. Nevertheless, they were soon claiming that circumcision cured epilepsy, convulsions, paralysis, elephantiasis, tuberculosis, eczema, bed-wetting, hip-joint disease, fecal incontinence, rectal prolapse, wet dreams, hernia, headaches, nervousness, hysteria, poor eyesight, idiocy, mental retardation, and insanity.4
In fact, no procedure in the history of medicine has been claimed to cure and prevent more diseases than circumcision. As late as the 1970s, leading American medical textbooks still advocated routine circumcision as a way to prevent masturbation.5 The antisexual motivations behind an operation that entails cutting off part of the penis are obvious.
The radical practice of routinely circumcising babies did not begin until the Cold War era. This institutionalization of what amounted to compulsory circumcision was part of the same movement that pathologized and medicalized birth and actively discouraged breastfeeding. Private-sector, corporate-run hospitals institutionalized routine circumcision without ever consulting the American people. There was no public debate or referendum. It was only in the 1970s that a series of lawsuits forced hospitals to obtain parental consent to perform this contraindicated but highly profitable surgery. Circumcisers responded by inventing new "medical" reasons for circumcision in an attempt to scare parents into consenting.
Today the reasons given for circumcision have been updated to play on contemporary fears and anxieties; but one day they, too, will be considered irrational. Now that such current excuses as the claim that this procedure prevents cancer and sexually transmitted diseases have been thoroughly discredited, circumcisers will undoubtedly invent new ones. But if circumcisers were really motivated by purely medical considerations, the procedure would have died out long ago, along with leeching, skull-drilling, and castration. The fact that it has not suggests that the compulsion to circumcise came first, the "reasons," later.
Millions of years of evolution have fashioned the human body into a model of refinement, elegance, and efficiency, with every part having a function and purpose. Evolution has determined that mammals' genitals should be sheathed in a protective, responsive, multipurpose foreskin. Every normal human being is born with a foreskin. In females, it protects the glans of the clitoris; in males, it protects the glans of the penis. Thus, the foreskin is an essential part of human sexual anatomy
Parents should enjoy the arrival of a new child with as few worries as possible. The birth of a son in the US, however, is often fraught with anxiety and confusion. Most parents are pressured to hand their baby sons over to a stranger, who, behind closed doors, straps babies down and cuts their foreskins off. The billion-dollar-a-year circumcision industry has bombarded Americans with confusing rhetoric and calculated scare tactics.
Information about the foreskin itself is almost always missing from discussions about circumcision. The mass circumcision campaigns of the past few decades have resulted in pandemic ignorance about this remarkable structure and its versatile role in human sexuality. Ignorance and false information about the foreskin are the rule in American medical literature, education, and practice. Most American medical textbooks depict the human penis, without explanation, as circumcised, as if it were so by nature.
What Is the Foreskin?
The foreskin is a uniquely specialized, sensitive, functional organ of touch. No other part of the body serves the same purpose. As a modified extension of the penile shaft skin, the foreskin covers and usually extends beyond the glans before folding under itself and finding its circumferential point of attachment just behind the corona (the rim of the glans). The foreskin is, therefore, a double-layered organ. Its true length is twice the length of its external fold, comprising 80 percent or more of the penile skin covering,6 or at least 25 percent of the flaccid penis's length.7
The foreskin contains a rich concentration of blood vessels and nerve endings. It is lined with the peripenic muscle sheet, a smooth muscle layer with longitudinal fibers. These muscle fibers are whirled, forming a kind of sphincter that ensures optimum protection of the urinary tract from contaminants of all kinds.
Like the undersurface of the eyelids or the inside of the cheek, the undersurface of the foreskin consists of mucous membrane. It is divided into two distinct zones: the soft mucosa and the ridged mucosa. The soft mucosa lies against the glans penis and contains ectopic sebaceous glands that secrete emollients, lubricants, and protective antibodies. Similar glands are found in the eyelids and mouth.
Adjacent to the soft mucosa and just behind the lips of the foreskin is the ridged mucosa. This exquisitely sensitive structure consists of tightly pleated concentric bands, like the elastic bands at the top of a sock. These expandable pleats allow the foreskin lips to open and roll back, exposing the glans. The ridged mucosa gives the foreskin its characteristic taper.
On the underside of the glans, the foreskin's point of attachment is advanced toward the meatus (urethral opening) and forms a bandlike ligament called the frenulum. It is identical to the frenulum that secures the tongue to the floor of the mouth. The foreskin's frenulum holds it in place over the glans, and, in conjunction with the smooth muscle fibers, helps return the retracted foreskin to its usual forward position over the glans.
Retraction of the Foreskin
At birth, the foreskin is usually attached to the glans, very much as a fingernail is attached to a finger. By puberty, the penis will usually have completed its development, and the foreskin will have separated from the glans.8 This separation occurs in its own time; there is no set age by which the foreskin and glans must be separated. One wise doctor described the process thus, "The foreskin therefore can be likened to a rosebud which remains closed and muzzled. Like a rosebud, it will only blossom when the time is right. No one opens a rosebud to make it blossom."9
Even if the glans and foreskin separate naturally in infancy, the foreskin Ups can normally dilate only enough to allow the passage of urine. This ideal feature protects the glans from premature exposure to the external environment.
The penis develops naturally throughout childhood. Eventually, the child will, on his own, make the wondrous discovery that his foreskin will retract. There is no reason for parents, physicians, or other caregivers to manipulate a child's penis. The only person to retract a child's foreskin should be the child himself, when he has discovered that his foreskin is ready to retract.
Parents should be wary of anyone who tries to retract their child's foreskin, and especially wary of anyone who wants to cut it off. Human foreskins are in great demand for any number of commercial enterprises, and the marketing of purloined baby foreskins is a multimillion-dollar-a-yea r industry. Pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies use human foreskins as research material. Corporations such as Advanced Tissue Sciences, Organogenesis, and BioSurface Technology use human foreskins as the raw materials for a type of breathable bandage.10
What Are the Foreskin's Functions?
The foreskin has numerous protective, sensory, and sexual functions.
Protection: Just as the eyelids protect the eyes, the foreskin protects the glans and keeps its surface soft, moist, and sensitive. It also maintains optimal warmth, pH balance, and cleanliness. The glans itself contains no sebaceous glands -- glands that produce the sebum, or oil, that moisturizes our skin.11 The foreskin produces the sebum that maintains proper health the surface of the glans.
Immunological Defense: The mucous membranes that line all body orifices are the body's first line of immunological defense. Glands in the foreskin produce antibacterial and antiviral proteins such as lysozyme.12 Lysozyme is also found in tears and mother's milk. Specialized epithelial Langerhans cells, an immune system component, abound in the foreskin's outer surface.13 Plasma cells in the foreskin's mucosal lining secrete immunoglobulins, antibodies that defend against infection.14
Erogenous Sensitivity: The foreskin is as sensitive as the fingertips or the lips of the mouth. It contains a richer variety and greater concentration of specialized nerve receptors than any other part of the penis.15 These specialized nerve endings can discern motion, subtle changes in temperature, and fine gradations of texture.16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23
Coverage during Erection: As it becomes erect, the penile shaft becomes thicker and longer. The double-layered foreskin provides the skin necessary to accommodate the expanded organ and to allow the penile skin to glide freely, smoothly, and pleasurably over the shaft and glans.
Self-stimulating Sexual Functions: The foreskin's double-layered sheath enables the penile shaft skin to glide back and forth over the penile shaft. The foreskin can normally be slipped all the way, or almost all the way, back to the base of the penis, and also slipped forward beyond the glans. This wide range of motion is the mechanism by which the penis and the orgasmic triggers in the foreskin, frenulum, and glans are stimulated.
Sexual Functions in Intercourse: One of the foreskin's functions is to facilitate smooth, gentle movement between the mucosal surfaces of the two partners during intercourse. The foreskin enables the penis to slip in and out of the vagina nonabrasively inside its own slick sheath of self-lubricating, movable skin. The female is thus stimulated by moving pressure rather than by friction only, as when the male's foreskin is missing.
The foreskin fosters intimacy between the two partners by enveloping the glans and maintaining it as an internal organ. The sexual experience is enhanced when the foreskin slips back to allow the male's internal organ, the glans, to meet the female's internal organ, the cervix -- a moment of supreme intimacy and beauty.
The foreskin may have functions not yet recognized or understood. Scientists in Europe recently detected estrogen receptors in its basal epidermal cells.24 Researchers at the University of Manchester found that the human foreskin has apocrine glands.25 These specialized glands produce pheromones, nature's chemical messengers. Further studies are needed to fully understand these features of the foreskin and the role they play
Care of the Foreskin
The natural penis requires no special care. A child's foreskin, like his eyelids, is self-cleansing. For the same reason it is inadvisable to lift the eyelids and wash the eyeballs, it is inadvisable to retract a child's foreskin and wash the glans. Immersion in plain water during the bath is all that is needed to keep the intact penis clean.26
The white emollient under the child's foreskin is called smegma. Smegma is probably the most misunderstood, most unjustifiably maligned substance in nature. Smegma is clean, not dirty, and is beneficial and necessary. It moisturizes the glans and keeps it smooth, soft, and supple. Its antibacterial and antiviral properties keep the penis clean and healthy. All mammals produce smegma. Thomas J. Ritter, MD, underscored its importance when he commented, "The animal kingdom would probably cease to exist without smegma."27
Studies suggest that it is best not to use soap on the glans or foreskin's inner fold.28 Forcibly retracting and washing a baby's foreskin destroys the beneficial bacterial flora that protect the penis from harmful germs and can lead to irritation and infection. The best way to care for a child's intact penis is to leave it alone. After puberty, males can gently rinse their glans and foreskin with warm water, according to their own self-determined needs.
How Common Is Circumcision?
Circumcision is almost unheard of in Europe, South America, and non-muslim Asia. In fact, only 10 to 15 percent of men throughout the world are circumcised. The vast majority of whom are Muslim.29 The neonatal circumcision rate in the western US has now fallen to 34.2 percent.30 This relatively diminished rate may surprise American men born during the era when nearly 90 percent of baby boys were circumcised automatically, with or without their parents' consent.
How Does Circumcision Harm?
The "medical" debate about the "potential health benefits" of circumcision rarely addresses its real effects.
Circumcision denudes: Depending on the amount of skin cut off, circumcision robs a male of as much as 80 percent or more of his penile skin. Depending on the foreskin's length, cutting it off makes the penis as much as 25 percent or more shorter. Careful anatomical investigations have shown that circumcision cuts off more than 3 feet of veins, arteries, and capillaries, 240 feet of nerves, and more than 20,000 nerve endings.31 The foreskin's muscles, glands, mucous membrane, and epithelial tissue are destroyed, as well.
Circumcision desensitizes: Circumcision desensitizes the penis radically. Foreskin amputation means severing the rich nerve network and all the nerve receptors in the foreskin itself. Circumcision almost always damages or destroys the frenulum. The loss of the protective foreskin desensitizes the glans. Because the membrane covering the permanently externalized glans is now subjected to constant abrasion and irritation, it keratinizes, becoming dry and tough. The nerve endings in the glans, which in the intact penis are just beneath the surface of the mucous membrane, are now buried by successive layers of keratinization. The denuded glans takes on a dull, grayish, sclerotic appearance.
Circumcision disables: The amputation of so much penile skin permanently immobilizes whatever skin remains, preventing it from gliding freely over the shaft and glans. This loss of mobility destroys the mechanism by which the glans is normally stimulated. When the circumcised penis becomes erect, the immobilized remaining skin is stretched, sometimes so tightly that not enough skin is left to cover the erect shaft. Hair-bearing skin from the groin and scrotum is often pulled onto the shaft, where hair is not normally found. The surgically externalized mucous membrane of the glans has no sebaceous glands. Without the protection and emollients of the foreskin, it dries out, making it susceptible to cracking and bleeding.
Circumcision disfigures: Circumcision alters the appearance of the penis drastically. It permanently externalizes the glans, normally an internal organ. Circumcision leaves a large circumferential surgical scar on the penile shaft. Because circumcision usually necessitates tearing the foreskin from the glans, pieces of the glans may be torn off, too, leaving it pitted and scarred. Shreds of foreskin may adhere to the raw glans, forming tags and bridges of dangling, displaced skin.32
Depending on the amount of skin cut off and how the scar forms, the circumcised penis may be permanently twisted, or curve or bow during erection.33 The contraction of the scar tissue may pull the shaft into the abdomen, in effect shortening the penis or burying it completely.34
Circumcision disrupts circulation: Circumcision interrupts the normal circulation of blood throughout the penile skin system and glans. The blood flowing into major penile arteries is obstructed by the line of scar tissue at the point of incision, creating backflow instead of feeding the branches and capillary networks beyond the scar. Deprived of blood, the meatus may contract and scarify, obstructing the flow of urine.35 This condition, known as meatal stenosis, often requires corrective surgery. Meatal stenosis is found almost exclusively among boys who have been circumcised.
Circumcision also severs the lymph vessels, interrupting the circulation of lymph and sometimes causing lymphedema, a painful, disfiguring condition in which the remaining skin of the penis swells with trapped lymph fluid.
Circumcision harms the developing brain: Recent studies published in leading medical journals have reported that circumcision has long-lasting detrimental effects on the developing brain,36 adversely altering the brain's perception centers. Circumcised boys have a lower pain threshold than girls or intact boys.37 Developmental neuropsychologist Dr. James Prescott suggests that circumcision can cause deeper and more disturbing levels of neurological damage, as well.38,39
Circumcision is unhygienic and unhealthy: One of the most common myths about circumcision is that it makes the penis cleaner and easier to take care of This is not true. Eyes without eyelids would not be cleaner; neither would a penis without its foreskin. The artificially externalized glans and meatus of the circumcised penis are constantly exposed to abrasion and dirt, making the circumcised penis, in fact, more unclean. The loss of the protective foreskin leaves the urinary tract vulnerable to invasion by bacterial and viral pathogens.
The circumcision wound is larger than most people imagine. It is not just the circular point of union between the outer and inner layers of the remaining skin. Before a baby is circumcised, his foreskin must be torn from his glans, literally skinning it alive. This creates a large open area of raw, bleeding flesh, covered at best with a layer of undeveloped protomucosa. Germs can easily enter the damaged tissue and blood-stream through the raw glans and, even more easily, through the incision itself.
Even after the wound has healed, the externalized glans and meatus are still forced into constant unnatural contact with urine, feces, chemically treated diapers, and other contaminants.
Female partners of circumcised men do not report a lower rate of cervical cancer,40 nor does circumcision prevent penile cancer.41 A recent study shows that the penile cancer rate is higher in the US than in Denmark, where circumcision, except among Middle Eastern immigrant workers, is almost unheard of.42 Indeed, researchers should investigate the possibility that circumcision has actually increased the rate of these diseases.
Circumcision does not prevent acquisition or transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In fact, the US has both the highest percentage of sexually active circumcised males in the Western world and the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. Rigorously controlled prospective studies show that circumcised American men are at a greater risk for bacterial and viral STDs, especially gonorrhea,43 non-gonoccal urethritis,44 human papilloma virus,45 herpes simplex virus type 2,46 and chlamydia.47
Circumcision is always risky:Circumcision always carries the risk of serious, even tragic, consequences. Its surgical complication rate is one in 500.48 These complications include uncontrollable bleeding and fatal infections.49 There are many published case reports of gangrene following circumcision.50 Pathogenic bacteria such as staphylococcus, proteus, pseudomonas, other coliforms, and even tuberculosis can cause infections leading to death.51,52 These organisms enter the wound because it provides easy entry, not because the child is predisposed to infection.
Medical journals have published numerous accounts of babies who have had part or all of their glans cut off while they were being circumcised.53,54,55 Other fully conscious, unanesthetized babies have had their entire penis burned off with an electrocautery gun.56,57,58 The September 1989 Journal of Urology published an account of four such cases.59 The article described the sex-change operation as "feminizing genito-plasty," performed on these babies in an attempt to change them into girls. The March 1997 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine described one young person's horror on learning that "she" had been born a normal male, but that a circumciser had burned his penis off when he was a baby.60 Many other similar cases have been documented.61,62 Infant circumcision has a reported death rate of one in 500,000.63,64
Circumcision harms mothers: Scientific studies have consistently shown that circumcision disrupts a child's behavioral development. Studies performed at the University of Colorado School of Medicine showed that circumcision is followed by prolonged, unrestful non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.65 In response to the lengthy bombardment of their neural pathways with unbearable pain, the circumcised babies withdrew into a kind of semicoma that lasted days or even weeks.
Numerous other studies have proven that circumcision disrupts the mother-infant bond during the crucial period after birth. Research has also shown that circumcision disrupts feeding patterns. In a study at the Washington University School of Medicine, most babies would not nurse right after they were circumcised, and those who did would not look into their mothers' eyes.66
Circumcision violates patients' and human rights: No one has the right to cut off any part of someone else's genitals without that person's competent, fully informed consent. Since it is the infant who must bear the consequences, circumcision violates his legal rights both to refuse treatment and to seek alternative treatment. In 1995, the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics stated that only a competent patient can give patient consent or informed consent.67 an infant is obviously too young to consent to anything. He must be protected from anyone who would take advantage of his defenselessness. The concept of informed parental permission allows for medical interventions in situations of clear and immediate medical necessity only, such as disease, trauma, or deformity. The human penis in its normal, uncircumcised state satisfies none of these requirements.
Physicians have a duty to refuse to perform circumcision. They also must educate parents who, out of ignorance or misguidance, request this surgery for their sons. The healthcare professional's obligation is to protect the interests of the child. It is unethical in the extreme to force upon a child an amputation he almost certainly would never have chosen for himself.
Common Sense
To be intact, as nature intended, is best. The vast majority of males who are given the choice value their wholeness and keep their foreskins, for the same reason they keep their other organs of perception. Parents in Europe and non-Muslim Asia never have forced their boys to be circumcised. It would no more occur to them to cut off part of their boys' penises than it would to cut off part of their ears. Respecting a child's right to keep his genitals intact is normal and natural. It is conservative in the best sense of the word.
A circumcised father who has mixed feelings about his intact newborn son may require gentle, compassionate psychological counseling to help him come to terms with his loss and to overcome his anxieties about normal male genitalia. In such cases, the mother should steadfastly protect her child, inviting her husband to share this protective role and helping him diffuse his negative feelings. Most parents want what is best for their baby. Wise parents listen to their hearts and trust their instinct to protect their baby from harm. The experience of the ages has shown that babies thrive best in a trusting atmosphere of love, gentleness, respect, acceptance, nurturing, and intimacy. Cutting off a baby's foreskin shatters this trust.
Circumcision wounds and harms the baby and the person the baby will become. Parents who respect their son's wholeness are bequeathing to him his birthright -- his body, perfect and beautiful in its entirety.
for further information and notes from this article, visit this link http://www.mothering.com/10-0...
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| WHAT SYMPTOMS TO EXPECT WHEN YOU IMPROVE YOUR DIET |
| 05.14.04 (7:51 am) [edit] |
[b]WHAT SYMPTOMS TO EXPECT WHEN YOU IMPROVE YOUR DIET[/b]
Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding in the field of nutrition is the failure to understand and interpret the symptoms and changes which follow the beginning of a better nutritional program. A remarkable thing happens when a person improves the quality of the food he consumes. When the food you ingest is of a higher quality than the tissues from which the body is made, the body discards the lower quality tissues, to make room for the higher quality materials to make healthier tissue.
During this process of regeneration, lasting about 10 days to several weeks, the emphasis is on breaking down and eliminating lower quality tissue. The vibrant energy often found in the external parts of the body, the muscles and skin, moves to vital internal organs and starts reconstruction. This movement of energy produces a feeling of less energy in the muscles, which the mind interprets as weakness. At this time, more rest and sleep is often needed, and it's imperative to avoid stimulants of any kind which will abort and defeat the regenerative process. Remember, the body isn't getting weaker, it's simply using it's energies in more important internal work rather than external work involving muscle movements. With patience and diligence, a person will soon feel more energy than before.
By ingesting higher quality foods, the body begins a process called "retracing". The initial focus is on eliminating waste and toxins deposited in the tissues. However, the process creates symptoms that are often misinterpreted. For example, a person who stops consuming coffee or chocolate may experience headaches and a general letdown. The body begins discarding toxins (caffeine or theobromin) by removing them from the tissues and transporting them through the bloodstream. However, before toxins are passed, through elimination, they register in our consciousness as pain, in other words, a headache. These same toxins also stimulate the heart to beat more rapidly, thus producing the feeling of exhilaration. The letdown is due to the slower action of the heart which produces a depressed mind state.
The symptoms experienced during "retracing" are part of the healing process! They are not deficiencies. Do not treat them with stimulants or drugs. These symptoms are constructive, even though unpleasant at the moment. Don't try to cure the cure. The symptoms will vary according to the materials being discarded, the condition of the organs involved in the elimination, and the amount of available energy.
They can include:
headaches, fever/chills, colds, skin eruptions, constipation/diarrhea, frequent urination, fatigue/sluggishness, nervousness, irritability, depression.
The symptoms will be milder and pass more quickly if one gets more rest and sleep. Understand that the body becomes healthier by eliminating wastes and toxins. Had they remained trapped in the tissues, eventually they would have brought illness and disease, thus causing greater pain and suffering. "The body is becoming healthier by eliminating toxins"
Finally, don't expect to improve your diet and feel better and better every day, until you reach perfection.
The body is cyclical in nature. Health returns in a series of gradually diminishing cycles. For example, you may begin eating better and start feeling better. After some time, you experience a symptom such as nausea or diarrhea.
After a day, you feel even better than before and all goes well for a while. Then you suddenly develop a cold, the chills and lose your appetite. Without the use of drugs, you recover from these symptoms and suddenly you feel great. This well-being continues for a time until you break out in a rash. The rash flares up, but finally disappears, and suddenly you feel better than you've felt in years. As the body becomes pure, each reaction becomes milder and shorter in duration, followed by longer and longer periods of feeling better than ever before, until finally you reach a level plateau... vibrant health.
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| Chemotherapy and mustard gas |
| 05.11.04 (9:52 am) [edit] |
[u][b]Did you know that the poison used for Chemotherapy is Mustard Gas?[/b][/u]
Knowledge is power and that is why I have created this blog. To share with people what I have learned about the so called health system and how it works.
This is the latest knowledge that I have come to learn. Chemotherapy is Mustard Gas! If you are not familiar with Mustard Gas, it was used in WWI to kill and it kills well. Here is some info on Mustard Gas - or Chemotherapy!
[b]Severe irritant.
Contact with vapor or liquid can be fatal.[/b]
[b]Do not breathe fumes.
Skin contact must be avoided at all times.[/b]
EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM EXPOSURE:
MUSTARD damages the tissues the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. The skin healing process is very slow. Exposure to nearly lethal doses can injure the bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen causing a drop in white blood cell counts and an increased risk for developing infections.
MUSTARD exposure can also cause a cholinergic toxicity: excessive saliva, tearing, urination, gastrointestinal cramping and diarrhea, vomiting, small pupils.
EFFECTS OF LONG-TERM OR REPEATED EXPOSURE:
The rate of detoxification is very slow in the body and repeated exposures produce cumulative effects including chronic lung impairment (cough, shortness of breath, chest pain), cancer of the mouth, throat, respiratory tract and skin, and leukemia. It may also cause birth defects. [u][b]A human carcinogen[/b][/u].
[LINE]
It is a known human carcinogen! Now if that isn't enough to scare someone away I don't know what is. I know that they say Chemotherapy can save lives, but in my personal life time I have yet to see it and I have seen a lot of people who have cancer, take chemotherapy and die. And a few (only one actually) who did survive the Chemotherapy for a while, ended up getting a more severe cancer a few years later and died.
If Chemotherapy is poison! Which it is!!! No matter how small the amount, you are poisoning your body. Doesn't it make more sense to give your body what it needs to be healthy and build your body up! Someone close to me was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago and chose not to take Chemotherapy and Radiation. He chose to change his diet and his life style, and he is doing well today. I believe if he had chosen Chemo, he would be in the grave like so many others I have loved and lost to this injection of poison.
My best friend chose not to take Chemo when she was diagnosed with cancer and she died at 60lbs. Her body wasted away to nothing. [b]She died of Cancer![/b] Most people that take Chemo suffer from some other illness that takes their life, like pneumonia or something like that. Not from the actual cancer. And do you know that they would go down in the books as a pneumonia death and not a cancer death. Now doesn't that change the statistics we are given!!!
Some thoughts and information for the day!
Amanda
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| Pesticides too harmful to use in any form, doctors warn |
| 05.07.04 (7:28 am) [edit] |
""The review found consistent evidence of the health risks to patients with exposure to pesticides," the study said, naming brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer and leukemia among many other acute illnesses.
As well, the college found consistent links between parents' exposure to certain agricultural pesticides at their jobs and effects on a growing fetus ranging from damage to death. The risks, they concluded, can come even from residue on food, ant spray and the tick collar on the family cat....
....Chris Krepski, a spokesman for the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, an arm of Health Canada, added that a pesticide cannot be registered for use in Canada if it has the potential to cause birth defects."
Here we again see the consistent bull from Health Canada who it seems only work for their industry friends using our tax money. Protecting their constituents, it's primary mandate, is used as a convenient pretense to keep the trusting public at bay.
Here is quote from the fourth federal audit on pesticides:
"The government's failure to produce timely results leaves Canadians wondering if they are being unnecessarily exposed to dangerous toxic substances on their own front lawns. My annual report, tabled yesterday in the House of Commons, found that such delays are common at the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), a branch of Health Canada. Ottawa is not managing pesticides effectively, nor can it honestly say that pesticide use in Canada is safe."
Pesticides: a grave oversight http://www.newmediaexplorer.o...
Chris Gupta
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2004/04/29/pest icides_too_harmful_to_use _in_any_form_doctors_warn .htm" title="http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2004/04/29/pest icides_too_harmful_to_use _in_any_form_doctors_warn .htm" target="_blank"http://www.newmediaexplorer.o...
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[b]Pesticides too harmful to use in any form, doctors warn[/b]http://www.theglobeandmail.co...
By ALANNA MITCHELL
UPDATED AT 5:26 PM EDT Saturday, Apr. 24, 2004
The link between common household pesticides and fetal defects, neurological damage and the most deadly cancers is strong enough that family doctors in Ontario are urging citizens to avoid the chemicals in any form.
The frightening message came yesterday when the Ontario College of Family Physicians released the most comprehensive study ever done in Canada on the chronic effects of pesticide exposure at home, in the garden and at work.
"The review found consistent evidence of the health risks to patients with exposure to pesticides," the study said, naming brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer and leukemia among many other acute illnesses.
As well, the college found consistent links between parents' exposure to certain agricultural pesticides at their jobs and effects on a growing fetus ranging from damage to death. The risks, they concluded, can come even from residue on food, ant spray and the tick collar on the family cat.
The researchers also found that children are far more vulnerable to the effects of pesticides than adults because their bodies are growing, they have a greater skin surface in proportion to their size than adults, they ingest more food for their size than adults and they often have less-developed systems to excrete chemicals.
Not only that, but after examining 12,000 studies conducted from 1990 to 2003 around the world, and winnowing that down to the most sound 250, the researchers said there is no evidence that some pesticides are less dangerous than others, just that they have different effects on health that take different periods to show up.
They said they are preparing brochures for patients and education material for family doctors to fill them in on the findings.
However, Lorne Hepworth, president of CropLife Canada, a trade association representing the large multinational companies that manufacture pesticides, said he questioned whether the college, a voluntary, not-for-profit association, really had the public's interest at heart in releasing the data:
"Pesticides used properly constitute no unacceptable risk to people's health or to the environment."
He added that pesticides are highly regulated in Canada by federal health staff and must go through a raft of tests, including some on animals to see if the products cause cancer, before they are approved for use.
Not only that, but the federal laws governing pesticides were tightened two years ago to make them protect children better and match more closely the tougher standards in the United States and in other countries, he said.
He pointed out that other studies have shown that pesticide use also provides a safe and abundant source of fruits and vegetables in Canada, and that consuming these can cut cancer risks.
Chris Krepski, a spokesman for the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, an arm of Health Canada, added that a pesticide cannot be registered for use in Canada if it has the potential to cause birth defects.
"As long as they are used according to the label directions, they can be used safely," he said.
The massive scientific literature review comes as many cities across Canada are trying to ban the use of pesticides to make gardens and lawns pest-free and as efforts increase to get rid of mosquito larvae before West Nile season.
Toronto's law came into effect this month complete with posters showing a dandelion and the caption: "Relax. It's just a weed."
Quebec has already banned the most common lawn and garden pesticides across the province starting next year.
The Canadian Cancer Society, the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, the Registered Nurses Association of Canada and the Ontario Public Health Association have called for the bans as well.
Cathy Vakil, of the Family Medicine Centre at Queen's University in Kingston and one of the authors of the report, noted that alternatives to pesticides are available in most cases and should be considered because the negative effects of some chemicals can be passed down through generations.
"People need to think long and hard if they want to take that risk for themselves, their children and their grandchildren for the sake of a golf-green lawn," she said.
She also noted that the pesticides used in Toronto's 200,000 storm sewers to kill mosquito larvae emit a product as they break down that is a retinoid, a family of chemicals known to cause limb deformities in fetuses.
That chemical then washes into Lake Ontario and in turn into the drinking water of the Greater Toronto Area.
However, Lorraine Van Haastrecht, spokeswoman for a lobby group representing companies that treat 100,000 lawns in Toronto, said Canada needs "healthy green spaces."
And Gavin Dawson, technical manager of Greenspace Services, the largest company in Canada to treat lawns, said that while his company offers pesticide-free service, only about 10 per cent of customers want that. The rest want pesticides.
[LINE]
[LINE]
I think if people really knew and understood the harm they are putting everyone, including themselves in by using these toxic chemicals, they would make the choice not to use them. But we are not being told the truth about the potential danger of these chemicals!
[b]Amanda[/b]
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| harlee and ashlee |
| 04.29.04 (7:14 am) [edit] |
[b]HARLEE and ASHLEE [/b]
"Dear Thinktwice,
"I recently took our only children, Harley (2 months) and Ashlee (2 years), to the doctor for their well-baby appointments. Harley had the sniffles and Ashlee had a cold, otherwise both were in perfect health.
"Harley was given his first DPT, oral polio, and Hib shots. Ashlee received her first Hib and MMR shots, as well as her third DPT and fourth oral polio shots.
"After the vaccinations I laid the children down for their naps. Harley woke first; his thighs were red. I heard Ashlee wake and then I heard a 'THUMP!' Ashlee fell flat on the floor. She cried out `Mommy, me no walk!' I checked her over and stood her up; there was no strength in either leg.
"I called the hospital and rushed Ashlee to the emergency ward. I left Harley with a responsible woman to look after him while we were away. At the hospital we waited more than 20 minutes for the doctor to finish his popcorn before he would check Ashlee. He never touched her, nor was she undressed. The official report stated that the child couldn't walk, 'no other problem.
"When we returned home, Harley was high-pitched screaming. The babysitter said it started more than one-and-a-half hours before. He was inconsolable. He finally screamed himself into exhaustion two hours later. I called the emergency ward. They recommended a warm bath and told me it was 'nothing to worry about.'
"For ten days Harley's behavior changed. He barely slept, hardly ate, and seemed to be getting worse. On May 17, 1991, at 9:00 a.m., my husband got up, checked on Harley, and yelled out, `Bonnie, get up, call the ambulance. Harley is dead!'
"The state police and county coroner arrived with the ambulance. The coroner peered into the ambulance, never examined Harley, and stated, 'SIDS.' Harley was then rushed away. My husband and I didn't get to see him again for more than three days, until 1:00 p.m. on May 20, 1991 -- in his coffin!
"My adopted parents came to Harley's funeral. My father (I use that term loosely) screamed out: `Which one of you killed my grandson?' My husband's family stays away; they think we should stop mourning for Harley and get on with our life.
"I want to mention the following points:
* The attendant giving the vaccines never mentioned the possibility of side effects when we were rushed through the signing of the releases.
* Ashlee has been to doctors since her paralysis. They never documented our verbal concerns regarding a connection to the vaccines.
* The autopsy lists Harley as a 5-week-old baby; he was 9 weeks old.
* The pathology department never received tissue samples. Also, Harley's blood arrived by U.S. mail after an eleven-day wait; it was not shipped on dry ice.
* The doctor never recorded the lot numbers of the vaccines. The manufacturers cannot help us without this information.
* An administrator at the Minot Air Force Base (where the vaccines were administered), told us: `Get on with your lives, drop this search. It's only a baby.'
* We were rejected for compensation through the Federal Vaccine Compensation Act.
* Two U.S congressional inquiries are underway to secure information regarding our children's health care.
"What is life like today? Empty. The government is taking their time. Ashlee's medical future is at risk. We cannot even test for permanent damage yet.
"It is sad that the government does not care about our babies. They do not care that an innocent child is dead because of their neglect, and desire to pretend everything is okay. Our son is not able to rest in peace because of the bureaucratic red-tape. Harley has been dead for more than two years. When will the government stop running our lives, even after death? What is next?"
Information provided by thinktwice.com http://www.thinktwice.com
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| killer coke!!!!!!!! |
| 04.28.04 (9:08 pm) [edit] |
[u][b]Killer COKE [/b][/u]
Keith Hyams
The Ecologist
April 2004
In the summer of 2003 Coca-Cola hit the Indian headlines after it was revealed that traces of fertilizer far in excess of acceptable limits had been found by the Centre for Science and Environment in Coke's products. Sales of its soft drinks declined across India as accusations of consumer poisoning and counter accusations of sloppy science were traded in the pages of the major Indian newspapers. That was when Indian journalists began to take an interest in Plachimada. Although the locals had been complaining for two years that the bottling plant adjacent to their village was destroying their livelihoods, their complaints had, until the national 'fertilizer in soft drinks' scare broke, largely fallen on deaf ears.
I'm sitting opposite the large Coca-Cola bottling plant next to the village of Plachimada in Kerala, South India. Plachimada is a farming village of about eight hundred families, many of them tribal. The ugly factory looks rather out of place in such a beautiful setting, the mountains of the Western Ghats towering above in the distance. Behind me a child holds a placard which reads 'Fresh Air, Fresh Water, Our Birth Right!'. Local villagers have been keeping an ongoing vigil here for five hundred and eighteen days now, and I've come to find out why.
Coca-Cola arrived in Plachimada three years ago. The site was selected because it had one of the most plentiful supplies of groundwater in the state and because, being situated near to the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, it provided an ideal location from which to supply soft drinks to both states. Quite why Kerela needed Coca-Cola at all was a bit of a puzzle to me: I passed stalls all over the place selling delicious freshly blended fruit juices in a multitude of flavours. They took thirty eight hectares of prime agricultural land and built a big factory which soon began turning water into fizzy pop, churning out as many as 1 224 000 bottles per day. This massive operation requires a lot of water. Around one and a half million litres of groundwater per day in fact, five times the amount of water which actually ends up in the bottles. Needless to say, Coca-Cola pays nothing to the local villagers for their precious groundwater.
'It wasn't long after Coca-Cola arrived that our problems began', says Veloor Somindan, leader of the campaign. 'Once this district, Chittur taluk, was known as the ricebowl of Kerala. We had the most fertile soil and the best yields anywhere in the state. But now the ground is dry, rice and coconut harvests across the taluk have declined to as low as one quarter of what they once were'. Around twenty thousand farmers have seen their income plummet over the last two years. Veloor, who is married and has two daughters, tells me that he can barely afford to support his family anymore.
It is not only the fields that have dried up. So too have the wells. Whereas, before Coca-Cola's arrival, villagers were able to draw water from wells just 150ft deep, now they often don't even get water at a depth of 500ft. But even that water is useless. A year after Coca-Cola arrived, water in the local wells turned a strange colour and villagers began complaining of fever, stomach pains, headaches and diarrhoea. Child mortality rates also increased suddenly. It was as late as 6th August 2003 that the District Medical Officer eventually told the villagers that the water in Plachimada was toxic and unsafe for drinking. Now all eight hundred families have no choice but to make a four kilometre round trip on foot, twice daily, to collect water from outside the toxic zone. It is usually the women who get shouldered with this work. They spend so much of the day collecting water that they are unable to seek other employment which could supplement the declining income that the land provides.
No-one is totally sure what caused the poisoning of the local water supply, but all the theories on offer link the problem to Coca-Cola. Dr. Mark Chernaik, a scientist with ELAW US, a network of environmental lawyers, attributes the toxicity to the dissolution of limestone or clay as a result of the excessively rapid flow of water through the rock caused by groundwater extraction. Others claim, quite plausibly, that it is due to pollution from Coca-Cola's waste, which leeches through into the ground water.
The latter theory is particularly likely in view of Coca-Cola's criminal distribution of waste sludge to local farmers. Farmers were encouraged to spread the sludge on their land, being told that it was an excellent fertilizer which would improve their crop. This provided a cheap and convenient waste disposal mechanism for the factory. In July 2003, a sample of this 'fertilizer' was sent to a laboratory in Exeter University, U.K., by BBC presenter John Waite. Tests conducted at the lab revealed that the sludge contained dangerous levels of toxic metals including lead, cadmium, and chromium. Samples of water from local wells, in which all three metals were found to be present at levels several times higher than permissible limits, were also sent to the laboratory. David Santillo, principle scientist at the Exeter lab, states that 'The presence of high levels of lead and cadmium is of particular concern. Lead is a developmental toxin in humans, particularly noted for its ability to retard the developing nervous system. Cadmium is especially toxic to the kidney, but also to the liver. It is classified as a known human carcinogen.' In other words, Coca-Cola's 'fertilizer' was killing local people.
Shortly after the results were made public, Coca-Cola stopped dumping its sludge on local farmers. But it was too late for the water supply. Even now villagers are unable to drink or even wash in water from any wells within a two kilometer radius of the plant. 'What choice do we have but to keep up our struggle?', the villagers ask me. 'We cannot keep living the way we currently are.'
On 7th April 2003, Perumatty panchayat (the local authority) refused to renew Coca-Cola's license to operate in the area. Coca-Cola subsequently went to the High Court and had the panchayat's decision over ruled. But according to local activists, the High Court does not have the power to issue such rulings. I checked this with Clifton D' Rozario of the Alternative Legal Forum, a group of lawyers and legal experts based in Bangalore. 'The High Court ruling contravenes the spirit of the constitutional amendments brought in to enforce decentralization of powers, functions and decision making capacities,' he insisted. 'The aim of the amendments was to ensure that the panchayats could make decisions regarding the available resources in a manner that was beneficial to them. Hence Perumatty panchayat was totally within its constitutional rights to cancel Coca-Cola's license to operate in the area.'
It seems, however, that Coca-Cola, which tops the list of Foreign Direct Investment in India from the USA (previously alongside scandalised Enron), has Indian law makers in the palm of its hand. In a letter from Robert Blackwill, US ambassador to India, to Brajesh Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, Blackwill wrote, 'I would like to bring to your attention, and to seek your help in resolving, a potentially serious investment problem of some significance to both our countries. The case involves Coca-Cola, one of the largest single foreign investors in India.' The 'problem' Blackwill was referring to was that Indian law stipulates that foreign companies operating in India must divest 49% of their equity stake to Indian shareholders within a few years of their entry into India. The purpose of this law was to ensure that Indians retain some control over their operations. Unhappy with any such devolution of power, Coca-Cola used a combination of intensive lobbying and covert threats to change government policy to ensure that, although Indian shareholders have a 49% stakeholding in Coke's Indian subsidiaries, they have no voting rights whatsoever. This might just about qualify as complying with the letter of the law, but it certainly doesn't comply with either the spirit of the law or the manner in which it had previously been enforced.
Faced with a company wielding this much political clout, the villagers of Plachimada know that if there is to be a change, it can only come from grassroots pressure. In recent months their struggle has intensified. On 26th January 2003, Plachimada provided the venue for the inauguration of a nationwide 'yatra' (a march cum journey) organised by the National Alliance of People's Movements which toured the whole country uniting people from diverse grassroots struggles under the banner, 'Save the Nation, Build the Nation!'. Thousands of villagers, city-dwellers, activists and concerned citizens alike travelled from Plachimada to distant corners of India, on foot, by train, in trucks and buses, united in a groundbreaking display of resistance. The diversity of languages and the array of colours was rivaled only by the number of slogans chanted by the marchers. Then on 21st September, a huge rally was held outside the factory gates with activists from across India attending, including internationally renowned environmentalist Vandana Shiva. Hundreds flocked to the rally, blocking the road and sending a strong message to Coke that they are not welcome in Plachimada. More recently, a Joint Parliamentary Committee set up by the Government of India published a report on 4th February 2004 which held Coca-Cola's Plachimada plant responsible for 'causing pollution of water, depleting ground water and reducing crop yields besides causing ailments to human beings'. In response, letters poured in to the office of the Chief Minister of Kerela from around the world, urging him to take immediate remedial action.
The police response has been firm and uncompromising. Over three hundred arrests have been made so far during the course of the struggle in Plachimada. Parallel struggles by local villagers affected by Coca-Cola's four other bottling plants across the country have been met with an even more heavy handed response. The Mehdiganj plant near Varanassi, Uttar Pradesh, which enjoys heavily subsidised electricity, stands charged with discharging toxic waste into neighbouring fields and causing a serious water shortage in the surrounding area. When around one thousand protestors held a peaceful demonstration outside the Mehdiganj plant on 10th September 2003, hundreds were beaten by Coca-Cola's security personnel. Police looked on passively whilst the attack occurred, then detained around four hundred demonstrators and kept eighty eight under arrest. Dr. Sandeep Pandey, a well known Indian activist and winner of the international Ramon Magsaysay award for service to the people, suffered injuries to his foot with an iron rod, severe baton blows on his back, and a head injury caused by a rifle butt blow.
The struggle has not, however, been without progress. When I rang the Kerala government's groundwater department, they told me that two months ago they told Coca-Cola to cut its groundwater use by half and to invest instead in rainwater harvesting. I asked the villagers whether they had been told about this, and they replied that they had not. Dr. Terry Machado, a scientist at the nearby Integrated Rural Technology Centre claims that even if they are telling the truth, such changes will be insufficient to stem the area's severe water problem. In order to provide a lasting solution to the problem, he argues, there is no other option but for Coke to heed the protestors' demand that Coca-Cola 'Quit Plachimada'. Corporate Watch India is even more skeptical. They suggest that, far from being forced to cut their extraction by the groundwater department, Coca-Cola had so depleted the groundwater levels that even they themselves are unable to extract water at previous rates. In order to make up for the shortfall, Corporate Watch claims, Coca-Cola has begun trucking in tanks of water extracted from bore wells in neighbouring villages.
Perhaps more significantly for the struggle, however, is the change in Coca-Cola's own attitude. They are clearly worried about the publicity that the Plachimada struggle has received, and the implications that this may have for their brand image. In January 2003 their website boldly asserted that 'Coca-Cola India's bottling plant in Kerala, India, has been the target of a handful of extremist protestors, alleging the company is misusing local water resources. These allegations are false. Neighbouring communities, tribal leaders, NGOs, environmental scientists and government officials have repeatedly rejected the extremists' allegations as totally groundless'.
No such brazenness anymore. Although their website still denies all the charges, it is no longer written with the air of dismissiveness of the previous version. In an attempt to reconcile the numerous discrepancies between the claims made on Coca-Cola's website and those made by local villagers, activists, and NGOs, I tried to speak directly to the company. Despite several attempts to contact various senior employees in India, Coca-Cola repeatedly declined to answer any of my questions. The plant manager at Plachimada referred me to the President of corporate communications who referred me to the Vice-President who apologised that he was unavailable for comment on each of the several occasions on which I called him. I began to understand how frustrated the local villagers must be when they attempt to speak directly to Coke about their problems. Yet it was clear that Coca-Cola is feeling the heat. There is still a long way to go to bring justice to the people of Plachimada and Chittur taluk, but if Coca-Cola begins to worry that its international brand name is at stake then there is every reason to believe that the struggle will be successful.
In fact, the pressure has been mounting for some time. Coke's reputation has already been seriously tarnished after a lawsuit filed in Florida in July 2001 charged the company with using paramilitary death squads in Columbia to murder, torture, kidnap and threaten union leaders in order to disband the workers' union SINALTRAINAL at its Columbian bottling plants. A call from the Columbia Action Network to boycott Coca-Cola in the light of its involvement in the killings resulted in a national student campaign in the USA to 'kick Coke off campus', with several successes. A further blow came when Coke was targeted by campaigners for discriminating against HIV positive employees in its African plants. And in May 2003, Coca-Cola was fined US$300 000 for polluting the Matasnillo River in Panama.
The 2004 World Social Forum, the largest annual summit of activists, NGOs and grassroots campaigners from around the world, was held in February in Mumbai, not all that far from Plachimada itself. At the Forum people met and shared their experiences of Coca-Cola's malpractices in different countries. A call was put out for a concerted global campaign to boycott Coke and to get all soft drinks manufacturers to clean up their acts and respect the rights and livelihoods of those affected by their activities. It's time for Coca-Cola's abuses to stop.
Just one thing though. Don't start drinking Pepsi instead of Coke. They're busily draining the groundwater down the road in Kanjikoe.
******************
Note: On top of all the injustice and abuse by Coca-cola, their product is very toxic and poisonous to the human body. It's not only full of refined & empty of nutrition sugars, artificial food colorings and flavors, it has amongst other horrors, formaldehyde in it. If it's in an aluminum can, by drinking it a person is putting this poison into their body too.
The only thing that Coca-cola is good for is removing the rust off the bumper of an old vehicle and cleaning the calcium buildup in a country toilet. Coke dissolves metal. Can you imagine what it does to your stomach lining? Pepsi is the same. If these drinks contain Aspartame, this destroys the brain. Fact.
********************
the activation of the Reformation Act - N.E.S.A.R.A - will put a stop to companies like Coca-Cola. It will at least force them to tell people exactly what is in their product and the harm it causes.
http://www.nesara.us" title="http://www.nesara.us" target="_blank"http://www.nesara.us
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| Confessions of a soft drink! |
| 04.27.04 (8:40 am) [edit] |
Hello. I am a humble, effervescent liquid. Humble? Well, that is debatable, Actually, I am quite proud of myself. Allow me to brag a little.
I Fizz, Sparkle and Bubble my way into thousands of people all over the world every day. I HAVE MUCH POWER! I can cause masses of humanity to rush to snack dispensers in plush high-rise buildings.
I stir men, women, and teenagers to dash into their cars late at night and speed to their nearest 24-hour convenience store. I motivate others to root through their purses for their last pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, with which they will gladly part in exchange for me. The best thing about me is: I AM ADDICTING. I am responsible for giving thousands Of addicts their daily "fixes". This is because I sometimes contain a substance called "caffeine".
Caffeine is a stimulant. It makes their hearts beat very fast and their nervous system work like crazy. They feel as though they could take on the world. I tell you, I have OVERWHELMING PERSONAL MAGNETISM.
I'm a sneaky double agent too. I pretend to give people all the good they need because caffeine gives them a "lift". However, a few hours afterward they come crashing "down", get shaky, and need me AGAIN... for another pseudo-charge. This plays havoc with their hearts and nerves, but they still look to me for relief. I feel very, very smug because I CALL THE SHOTS!!
To give me an appetizing brown tint, I contain "Carmel coloring", which has genetic effects and is a cancer-causing suspect. I sometimes have polyethylene glycol as one of my ingredients. Glycol is used as anti-freeze in automotive and as an oil solvent.
The Bubbles and Fizz with which I potently burn human insides is caused by my phosphoric acid and carbon dioxide. The phosphorus in the acid upsets the body's calcium-phosphorus ratio and dissolves calcium out of the bones. This can eventually result in OSTEOPOROSIS, a weakening of the skeletal structure, which can make one susceptible to broken bones. Also, the phosphorus fights with the hydrochloric acid in human stomachs and renders it ineffective. This promotes indigestion, bloating and gassiness in many individuals. Carbon dioxide is a waste product exhaled by humans, but they ingest it when they drink me. Am I HUMBLE??
Information provided by Avena Originals
Great information!
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| BREAKING NEWS: ASPARTAME LAWSUITS |
| 04.24.04 (6:51 am) [edit] |
[b]BREAKING NEWS: ASPARTAME LAWSUITS[/b]
Aspartame Lawsuits Filed Against Some of the World's Largest Companies For Poisoning Consumers
Leading Fortune 500 Companies, Coke, Pepsi, Walmart, Kraft General Foods, etc. filed against for knowingly poisoning the public with aspartame
SACRAMENTO, CA (PRWEB) April 11, 2004--ASPARTAME LAWSUITS ACCUSE MANY COMPANIES OF POISONING THE PUBLIC. Defendants in the lawsuits include Coca-cola, PepsiCo, Bayer Corp., the Dannon Company, William Wrigley Jr. Company, Walmart, ConAgra Foods, Wyeth, Inc., The NutraSweet Company, and Altria Corp. (parent company of Kraft Foods and Philip Morris).
Lawsuits were filed in three separate California courts against twelve companies who either produce or use the artificial sweetener aspartame as a sugar substitute in their products. The suits were filed in Shasta, Sonoma and Butte County, California.
The suits allege that the food companies committed fraud and breach of warranty by marketing products to the public such as diet Coke, diet Pepsi, sugar free gum, Flintstone's vitamins, yogurt and children's aspirin with the full knowledge that aspartame, the sweetener in them, is neurotoxic.
Aspartame is a drug masquerading as an additive. It interacts with other drugs, has a synergistic and additive effect with MSG, and is a chemical hyper-sensitization agent. As far back as 1970, Dr. John Olney founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity when he did studies on aspartic acid, which makes up 40% of aspartame, and found it caused lesions in the brains of mice. He made world news on the aspartame/brain tumor connection in l996. Dr. Ralph Walton, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine has written of the behavioral and psychiatric problems triggered by aspartame-caused depletion of serotonin.
Aspartame causes headache, memory loss, seizures, vision loss, coma and cancer. It worsens or mimics the symptoms of such diseases and conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue and depression.
Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol. The resulting chronic methanol poisoning affects the dopamine system of the brain causing addiction.
Methanol, or wood alcohol, constitutes one-third of the aspartame molecule and is classified as a severe metabolic poison and narcotic.
Recent news is full of reports of world-class athletes and other healthy consumers of aspartame suddenly dropping dead. Sudden death can occur from aspartame use because it damages the cardiac conduction system Dr. Woodrow Monte in the peer reviewed journal, Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health, wrote: "When diet sodas and soft drinks, sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative poison."
The effects of aspartame are documented by the FDA's own data. In 1995 the agency was forced, under the Freedom Of Information Act, to release a list of ninety-two aspartame symptoms reported by thousands of victims.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. H. J. Roberts, MD, published the medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" -- 1,000 pages of symptoms and diseases triggered by this neurotoxin including the sordid history of its approval.
Since its discovery in 1965, controversy has raged over the health risks associated with the sugar substitute. From laboratory testing of the chemical on rats, researchers have discovered that the drug induces brain tumors. On September 30, l980 the Board of Inquiry of the FDA concurred and denied the petition for approval. In l981, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, ignored the negative ruling and approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories Donald Rumsfeld said that he would call in his markers to get aspartame approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team and a day after taking office appointed Hayes. No FDA Commissioner in the previous sixteen years had allowed Aspartame on the market.
[b]In 1983, aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages. Today it is found in over 5000 foods, drinks and medicines.[/b]
Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, author of "Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills" http://www.russellblaylockmd.... wrote about the relationship between aspartame and macular degeneration, diabetic blindness and glaucoma (all known to result from excitotoxin accumulation in the retina).
All of these neurodegenerative diseases are worsened by aspartame. In addition, we now have evidence that excitotoxins play a major role in exacerbation of MS and other demyelinating disorders including trigeminal neuralgia. Blaylock says that new studies show excitotoxins trigger significant elevation of free radicals in the lining (endothelial cells) of arteries, which means that aspartame will increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes (atherosclerosis).
In original studies, aspartame has triggered brain, mammary, uterine, ovarian, testicular, thyroid and pancreatic tumors.
Plaintiffs have asked for an injunction to stop companies from producing, manufacturing, processing, selling or using aspartame.
Plaintiffs in all three cases are seeking a jury trial. If you would like to schedule someone from the National Justice League for an interview, please call or fax us at 208-246-1171.
Roberta Bellon, Public Relations
NATIONAL JUSTICE LEAGUE
http://www.nationaljusticeleague.com" title="http://www.nationaljusticeleague.com" target="_blank"http://www.nationaljusticelea...
2205 Hilltop Dr. Ste. 2022
Redding, Ca 96002
Phone: 208-246-1171
California: 530-248-3483
Cell Phone: 208-890-0034
E-mail: info@nationaljusticeleagu e.com
FOR INFORMATION ON ASPARTAME:
http://www.dorway.com" title="http://www.dorway.com" target="_blank"http://www.dorway.com
http://www.wnho.net" title="http://www.wnho.net" target="_blank"http://www.wnho.net
You can also contact Dr. Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible Intl, 9270 River Club
Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097 USA 770-242-2599
This release is issued by courtesy of:WORLD NATURAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION
(for further information on this Breaking News and History of Aspartame)
http://www.wnho.net" title="http://www.wnho.net" target="_blank"http://www.wnho.net
Contact Information
Betty Martini
MISSION POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL
http://www.wnho.net" title="http://www.wnho.net" target="_blank"http://www.wnho.net , www.dorway.com
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| NEW EYE COLOR!!! |
| 04.23.04 (7:13 am) [edit] |
:P This just keeps getting better and better!
My eyes used to be an orange/brownish color, basically they were the exact color of my hair. After eating a raw food diet for over a year and a half now, my eye color is drastically changing to green.
I have heard it said by other raw foodists that your eye color can change, but to be experiencing it is truly unbelievable. Wow!
With all the physical, mental and spiritual transformation that has been happening in my life, this is truly the "ride of a life time!"
Have a vibrant and joyful day! :)
Amanda
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| Water vs Coke |
| 04.21.04 (11:29 am) [edit] |
[b]WATER[/b]
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half world population)
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.
Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?
[b]COKE[/b]
1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
FOR YOUR INFO
1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It
will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium
from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in
osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
[b]Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or coke? [/b]
:?
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| Poison for profit! |
| 04.21.04 (10:47 am) [edit] |
[b]POISON FOR PROFIT [/b]
CHEM/PHARM HAS NO EQUAL - WHAT A BUSINESS PLAN!
By Ashley Simmons Hotz
May 15, 2002 - The huge transnational companies that produce toxic chemicals found in pesticides, herbicides and industrial and household products profit not only from the sale of these products, but also from the symptoms and chronic illnesses that they can trigger.
The vast majority of chemicals found in pesticides and other products, undergo little or no testing for chronic, low level exposures and for chronic health effects.
The same chemical companies that produce toxic chemicals also produce prescription drugs, veterinary medicines, a wide array of medical products and imaging technologies, hold cancer treatment and medical device patents, and a produce a staggering assortment of over-the-counter palliatives.
Families with toxin induced illnesses often spend large sums for drugs and medical treatment.
This circle of profit is not conspiracy theory, but an easily provable fact.
[b]"Here is a little more information"[/b]
Do you take Bayer aspirin? Did you know that Bayer also makes other drugs, pesticides, chemicals? When you get to the Bayer site from the following URL, go to the "application" search engine and scroll down to pesticides. At the first URL here, go to the right side and click on the drop-down list to see the spectrum of products -- for industrial chemicals and "crop protection" products, to pharmaceuticals.
http://www.bayer.com/en/index_en.php" title="http://www.bayer.com/en/index_en.php" target="_blank"http://www.bayer.com/en/index...
To read this entire article visit this link http://rawesome.com/boards/in...
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| When a crisis comes your way |
| 04.20.04 (11:35 am) [edit] |
[b]ACCEPT CHANGE WITH A SMILE [/b]
Sooner or later, you'll experience a crisis in your life,
and how you meet it will determine your future happiness and success. Since the beginning of time,
everyone has been called upon to meet such a crisis.
A closer look will show you that most "crisis situations"
are opportunities to either advance or stay where you are. In fact, most changes in your life will take place
out of either "inspiration" or "desperation."
Whatever comes your way, give it meaning and transform it into something of value. Your personal growth is the process of responding positively to change.
A precious stone cannot be polished without friction,
nor humanity perfected without trials.
2004 by Max Steingart
[u]My health was in crisis [/u]and I chose to embrace it and to learn to listen to that instinct within me and took a road less travelled. By learning to listen to my body and by learning to feed it what it needed, I am a different woman today.
You can read my story here at http://www.rawesome.com/mysto...
Amanda 8)
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| The Real Dangers of Soda to You and Your Children |
| 04.15.04 (4:48 pm) [edit] |
[b]The Real Dangers of Soda to You and Your Children[/b]
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege
How many sodas have you had today? How about your kids? The average American drinks an estimated 56 gallons of soft drinks each year, but before you grab that next can of soda, consider this: one can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colors and sulphites.
This is an alarming amount of sugar, calories and harmful additives in a product that has absolutely no nutritional value. Plus, studies have linked soda to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease. Despite this, soda accounts for more than one-quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States.
Teenagers and children, who many soft drinks are marketed toward, are among the largest consumers. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States. Teenage boys now drink, on average, three or more cans of soda per day, and 10 percent drink seven or more cans a day. The average for teenage girls is more than two cans a day, and 10 percent drink more than five cans a day.
While these numbers may sound high, theyre not surprising considering that most school hallways are lined with vending machines that sell, of course, soft drinks. Its not uncommon for schools to make marketing deals with leading soft drink companies such as Coca-Cola from which they receive commissions--based on a percentage of sales at each school--and sometimes a lump-sum payment.
The revenues are used for various academic and after-school activities, but what activity could be worth devastating the students health, which is exactly what consuming all that soda is doing? Getting rid of vending machines in schools--or replacing their contents with pure water and healthy snacks--could make a big difference, as vending machines can increase the consumption of sweetened beverages by up to 50 or more cans of soda per student per year.
Lets take a look at some of the major components of a can of soda:
[b][u]Phosphoric Acid[/u][/b]: May interfere with the body's ability to use calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis or softening of the teeth and bones. Phosphoric acid also neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which can interfere with digestion, making it difficult to utilize nutrients.
Sugar: Soft drink manufacturers are the largest single user of refined sugar in the United States. It is a proven fact that sugar increases insulin levels, which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, premature aging and many more negative side effects. Most sodas include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar.
[b][u]Aspartame[/u][/b]: This chemical is used as a sugar substitute in diet soda. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilispsy/seizures. Further, when aspartame is stored for long periods of time or kept in warm areas it changes to methanol, an alcohol that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, which are known carcinogens.
[b][u]Caffeine[/u][/b]: Caffeinated drinks cause jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of cancer.
[b][u]Tap Water[/u][/b]: I recommend that everyone avoid drinking tap water because it can carry any number of chemicals including chlorine, trihalomethanes, lead, cadmium, and various organic pollutants. Tap water is the main ingredient in bottled soft drinks.
Soda is one of the main reasons, nutritionally speaking, why many people suffer health problems. Aside from the negative effects of the soda itself, drinking a lot of soda is likely to leave you with little appetite for vegetables, protein and other food that your body needs.
If you are still drinking soda, stopping the habit is an easy way to improve your health. Pure water is a much better choice. If you must drink a carbonated beverage, try sparkling mineral water.
Copyright :: Dr. Joseph Mercola with Rachael Droege
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| Freedom of choice in health care? |
| 04.14.04 (6:12 am) [edit] |
[b]Do you want freedom of choice in personal health care in Canada?[/b]
It seems as though the government is wanting to control society into following only one path of health care.
If you are concerned about having the right to choose which health care products you would like to take, then I would like to give you the opportunity to learn about a very important Bill - Bill C-420
[b]New proposed health freedom legislation [/b]
http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/BillC-240/ " title="http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/BillC-240/ " target="_blank"http://www.taxtyranny.ca/imag...
[b]Aims to restore freedom of choice in NHPs[/b]
http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/BillC-240/ Lunney.html" title="http://www.taxtyranny.ca/images/HTML/BillC-240/ Lunney.html" target="_blank"http://www.taxtyranny.ca/imag...
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Here I am! After a year and a half of living on mostly raw food, my mind, body and spirit are transformed.
To read my story, visit my web site at www.rawesome.com
Live a vibrant life!
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