Tune Out The Noise- Opportunity, Overload & Obfuscation

When you're a citizen of a corporation, your best interest isnt their priority. Ten Million fraudulent home forclosures allowed by US Incorporated Congress

2013-08-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.alternet.org/investigations/10-million-americans-foreclosed-neighborhoods-devastated?page=0%2C0Ten Million US Incorporated Subjects, aka citizens were robbed of their homes by Congress who did nothing to stop the banking cartels. Why is that?

The article states 10 million, the truth is far worse of course as the ones who hold the statistics manipulate them for their own bottom line. The reality is, US Congress has the ability to stop this but they didnt, and dont, and wont, why? Its profit for them. This so called 'country' is bankrupt, it has been since the Civil War.
These non citizen congressmen are using the subjects of US Incorporated as the payoff for the congressional debt that is their bankruptcy, though they did a good job convincing the people that the debt was theirs.

We human beings were here before any incorporations, before con gress or govern mental control.... we allowed corporations to exist among us because they were supposed to be for the general welfare of the people, well fare, as in faring well .... not a handout or table scraps, they were on our land and allowed to hold status because they were going to make our lives better but look, hows that working for us now?

We need to divest power, the power we gave to congress, we need to take back to our selves. Is it possible? Yes, it is. Why do we think we need these overlords anyway? Oh right, the war on terror and drugs. Hmmm.. the only terror I see is the bullshit they have created and that the media they own blasts at us, and wars are what they wage against humans elsewhere who havent yet succumbed to their overlordship, the thing called Capitalism. Capit means head by the way. Capitalism is the value of each of our heads. What are we worth. They have made a commercial schematic of human trafficking that counts human beings via all manner of industry from insurance to medical, taxation to criminalization. We the people are the gross domestic product. Why do you think they let manufacturing go to hell in the good ol USInc? Its not about what we produce, its about how our energy is producing for them via the various means of use during our lifetime.
From being a consumer and worker paying taxes to being unemployed by design so younger people can take the job you had as a 50 year old, causing you to be redistributed via foreclosure and legal battle, then thru psychological or other medical industrial use, until you are either criminalized or dying of cancer and put thru that wringer and then your children take your place, round and round. All of this has gone on for decades but the shiny distractions and television programming is ongoing to keep us mesmerized into a false reality. How clever they are ..they convinced debt slaves that they were free. The very dollar bills we use, most think of as money but they are debt notes. They arent worth a shit. Not worth any thing of value.
Those cocksuckers keep dumping more of em into the economy which makes each one in your hand worth less and less. The only value those notes have are in debt amounts.
We think we are free because the media tells us we are the freest nation on the planet, but the truth is, nobody thinks about what freedom really is. When congress controls the economic landscape and does nothing to stop cartels, and consistently spy on us, out of fear we may not be going along with their program this time, and lying bold faced on so called television news, on the airwaves the people are supposed to own but are charged for, that isnt freedom... the American dream was always a farce, they let us have some pittance of our natural inheritance they stole from us under the guise they were protecting us, protecting us from whom? From what? How much worse does it need to get before we all see who the criminals are here? what the fuck are we thinking?
We have to wake up now and put the brain we were given to use before the fluoride in the water, the mercury in the vaccines and the pharmaceuticals they push on us for everything along with the genetic modification of our food pushes the brain we have into a sloggy non thinking organ that only keeps the autonomic functions alive and the compulsion to consume the only function of living.

Congress is the New World Order... look at the shit they're doing...

From an alert I received just now..
You won’t believe this, but Senator Durbin has actually reintroduced his disastrous anti-supplement bill!
Today, just as Congress is preparing to recess until the second week in September, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) reintroduced legislation that would deal a deadly blow to nutritional supplements.
This bill is a naked new FDA power grab—an attempt to move us one step closer to a full FDA pre-approval system for supplements. That, of course, would just make supplements insanely expensive, like drugs—if you could get them at all.
URGENT! Please write to your senators immediately and tell them to stop Sen. Durbin’s frontal attack on your right to use supplements dead in its tracks! We don’t need this new legislation—all we need is for existing laws to be fully enforced. We do need our access to nutritional supplements to be protected.

Why would a member of congress be so fucking hard boiled out to stop nutritional supplements as this prick has been for years if congress was on the side of human beings?

Federal Court Rules Against FDA's Gag Stance on Qualified Vitamin Health Claims as Unconstitutional!

2011-04-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

ANH-USA Wins Major Lawsuit on Qualified Health Claims

April 19, 2011

We took ’em to court—and we won! A federal court has found the FDA’s stance against vitamin health claims to be unconstitutional! On April 13, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia held that the FDA’s denial of two health claims—which dealt with the ability of antioxidant vitamins to reduce the risk of cancer—was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

ANH-USA, together with Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, sued the FDA for censoring antioxidant vitamin–cancer risk reduction claims after the agency denied multiple claims about the effectiveness of selenium and vitamins C and E in reducing cancer risk, and weakened and complicated other claims to the vanishing point. The plaintiffs were represented by Emord & Associates, a prominent constitutional law firm. You may recall that last October, Jonathan Emord successfully represented us against the FDA on the selenium claim.

That win means that selenium supplements are now allowed to claim that “selenium may reduce the risk” of prostate, colon, bladder, or thyroid cancer.

“Qualified health claims” characterize the relationship between a substance and its ability to reduce the risk of a disease or health-related condition. They are permitted in relation to foods and supplements—a precedent established by the landmark decision of Pearson v. Shalala. Qualified health claims are a critical means toward communicating important health benefits of natural foods and dietary supplements otherwise forbidden by the FDA. Unfortunately, the FDA has consistently limited the information available to consumers about the real health benefits of food and supplements and routinely rejects all qualified health claims. This should come as no surprise, given that the FDA has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the European Commission for well over a decade agreeing on ridiculously onerous guidelines for scientific substantiation of health claims internationally in the Codex Alimentarius. These requirements have been carbon-copied into EU law and some time next year will ban thousands of claims that have informed European citizens for years. We must stop trans-Atlantic European regulatory creep at all costs, and our biggest defense remains our precious First Amendment.
Although the District Court for the District of Columbia upheld FDA censorship of six other claims, the court ruled that the FDA violated the First Amendment when it prohibited two vitamin health claims and stated that it would allow them in a form reworded by the agency:

Vitamin C / gastric cancer claim: “Vitamin C may reduce the risk of gastric cancer.”

FDA had prohibited the claim, stating that it would only allow the following language to be used: “One weak study and one study with inconsistent results suggest that vitamin C supplements may reduce the risk of gastric cancer. Based on these studies, FDA concludes that it is highly uncertain that vitamin C supplements reduce the risk of gastric cancer.”

Vitamin E / bladder cancer claim: “Vitamin E may reduce the risk of bladder cancer.”

FDA had prohibited the claim, stating that it would only allow the following language to be used: “One small study suggests that vitamin E supplements may reduce the risk of bladder cancer. However, two small studies showed no reduction of risk. Based on these studies, FDA concludes that it is highly unlikely that vitamin E supplements reduce the risk of bladder cancer.”

The court held FDA’s rewording of the two claims unconstitutional under the First Amendment. FDA “has replaced plaintiffs’ claims entirely,” explained the court, and the qualifying the claim so completely “effectively negates any relationship between cancer risk and vitamin intake. The FDA’s rewording . . . makes it difficult to tell what the original health claims are and appears to disavow the FDA’s own conclusions that those claims are supported by credible evidence.”

The court reaffirmed Pearson v. Shalala against the FDA’s objections, holding that “where the evidence supporting a claim is inconclusive, the First Amendment permits the claim to be made; the FDA cannot require a disclaimer that simply swallows the claim.” The FDA has been ordered to revise its claim qualifications consistent with the court’s decision.
In a separate case, ANH-USA sued the FDA over good manufacturing practices (GMPs), operating requirements for dietary supplement manufacturers. Our concern has been that FDA is given authority to treat all GMP violations the same—which means that a paperwork violation carries the same penalties as selling food that harms the public: for both infractions, one is deemed to be selling “adulterated” products, with the same jail sentence. We said those regulations went beyond the statutory authority of the FDA to regulate dietary supplements—that they were unconstitutionally vague (in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause), arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The judge in our GMP case, unfortunately, gave deference to FDA and its authority to regulate. This is another reason why the language in the Leahy bill is so troubling: it raises the penalty for “adulterating” a product to ten years in jail.

While we continue to make strides in the courtroom, the process is time-intensive, expensive, and—let’s face it—ridiculous. We should not have to sue the FDA to obtain the right to communicate every important piece of health-related information to consumers.

We need to pass the Free Speech about Science Act, which was introduced in Congress earlier this month. The Act would allow for the communication of legitimate scientific information to a health-conscious public more easily. If you haven’t already done so, please contact your senators and representatives and tell them how important this bill is!

Protect Your Rights to Know The Science Behind Nutritional Health Supplements, Don't Allow Conflicting Industry Interests Control Your Choice or Your Access to Vital Information About Your Health and Wellness.

Don't be Passive Leaving Others To Fight for Your Rights, You May Need Them Someday and Find Them Gone. Opposition Lawyers Will Fight As Long As There's Money to Be Had. Think of Big Tobacco and Stand Up For Freedom of Information While We Still Have The Chance.

Acid Alkaline PH Balance in Your Body Equates Health- Protection-Defense Quality of Life

2011-04-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Explanation on ph balance and protection :

pH of the Human Body is Critical for Health

Originally titled: What in the Cell is Going on? - The Battle is over pH

by Dr. Gary Tunsky

As you quietly read these words, a whirl of activity is taking place in every cell of your body. Every second, unseen, unnoticed, millions of new cells are reborn in your body’s ceaseless program of self-generation. Since cells are the bricks and mortar from which all living tissue and organs are made, to understand degenerative and metabolic disease you must become familiar with the miniature world of the cell and how they are able to perform baffling chemical transformations producing infinitely complex proteins, vitamins, hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors, enzymes and metabolic energy called ATP.

A healthy body is determined by the health of each of its single cells. All disease originates at the cellular level and not at the organ or system level. Healthy cells create healthy tissues. Healthy tissues create healthy organs like the heart and lungs. Healthy organs create healthy systems like the endocrine system or the immune system and healthy systems make up a healthy body.

In the complex world of 75 trillion cells that make up your nation body, you are the President (the brain) that delegates the police force that protects and shields the cellular citizens from attack by foreign enemies; the cellular citizen’s work performance, transportation system, medical care, communication, food and water, and methods of toxic waste and trash removal. With your guidance and direction, the nation body will provide all the necessities for proper functioning as a whole. Your cell citizens come in all shapes, sizes and performance capabilities that manufacture an infinite variety of job tasks. Some reside in large cities that are your organs; others prefer to live in the outskirts in small towns away from the traffic - your fingernails for instance. But no matter where they reside, each cellular citizen has a purpose, an important duty for the good of the nation — your body.

So if the health of the cell is the answer, what constitutes a healthy cell? What you eat, drink, breathe and bathe in will either nourish the 75 trillion cells with oxygen, water, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, essential fatty acids (EFAs), glucose and amino acids, or contaminate the cells by the slow poisoning of the bloodstream. You see, what you breathe, whether oxygen or environmental contaminants ends up in the bloodstream. What you eat, whether living organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, legumes and seeds or refined, processed, foodless foods and toxic sugar laden drinks end up after digestion in the bloodstream The bloodstream is a flowing river to all the cells for nourishment and removal of acidic waste residues. So, is your bloodstream a river of life or a river of death and disease? For the Life of the flesh is in the blood..." (Lev. 17:11)
Cells are multifaceted. Some are like miniature electrical generators like a lithium battery. They all respire like a lung to bring in intelligent nutrients and remove toxic waste products. Cells are also manufactunng plants that synthesize hormones, neurotransmitters, proteins and life force. These cellular engines also communicate like a wireless fiber-optic network 24 hours a day. Our finite minds couldn’t possibly fathom or consciously control the extraordinary complex tasks of manufacturing, storage, repair, communication, transportation, police, waste disposal, administration, food production, temperature control and pH balancing that goes on in our body daily to the normally metabolized acids from body tissues and maintain health and vitality.

A picture metaphor of how the cells communicate would be to envision all six billion people on this planet picking up a wireless phone simultaneously and having a phone conversation. Now picture everyone clicking three-way and having a three-way conversation. Then picture everyone in the world clicking on conference call with total conversation capability of 1,000 different people simultaneously. The question is, does your cell phone have good reception to transmit and receive messages. Your intestinal cell phone talks to the skin. Your spleen cell phone talks to the thymus. Your heart cell phone talks to the liver. All organs and systems work in unison. No organ or system works alone, just as no nutrient works alone. So what is the regulatory authority that controls cell processes? The answer is pH.

The pH of your tissues and body fluids affects the state of your health or inner cleanliness or filth. The closer the pH is to 7.35 - 7.45, the higher you’re level of health and well being and your ability to resist states of disease and the onset of symptomologies.

The pH scale is like a thermometer showing increases and decreases in the acid and alkaline content of these fluids. Deviations above or below a 7.35 -7.45 pH range in the blood can signal potentially serious and dangerous symptoms or states of disease. When the body can no longer effectively neutralize and eliminate the acids it relocates them within the body’s extra-cellular fluids and connective tissue cells directly compromising cellular integrity.

Indeed the entire metabolic process depends on a balanced pH. As more acid wastes back up, and the body slowly stews in its poisonous wastes, a chronically over acidic body pH corrodes body tissue, slowly eating into the 60,000 miles of our veins and arteries like acid eating into marble. This is what science calls hemorrhage. If left unchecked, it will interrupt all cellular activities and functions from the beating of your heart to the neuro firing of your brain. Over acidification interferes with life itself, leading to all sickness and “dis-ease.” Fundamentally, all regulatory mechanisms, including breathing, ingestion, circulation, hormone production, neurotransmitter release, etc., serve the purpose of balancing pH by removing cells. When you eat food, it ferments, just the way a banana on your counter ferments from a green, to yellow, to brown, to black. The banana rots from the inside out, not from the outside in. That is why humans can look healthy from the outside but are rotting and decaying from the inside.

This is what the medical community refers to as degenerative disease. These morbid microforms produce potent acidic by-products, which further compromise pH and create disruption in the body’s biosystem. This process can involve further morbidity through bacteria, yeast, fungus and mold with subsequent serious life-threatening symptomologies. I would say that disease comes from the inside out and that the terrain or environment of the body is the catalyst for the development and progression of all disease. This does not preclude the contributing factors from external circumstances such as trauma, airborne microforms, air pollution, radiation, chemicals and drugs. These all provide negative acidic impressions but “dis-ease” arises within the cell in response to these impressions.

Sink Or Swim

Think of your body as a fish tank. Imagine the importance of maintaining the integrity of the internal fluids of the body that we swim in daily. Imagine the fish in this tank are your cells and organ systems bathing in the fluids, which transport food and remove waste. Now imagine I back up my car and put the tailpipe up against the air intake filter supplying oxygen to the water in the tank. The water becomes filled with carbon monoxide lowering the pH, creating and acidic environment and threatening the health of the (fish), (your cells and organs). What if! throw in too much food or the wrong kind of food and the fish are unable to consume or digest it all and the food starts to decompose and putrefy? Toxic waste chemicals build up as the food breaks down, creating more acidic by-products, altering the optimal pH. This is a small example of what we are doing to our internal fluids daily, some of us more than others. We are polluting our internal fluids with acidic toxins like nicotine, drugs, excessive intake of acid forming foods, acidic beverages and social drugs such as coffee, carbonated beverages and alcohol, which all compromise the delicate balance of pH that maintains homeostasis. Some of us have fish tanks (bodies) that are barely able to support life, yet we somehow manage to struggle from day to day manifesting severe imbalances until there is the inevitable crash and debilitating chronic, disturbing, and diseased symptomology to deal with a life-threatening illness in a hospital somewhere.

7 Bodily Responses That Fight To Maintain pH

All metabolic processes, including immunity, depend on a delicately balanced pH, which harmonizes electromagnetic energies. The body constantly fights to maintain a blood pH at around 7.35 -7.45 much like our internal thermostat that tries to maintain a 98.6-degree body temperature. There are seven homeostatic adaptation responses that fight to maintain this pH balance.

1) Using high pH bodily fluids such as water as a solvent to neutralize acid residues.

2) Pulling bicarbonate from the pancreas into the blood (an alkalizing agent). Bicarbonate ions are generated into the blood cells from carbon dioxide and diffuse into the plasma.

3) Protein buffers of glutathione, methionine, cystine, taurine, just to name a few, act as buffers intra-cellularly to bind or neutralize acids during cellular disorganization.

4.) Electrolyte buffers of sodium, calcium and potassium work in the blood, lymph, and extra-cellular and intracellular fluids to bind acids, which are then removed through the urine.

5.) Pulling stored calcium and magnesium from skeletal bones and teeth to neutralize blood acids.

6.) Filtration and elimination of acidic residues through the skin, urinary tract and respiration.

7.) Pushing blood acid residues and accumulated toxins into outer extremities as a storage bin away from vital organs. The wrist, joints, fingers, toes and skin are the major target areas to keep the toxins from saturating internal vital organs like the heart and lungs.

When all seven-protection phases are overwhelmed, the end result is accumulated acid residues at the cellular level, which drown out oxygen. With this acidic, low oxygen terrain, the microzyma’s (small ferments) trigger morbid microbe infiltration of fungus, molds and parasites, cancer cells, etc., where they seek the diseased acid terrain as food. (Editor's note: The term "microzyma" was created by Antoine Bechamp. These are small living components of cells and are described more fully later in this article ).

As these organisms feed, they produce waste just like you do. Their urine and feces are called mycotoxins, which are very poisonous to humans. Being acids themselves, mycotoxins greatly worsen the acidity caused by an acidic diet and toxic acid emotions. They are spilled into the blood as well as inside cells, where they cause free radical damage to the genetic material of the cell eventually causing cell death. The dead necrotic cells also spill out acid wastes. The blood poisoning results in more cell and tissue poisoning furthering the disturbance of the microzyma triggering morbid forms of yeast, molds and viruses, which disrupts body chemistry causing disease to the systems. So it’s a vicious cycle. One acid condition creates anothet Acidic diet coupled with toxic acid emotions creates an acid pH to the cells. This causes low oxygen levels (hypoxia), which is necessary for keeping back destructive anaerobic microbes and immuno-suppression is the result. Then medical doctors come in and treat the acid condidon with another acid (pharmaceuticals).

Balancing your pH levels could be the health answers you've been PRAYING for.

Is an acidic pH balance behind YOUR symptoms?

The answer could be "YES!"—if…

You suffer from high blood pressure, a failing heart, or other heart problems…
You suffer from stiff, inflamed and painful joints, or you suffer from bone loss…
Your doctor told you that your blood sugar levels are too high or too low…
You find it more difficult to get a good night's sleep…
You suffer from constant fatigue—or energy crashes after meals…
You frequently endure cramping, constipation, heartburn, and other digestive problems…
You sometimes feel depressed, negative and cranky…
You notice that your ability to solve problems or to remember details fail you more often…
You sometimes suffer from shortness of breath or other lung problems…
You experience pain, numbness, or tingling in your hands, legs, or feet…
Your skin and hair are aging more rapidly than they should…
Your eyesight or hearing is fading at an alarming rate…
You suffer from low sexual desire or performance problems…
You contract infections more often with each passing year…

pH balance equals life, High acidity equals disease

Your body is 70% water. For YOU to be healthy, all that water needs to have a healthy pH balance—not too acidic, not too alkaline.

The letters "pH" mean "potential of hydrogen" and simply measure how acidic or alkaline your body is on a scale of 0 to 14.

You achieve optimum health when your body stays in a slightly alkaline environment—about 7.0 to 7.5 as measured by saliva.

A pH of 7 is neutral…

A low pH reading of less than 7 means you're too acidic
and that's DANGEROUS!

A high pH reading of 7 to 7.5 means your body is more alkaline—which is GOOD

For vibrant health, all that water—a whopping 70% of your body's weight—must be maintained at a proper pH balance—not too alkaline, not too acidic.

"pH" simply means "potential of Hydrogen" and is measured on a scale of 0 (100% acidic) to 14 (100% alkaline).

A healthy person with perfectly balanced pH has a reading of about 7.4 in their blood and about 7.25 in their tissues. That means every cell in your body should be slightly alkaline. That's good; because your cells need to stay slightly alkaline to survive—and the truth is, we all live—and we die—at the cellular level!

When you were born, your body was slightly alkaline and your pH levels were normal. But over the years, three facts of modern life cause your tissue pH readings to drop and become dangerously acidic:

1. The simple act of living produces enormous amounts of acid in your body: To do its all-important work, every cell in your body absorbs nutrients and excretes waste products that are extremely acidic. Some of that waste is actually used to produce energy. But over time, the unburned waste piles up inside you, making your body more acidic with each passing day.

2. The foods you love—even the healthy ones—flood your cells with acid: Yogurt, wheat germ, navy and pinto beans, plums, spinach, honey, brown rice, many types of fish and other healthy foods may be good for you—but they're also infamous for raising acid levels inside your cells.

Veritable tidal waves of acid are released inside you when you digest meat, eggs, milk, cheeses, white flour and sugar. And not surprisingly, beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, soft drinks and artificial sweeteners dump much more acid into your body.

3. The modern world pours even more acid into you every single day: Every day of your life, you have absorbed even more acid from the environment—from acid rain and other pollutants in your drinking water, and even from the polluted air you likely breathe. And if that isn't serious enough, most modern medicines and prescription drugs are notorious for producing acid in our bodies.

No wonder doctors find that the vast majority of Americans suffer from dangerous pH imbalances—and our bodies are growing more acidic with each passing day!

This deadly chain reaction could cost you your health or even your LIFE!

If you're one of the tens-of-millions of Americans whose pH balance is too acidic, your body is working hard to neutralize acid, and bring you into balance.

This isn't hard to fix if you understand what you take internally to balance out acidity. Whether food source, supplemental ingredient or liquid, you can balance your PH simply. Don't fall for the ads that claim they have the secret to balancing your body pH. Natural substances are not exclusive, nor can they be patented as they are available in nature. Formulations generally combine a few of these substances in a secret combination which make it proprietary, yet they're nothing more than ingredients you can get for far cheaper individually and generally one or two will work just as well as the concoctions although the product may be good.

Chlorophyll or most any green plant, but primarily the chlorella, spirulina, chlorophyll algae type plant will alkalinize your system.

Baking soda is extremely alkalinizing, even in small amounts with purified water which is why it was an old school remedy for acid indigestion. I've read different schools of thought in light of the current radiation contamination we're living with. I've tried it once to see how it worked, used litmus paper and found it delivered as expected but I admittedly love all the acidic foods so maybe it was right for me. It may be too much for others. Do your homework, take responsibility for your decisions and health, we've handed it over to others for too long. Decide for yourself remembering that it's used in baking bread, so.. Be careful about taking too much or taking it with a full stomach because of the bubbling and gas the reaction of acid with alkaline makes. Think of junior high school science project with the plaster volcano, baking soda in the top you add a capful of vinegar to.. it burbles and foams up and the 'lava' overflows ..makes a fun project but not so much in your stomach. I've included two opinions of doctors who advocate it's usefulness, read them and there's also plenty on the web. Primarily the caution seems to be that it's super effective in detoxing some pretty nasty stuff so you want to manage how fast you offload the toxins.

Iodine therapy is the same way and I've gone through that using the same supplements being recommended for protection from radiation poisoning, so all in all, this entails natural unprocessed salt to pull the toxins out, which you drink in water. The rest are super antioxidants to mop up the free radical damage of radiation or the process of living and working out. Magnesium internally and with Epsom salt baths are remarkable for helping take off the detox symptoms. Selenium, Vitamin C. It really works well.

Dr. Mark Sircus is an authority on both magnesium and bicarbonat of soda, aka baking soda for neutralizing acidic ph among other wonderful purposes. Magnesium may be one of the singlemost important minerals we can get into our bodies.

http://www.life-enthusiast.com/index/Articles/Sircus/Sodium_Bicarbonate

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Sodium Bicarbonate

Lessons in Cancer and General pH Management by International Medical Veritas Association

More works by Dr. Mark Sircus Ac. OMD at http://imva.info

Most of us are going to be surprised to find out that there is an oncologist in Rome Italy, Dr. Tullio Simoncini, destroying cancer tumors with sodium bicarbonate.[i] Sodium bicarbonate is safe, extremely inexpensive and unstoppably effective when it comes to cancer tissues. It’s an irresistible chemical, cyanide to cancer cells for it hits the cancer cells with a shock wave of alkalinity, which allows much more oxygen into the cancer cells than they can tolerate. Cancer cells cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen. Sodium bicarbonate is, for all intent and purposes, an instant killer of tumors. Full treatment takes only days, as does another cancer treatment that heats the cancer cells with laser generated heat. (At bottom see combining pH shift with heat.)

The extracellular (interstitial) pH (pHe) of solid tumours is significantly more acidic compared to normal tissues. [ii]

Case one: A patient diagnosed with pulmonary neoplasm of the lung, underwent treatment with sodium bicarbonate, before submitting to surgery to remove part of the lung. Treatment consisted of sodium bicarbonate administered orally, by aerosol, and IV. After first treatment reduction of nodules and absorption was evident, and after 8 months was no longer visible at all. Treatments also reduced size of the liver and results were confirmed by both X-ray and CAT scan.

Studies have shown how manipulation of tumour pH with sodium bicarbonate enhances some forms of chemotherapy.[iii] Proteins can be modified both in vivo and in vitro by increases in acidity. In fact pH is the regulatory authority that controls most cellular processes. The pH balance of the human bloodstream is recognized by medical physiology texts as one of the most important biochemical balances in all of human body chemistry. pH is the acronym for "Potential Hydrogen". In definition, it is the degree of concentration of hydrogen ions in a substance or solution. It is measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14. Higher numbers mean a substance is more alkaline in nature and there is a greater potential for absorbing more hydrogen ions. Lower numbers indicate more acidity with less potential for absorbing hydrogen ions.

pH is very important because pH controls the speed of our body's biochemical reactions. It does this by controlling the speed of enzyme activity as well as the speed that electricity moves through our body. The higher (more alkaline) the pH of a substance or solution, the more electrical resistance that substance or solution holds. Therefore, electricity travels slower with higher pH. If we say something has an acid pH, we are saying it is hot and fast. Alkaline pH on the other hand, biochemically speaking, is slow and cool.

Cancer tissues have a much higher concentration of toxic chemicals, pesticides, etc then do healthy tissues.

In 1973, a study conducted by the Department of Occupational Health at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem found that when cancerous breast tissue is compared with non-cancerous tissue from elsewhere in the same woman's body, the concentration of toxic chemicals such as DDT and PCBs was "much increased in the malignant tissue compared to the normal breast and adjacent adipose tissue."[iv] This should say something to the oncologists of the world about chemical etiologies that are going undiagnosed and untreated.

Part of any successful cancer treatment includes chelation and detoxification of heavy metals and a host of toxic chemicals, which are all invading our bodies’ everyday. It is literally raining mercury, uranium contamination is increasing, lead we are discovering is even more toxic than anyone ever believed and is even in the bread that we eat, arsenic is in our chicken, the government still wants you to get your yearly mercury flu shot, dentists of course are still using hundreds of tons of mercury exposing patients to internalized toxic waste dumps (mercury vapors from hell), fluoride is still put in the water and chlorine is breathed in most showers. This just covers a small slice of the toxic disaster that is the hallmark of life in the 21st century. But oncologists have just not been able to understand that cancer patients are suffering from poisoning on a massive scale with all the chemicals scientists have already established cause cancer.

The IMVA recommends alkaline foods and sodium bicarbonate so that the pH of the blood remains high, which in turn means that the blood is capable of carrying more oxygen. This in turn keeps every cell in the body at peak efficiency and helps the cell eliminate waste products. Detoxification and chelation will proceed more easily and safely under slightly alkaline conditions. Increased urinary pH reduces oxidative injury in the kidney so it behooves us to work clinically with bicarbonate.

Patients receiving sodium bicarbonate achieved urine pHs of 6.5 as opposed to 5.6 with those receiving sodium chloride. This alkalinization is theorized to have a protective effect against the formation of free-radicals that may cause nephropathy.[v]

Dr. Michael Metro

Body pH level changes are intense in the profundity of their biological effects. Even genes directly experience external pH. pH differentially regulates a large number of proteins. Increased oxidative stress, which correlates almost exponentially with pH changes into the acidic, is especially dangerous to the mitochondria, which suffer the greatest under oxidative duress. Epigenetics, which may now have begun eclipsing traditional genetics, commonly describes how factors such as diet and smoking, rather than inheritance influence how genes behave.

The great advantage of knowing the prime cause of a disease is that it can then be attacked logically and over a broad front.

Dr. Otto Warburg

Dr. Otto Warburg, two times Nobel Prize winner, stated in his book, The Metabolism of Tumors that the primary cause of cancer was the replacement of oxygen in the respiratory cell chemistry by the fermentation of sugar. The growth of cancer cells is initiated by a fermentation process, which can be triggered only in the absence of oxygen at the cell level. What Warburg was describing was a classic picture of acidic conditions. Just like overworked muscle cells manufacture lactic acid by-products as waste, cancerous cells spill lactic acid and other acidic compounds causing acid pH.

After we just saw how important sulfur is in human health and how useful a basic chemical like sodium thiosulfate can be, we now get a crash course in the power of sodium bicarbonate and the act of instantly turning cancer cells alkaline. Might as well shoot a guided cruise missile at them - so effective, safe, quick and precise is sodium bicarbonate, inexpensive as well. Just a few pennies a day of it will keep cancer further away, keeping it at arms length from ourselves, patients and loved ones. It is something we can use to treat our water with as well, excellent to put in distilled or reverse osmosis water or any water for that matter.

Handing of cancer is impossible without understanding why some tissues in the body are deficient in oxygen and therefore prone to cancer. Cancerous tissues are acidic, whereas healthy tissues are alkaline. Water (H2O) decomposes into H+ and OH-. When a solution contains more H+ than OH- then it is said to be acid. When it contains more OH- than H+ then it is said to be alkaline. When oxygen enters an acid solution it can combine with H+ ions to form water. Oxygen helps to neutralize the acid, while at the same time the acid prevents oxygen from reaching the tissues that need it. Acidic tissues are devoid of free oxygen. An alkaline solution is just the reverse. Two hydroxyl ions (OH-) can combine to produce one water molecule and one oxygen atom. In other words, an alkaline solution can provide oxygen to the tissues.

The pH scale goes from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Below 7 is acid and above 7 is alkaline. The blood, lymph and cerebral spinal fluid in the human body are designed to be slightly alkaline at a pH of 7.4.

At a pH slightly above 7.4 cancer cells become dormant and at pH 8.5 cancer cells will die while healthy cells will live. This has given rise to a variety of treatments based on increasing the alkalinity of the tissues such as vegetarian diet, the drinking of fresh fruit and vegetable juices, and dietary supplementation with alkaline minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, cesium and rubidium. But nothing can compare to the instant alkalinizing power of sodium bicarbonate for safe and effective treatment of cancer.

Like magnesium chloride or sulfates are excellent emergency medicines, basic chemicals, nutritional in nature, sodium bicarbonate is a nutritional medicine meaning it cannot and will not end up controlled by CODEX. To control bicarbonate they would have to demand mothers stop making cake with it. We might thus identify sodium bicarbonate as an emergency medicine for cancer with the above supporting approaches working on broader levels to help overall physiology change to a degree where body chemistry is unfavorable for new cancer growth.

Cancer seems to grow slowly in a highly acid environment (because the acids cause it to partially destroy itself) and may actually grow more quickly as your body becomes more alkaline prior to reaching the healthy pH slightly above 7.4 where the cancer becomes dormant. Therefore it is important to get pH above 7.4 quickly. Once one has achieved a pH above 7.4, it is useful to monitor saliva pH regularly to ensure that the body remains sufficiently alkaline.

Earlier and more frequent use of sodium bicarbonate was associated with higher early resuscitability rates and with better long-term neurological outcome. Sodium bicarbonate is beneficial during CPR.[vi]

“The therapeutic treatment of bicarbonate salts can be administered orally, through aerosol, intravenously and through catheter for direct targeting of tumors.” All of Dr. Tullio Simoncini’s treatments with sodium bicarbonate are directed as specifically as possible to the organs involved, for example, vaginally as well as abdominally into the peritoneal space for cervical cancer, through the hepatic artery for liver cancer in order to get the solution as close to the affected area as possible. Sodium bicarbonate administered orally, via aerosol or intravenously can achieve positive results in most tumors, including the brain, while others, such as the serious ones of the bones can remain unaffected. Dr. Simoncini, with the help of interventionist radiologists was able to reach those areas of the body that had previously been inaccessible. This was achieved through positioning appropriate catheters either in cavities for peritoneum and pleura, or in arteries to reach other organs.[vii]

The most effective measure to treat RT-induced mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer is frequent oral rinsing with a sodium bicarbonate rinse, to reduce the amount of oral microbial flora.[viii]

Case two: A nine-year-old child is hospitalized and diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma on the right humerus. Despite several chemotherapy cycles surgery removed the humeral bone. Growth of three tumor masses continued despite continued efforts to stop progression. Sodium bicarbonate salts treatment were then started administered by catheter into the right sub-clavian artery in order to administer the salts (phleboclysis of 500 cc at five per cent) directly on the tumoral masses.

Of the 3 masses shown by the scographic scan of May 7, 2001, whose size is respectively:
a. 6.5 cm
b. 4.4 cm
c. 2.4 cm

After the sodium bicarbonate salts treatment only one tumor was left, with a size of only 1.5 cm, which is most likely residual scarring, as shown by the echography of September 10, 2001.

Sodium bicarbonate injection is also indicated in the treatment of metabolic acidosis which may occur in severe renal disease, uncontrolled diabetes, and circulatory insufficiency due to shock or severe dehydration, extracorporeal circulation of blood, cardiac arrest and severe primary lactic acidosis. Sodium bicarbonate is further indicated in the treatment of drug intoxications, including barbiturates. Sodium carbonate has been found effective in treating poisoning or overdose from many chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs by negating the cardiotoxic and neurotoxic effects. [ix]

Sodium bicarbonate is useful in treating neurological disorders in children.

An extremely simple therapy used by physicians who treat autism is to supply a mild antidote that neutralizes the excess acids. The most convenient product is a nonprescription drug called AlkaSeltzer Gold™. Do not use any other kind of AlkaSeltzer™. AlkaSeltzer Gold™ is simply a very safe product (sodium and potassium bicarbonate) that helps to neutralize excess acids of any kind.

Dr. William Shaw
Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD

Knowledge of sodium bicarbonate is important for parents because the rate of childhood cancer is growing exponentially. But parents who resist the radiation burning, cutting and the lethal chemicals are regularly hauled before the courts only to have their children taken away from them. Oncologists are increasingly resorting to the justice system to have children made wards of the courts who then turn them over to medically irresponsible practitioners. It is inexcusable separating a child from his mother and father in the middle of a medical crisis. Adding to the stress by tormenting patients’ hearts and souls has nothing to do with safe or effective medicine. The naked truth is doctors and medical institutions have not earned the necessary trust for this level of intervention in people’s lives. With patient safety slipping year by year,[x] children are not safe in hospitals, much less so if forced at gunpoint from their parents embrace.

One mother wrote, “It worked so well for both of my children that the die-off was an uneventful experience, even though they both had very high levels of yeast.” The restoring of acid/alkaline balance also relieves many allergies. “These children also had grave disturbances in electrolyte chemistry, and tended to be acidotic (low CO). The data that unfolded was fascinating and clearly earmarked the acidosis and hypoxic state (low serum bicarbonate = low O2 levels). Potassium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, magnesium carbonate and the like were used. Now we began to understand why so many children responded to Buffered C (potassium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate), and others needed a more specific buffer (in some children for example niacin was grossly depleted and they required niacin bicarbonate),” wrote Patricia Kane.

The acid/alkaline balance is one of the most overlooked aspects of health, though many have written much about it. In general, the American public is heavily acid, excepting vegetarians.

Case three: A 62-year-old patient undergoes surgery in December 1998 for endometrial adenocarcinoma, followed by successive cycles of radiotherapy and anti-hormone therapy. Following the thickening of the peritoneum and the growth of several lymph nodes due to carcinosis; from the clinical point of view, the patient’s condition decayed with the presence of exhaustion, general swelling, intestinal meteorism, irregularity of evacuation, steady feeling of heaviness and blood pressure instability. Treatment with a 5% sodium bicarbonate solution administered alternately thru an endoperitoneal catheter and via IV showed rapid improvement to a normal condition of health. A final CAT scan confirms the regression of the peritoneal carcinosis and a stabilization of the size of the lymph nodes when compared to the preceding year.

The kidneys are usually the first organs to show chemical damage upon uranium exposure, military manuals suggest doses or infusions of sodium bicarbonate to help alkalinize the urine if this happens. This makes the uranyl ion less kidney-toxic and promotes excretion of the nontoxic uranium-carbonate complex. The oral administration of sodium bicarbonate diminishes the severity of the changes produced by uranium in the kidneys.[xi]

Case four: A 40-year-old patient underwent surgical intervention (left radical mastectomy) for mammarian carcinoma seven months earlier. After three months of chemotherapy, the patient is affected by: “diffused pulmonary and hepatic metastasis; bone metastasis particularly to the fifth and sixth lumbar vertebrae, with invasion and compression of the medullar channel, which is causing extreme pain which makes the patient unresponsive to any treatment.” All pain suppressant drugs – morphine included – are totally ineffective and the patient is totally prostrate even unable to sleep. Believing that fungal colonies amassed in the medullar channel will respond to administration of sodium bicarbonate salts, lumbar injections are begun.

Dr Tullio Simoncini recounts: "As I administer it by slowly injecting 50 cc of sodium bicarbonate solution at 8.4 %, the patient tosses and with a thread of a voice confesses to me that she has slept only two hours in the last week. Exhausted, she whispers to me: “If only I could sleep half an hour tonight.” But the day after, she calls me on the phone and says: “I have slept all night”. After two more lumbar injections of the bicarbonate salts in the next month, the pain disappeared completely. Magnetic Resonance imaging reports performed before and after treatment were defined by hospital head of the radiology department as "shocking."

Sodium bicarbonate is the chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is commonly used as an antacid for short-term relief of stomach upset, to correct acidosis in kidney disorders, to make the urine alkaline during bladder infections and to minimize uric acid crystallization during gout treatment. Prescription sodium bicarbonate products are given by injection to treat metabolic acidosis and some drug intoxications. Sodium bicarbonate is available as a nonprescription medical as well as a general house hold item. It is also used with other non-prescription drugs for short-term treatment of various conditions to treat anything from fever to moderate pain.

Sodium bicarbonate possesses the property of absorbing heavy metals, dioxins and furans. Comparison of cancer tissue with healthy tissue from the same person shows that the cancer tissue has a much higher concentration of toxic chemicals, pesticides, etc.

Sodium bicarbonate neutralizes acids present in gases (in particular hydrochloric acid, suphur dioxide, hydrofluoric acid) to form sodium salts (sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, sodium fluoride, sodium carbonate), which are all known as Residual Sodium Chemicals. Sodium bicarbonate can be made into a paste salve with vinegar, it relieves burning from bug stings (particularly bee stings), poison ivy, nettles, and sunburn. It is used as an antacid to treat acid indigestion and heartburn. Mixed with water in a 10% solution can soften earwax for removal.

Substituting a sodium bicarbonate solution for saline infusion prior to administration of radiocontrast material seems to reduce the incidence of nephropathy.[xii]

Dr. Thomas P. Kennedy
American Medical Association

Because sodium bicarbonate has long been known and is widely used, it has many other names including sodium hydrogen carbonate, sodium bicarb, baking soda, bread soda, cooking soda, bicarb soda, saleratus or bicarbonate of soda. It is soluble in water. This white solid is crystalline but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slight alkaline taste resembling that of sodium carbonate. It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs. It is also produced artificially. World wide production is on the scale of 100,000 ton/year. Sodium bicarbonate is primarily used in cooking (baking) where it reacts with other components to release carbon dioxide, that helps dough "rise."

It is commonly used to increase the pH and total alkalinity of the water for pools and spas. Sodium bicarbonate can be added as a simple solution for restoring the pH balance of water that has a high level of chlorine. It is sometimes used in septic tanks to control pH and bacteria.

Sodium bicarbonate-rich mineral water in conjunction with a low-salt diet may have a beneficial effect on calcium homeostasis.[xiii]

Distilled water is not safe, it lacks bicarbonates and minerals and yes, it is acid forming to the body. Yet it is an excellent aid in detoxification and chelation for its purity pulls on toxicities in the body. Part of the reason why our body is acid is that it lacks enough bicarbonate necessary to neutralize the acid. Whenever the water lacks the proper bicarbonates to neutralize the water in distilled water your body basically becomes a little more acid. But we can easily treat distilled or reverse osmosis water by adding bicarbonate and magnesium and perhaps even some sodium thiosulfate.

pH of the blood is the most important factor to determine the state of the microorganisms in the blood.

The native chemical and physical properties of sodium bicarbonate account for its wide range of applications, including cleaning, deodorizing, buffering, and fire extinguishing. Sodium bicarbonate neutralizes odors chemically, rather than masking or absorbing them. Consequently, it is used in bath salts and deodorant body powders. Sodium bicarbonate tends to maintain a pH of 8.1 (7 is neutral) even when acids, which lower pH, or bases, which raise pH, are added to the solution. Its ability to tabletize makes it a good effervescent ingredient in antacids and denture cleaning products. Sodium bicarbonate is also found in some anti-plaque mouthwash products and toothpaste.

Sodium bicarbonate also is indicated in severe diarrhea which is often accompanied by a significant loss of bicarbonate. Vigorous bicarbonate therapy is required in any form of metabolic acidosis where a rapid increase in plasma total CO2 content is crucial † e.g. cardiac arrest, circulatory insufficiency due to shock or severe dehydration, and in severe primary lactic acidosis or severe diabetic acidosis.

Sodium Bicarbonate Injection, USP is administered by the intravenous route. In cardiac arrest, a rapid intravenous dose of one to two 50 mL vials (44.6 to 100 mEq) may be given initially and continued at a rate of 50 mL (44.6 to 50 mEq) every 5 to 10 minutes if necessary (as indicated by arterial pH and blood gas monitoring) to reverse the acidosis. Caution should be observed in emergencies where very rapid infusion of large quantities of bicarbonate is indicated. Bicarbonate solutions are hypertonic and may produce an undesirable rise in plasma sodium concentration in the process. of correcting the metabolic acidosis. In cardiac arrest, however, the risks from acidosis exceed those of hypernatremia.

In the current system, if a promising compound can’t be patented, it is highly unlikely ever to make it to market — no matter how well it performs in the laboratory or in emergency room situations. The hormone melatonin,[xiv] sold as an inexpensive food supplement in the United States, has repeatedly been shown to slow the growth of various cancers when used in conjunction with conventional treatments. Dr. Paolo Lissoni, another Italian oncologist has written many articles about this hormone and conducted clinical trials. But he has despaired over the pharmaceutical industry’s total lack of interest in his treatment approach.

We need a new approach to fight cancer, one that will work safely and effectively since the majority of us are now destined to have to suffer through cancer at one point or another in our lives. The situation in the field of oncology is horrendous and in the area of childhood oncology they have earned their place in the book The Terror of Pediatric Medicine, (which one can download as a free e-book.)

Most people today cringe at the idea of finding a cancer then slashing, burning and poisoning it to smithereens. Most would agree that the mainstream cancer approach offers only marginal benefits at best, and providers push screening and aggressive treatment in part because they have nothing else to give, and also because it’s very profitable.

If the body’s cellular metabolism and pH is balanced it is susceptible to little illness or disease.

Since 1971, when President Nixon declared war on cancer, the budget of the National Cancer Institute has increased to $4.8 billion from half a billion and cancer rates are still going up. For most of the past half-century, medical treatment of invasive tumors like those of the breast and colon has relied mainly on drugs, radiation or both, in effect carpet-bombing the DNA of cancer cells. These highly toxic treatments do not address the root causes of cancer and are extremely dangerous, medical approaches involving the highest risks.

The great variety of cancers must reflect a fundamental mechanism by which the disease arises, one that has not been so clearly apparent until now.

Though allopathic medicine already uses sodium bicarbonate it will not any day soon turn to its own arsenal of already available safe and inexpensive medications like sodium bicarbonate or magnesium chloride. The medical industrial complex seems unwilling to change its views on cancer so patients will need to quietly ask their doctors for intravenous bicarbonate without specifying it as a substance they want to use to cure their cancer. It will be easier to find someone if one approaches with a need to treat acidic conditions than the actual cancer. Few doctors are willing to risk their licenses so it is better not to put them in an uncomfortable situation that they cannot control.

The closer the pH is to 7.35 - 7.45, the higher our level of health and well being and our ability to resist states of disease.

Sadly this does not address the need for the use of catheters which target tumors more directly thus pushing us toward a more complete protocol that will target cancer in a more general and comprehensive way. This needs to be done anyway because killing the tumor with a rush of alkalinity that provokes an oxygen rush into the cells will not prevent the condition from reoccurring. Though we can think that acidity is a basic cause of cancer a more basic cause is addressed when we look at what leads to the acidic conditions that are so prevalent in our bodies today.

Sodium bicarbonate is an anti-fungin substance that is very diffusible and thus very effective.

Dr Tullio Simoncini says, “It is useful to consider the extreme sensitivity of fungi to saline and electrolytic solutions. These solutions, because of their extreme capacity for diffusion, are able to reach all the myceliar biological expressions, including the most infinitesimal ones. Salts and bicarbonates, by making the “terrain” completely inorganic, eliminates the slightest organic fonts that fungi could use for nourishment. In this context, sodium bicarbonate, which is currently used in children’s oral candidiases, appears to be a simple and handy weapon capable of uprooting, inhibiting, or attenuating any neoplastic formation wherever it is possible to easily apply it.”

Cancer is actually a four-letter word — ACID, especially lactic acid as a waste product due to the low oxygen level and waste products of yeast and fungus.

For centuries, medicated baths have been one of the first lines of treatment for psoriasis. Even today, with sophisticated immunosuppressive treatments available, Dead Sea salts and spa waters are recognized to be beneficial in the management of psoriatic patients.

To assess statistically the efficacy of sodium bicarbonate baths in psoriasis patients, thirty-one patients with mild-moderate psoriasis were studied. Almost all patients who used NaHCO3- reported a statistically valuable improvement. NaHCO3- baths reduced itchiness and irritation; in general, the patients themselves recognized a beneficial impact on their psoriasis, so much so that they have continued to bathe in NaHCO3- even after the end of the study. [xv]

“Sodium bicarbonate therapy is harmless, fast and effective because it is extremely diffusible. A therapy with bicarbonate for cancer should be set up with strong dosage, continuously, and with pauseless cycles in a destruction work which should proceed from the beginning to the end without interruption for at least 7-8 days. In general a mass of 2-3-4 centimetres will begin to consistently regress from the third to the fourth day, and collapses from the fourth to the fifth. Generally speaking, the maximum limit of the dosage that can be administered in a session gravitates around 500 cc of sodium bicarbonate at five per cent solution, with the possibility of increasing or decreasing the dosage by 20 per cent in function of the body mass of the individual to be treated and in the presence of multiple localisations upon which to apportion a greater quantity of salts,” instructs Dr Simoncini.

In the early stages of acidic pH in the body’s tissues, the warning symptoms are mild. These include such things as skin eruptions, headaches, allergies, colds, flu and sinus problems. These symptoms are frequently treated (manipulated) with antibiotic drugs and suppressive medications. The longer and the deeper we become acidic the more our illness takes hold so it’s best to fight acidic conditions early on and in every presenting clinical situation. Certainly a highly toxic drug like anti viral Tamiflu won’t do a fraction of the job sodium bicarbonate will do especially if it’s combined with magnesium chloride and iodine as well as high levels of vitamin C.

In late stages of acidic pH we need to turn to the most alkaline minerals to increase our throw weight of alkalinity into cancer cells. Mass spectrographic and isotope studies have shown that potassium, rubidium, and especially cesium are most efficiently taken up by cancer cells. This uptake was enhanced by Vitamins A and C as well as salts of zinc and selenium. The quantity of cesium taken up was sufficient to raise the cell to the 8 pH range. [xvi]

There seems little grace left in medicine and it is a disgrace that allopathic medicine does not even use its own emergency medicines, proven heavies like magnesium sulfate and chloride, sodium bicarbonate and iodine to anywhere near a thousandth of a percent of their real medical potentials.

Combining pH shift with Heat

In the opening paragraph of this article we mentioned killing cancer cells with lasers, with heat.

Give me a chance to create fever and I will cure any disease. Parmenides 2,000 years ago

Fever is one of the body's own defensive and healing forces, created and sustained for the deliberate purpose of restoring health. The high temperature speeds up metabolism, inhibits the growth of the invading virus or bacteria, and literally burns the enemy with heat. Fever is an effective protective and healing measure not only against colds and simple infections, but against such serious diseases as polio and cancer.

The idea of destroying cancer with heat is certainly not new and has been widely accepted for a very long time, but has had very limited applications because it was finally concluded that, in order to ensure destruction of the cancerous growth, it is necessary to reach a temperature deadly to healthy cells as well. Many attempts have been made to bypass this problem and some methodologies have been developed like: localized hyperthermia, laserthermia, radio-fractionated hyperthermia and TTT. But they all have limitations and cannot complete the job, because they cannot achieve total necrosis and, unless the entire mass of neoplastic tissue is destroyed, the cancer will continue to grow. But:

Hyperthermia gives cancer a hard time: removing accumulations of stored toxic chemicals that cause cancer improving circulation so that tissues are both nourished with oxygen and flushed of acidic metabolic wastes weakening or even killing cancer cells that have a lower tolerance for heat than healthy cells.

Thus we should easily conclude that far-infrared sauna treatments are going to help a cancer sufferer no matter which way we slice the treatment protocol. But for a more targeted heat to kill cancer tumors we have Dr. Antonella Carpenter who has perfected the treatment of cancer cells with heat through her use of lasers. She generates the death of the cells by suffocation via heat. Dr Carpenter, a physicist with a clinic in Little Rock, says, “As long as the entire neoplastic mass is exposed to the laser light, for the correct amount of time, the success is complete and the results, as well as the healing stages, are always the same.” Her cancer treatment is called Light Induced Enhanced Selective Hyperthermia, which in itself pretty much summarizes all the characteristics of this new therapy. With this form of treatment cancer cells reach a deadly temperature level quickly and are subject to irreversible damage and therefore die, either immediately or within 48 hours.

In a separate chapter we will be talking about hyperthermia in another context, that of the hot bathtub which we will learn to fill with healing substances like sodium bicarbonate. We will be creating our own hot springs, healing pools that will do wonders for our health. Medical treatments of the first order can be had right inside your very own bathtub.

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Director International Medical Veritas Association

More works by Dr. Mark Sircus Ac. OMD at http://imva.info

Sodium Bicarbonate

Product Quality and Cost

Though I have been using Bob’s Red Mill sodium bicarbonate I have recently received two boxes of Arm and Hammers and I sat for quite a while admiring their boxes and all the information on them. I have been in touch directly with the company and have been reassured of its absolute purity meaning there is no aluminum in it. Arm and Hammer is as aluminum free as Bob’s Red Mill, which advertises itself specifically to be aluminum free, and in the process has convinced most people I know that Arm and Hammers has aluminum when it does not.

The proper mixing of bicarbonate concentrate is an issue and certainly this is a major safety concern at every dialysis facility in the world, which use sodium bicarbonate every day. Oral sodium bicarbonate is used to treat metabolic acidosis in patients with renal tubular acidosis. Since infants and young children are unable to swallow tablets, those affected must ingest sodium bicarbonate in a powder or liquid form. Pharmacy-weighed sodium bicarbonate is expensive and inconvenient to obtain; some pharmacists are reluctant to provide it.

We determined that the sodium bicarbonate contained in 8-oz boxes of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda® was sufficiently constant in weight that dissolved in water to a given volume, it yielded a quantitatively acceptable therapeutic solution of sodium bicarbonate at a cost of approximately 3 percent of that of pharmacy- weighed sodium bicarbonate. Grocery store baking soda can be a safe, economical, and convenient source of sodium bicarbonate for the treatment of chronic metabolic acidosis in infants and young children.

The Church & Dwight name may not be familiar to many people, but their ARM & HAMMER® brand is recognized and respected by just about everyone. That’s because Church & Dwight has been producing ARM &HAMMER brand products for almost 160 years, ever since Austin Church, a physician, and John Dwight, his brother-in-law, began selling their high-quality sodium bicarbonate to grocers in New York City. The most demanding applications are in the area of healthcare, with hemodialysis in particular requiring exceptional purity and consistency. A leading force in modern bicarbonate hemodialysis Church & Dwight’s contribution to modern dialysis dates back to the early 1980s, when medical literature about the benefits of bicarbonate-buffered dialysate over acetate began to appear.

Anecdotal reports, and then clinical studies, showed an improved response when patients were dialyzed with bicarbonate instead of acetate. Beginning in 1982, Church & Dwight applied their technological expertise to the task of establishing exacting standards for hemodialysis grade sodium bicarbonate. Within two years, they were meeting those standards in full-scale production. When USP specifications for sodium bicarbonate used in hemodialysis were published in 1987 and formally issued in 1988, Church & Dwight hemodialysis grade sodium bicarbonate not only met the specifications, it exceeded them.

Bob’s Red Mill costs $2.61 a pound and Arm and Hammers costs less making it the least expensive medicine in the world. Personally I could not tell a difference between the consistencies in the two, both are equally fine. Sodium bicarbonate is widely available in most supermarkets and discount chains across the country at a cost of just over $2 per pound. Many different sizes are available depending on your needs ranging from 1 lb packages up to 14 lb packages. (normally used by people with pools to adjust pool water pH).

Do not confuse baking soda with baking powder which does or may contain aluminum. These are two very different products with baking powder having a mix of baking soda with various acidic ingredients. Make sure you are purchasing pure 100% baking soda or sodium bicarbonate.

Special Note: For perfect therapeutic bath add one pound or more of sodium bicarbonate with one pound or more of magnesium bath flakes.

References

[i] http://candida-international.blogspot.com/

[ii] Enhancement of chemotherapy by manipulation of tumour pH. Raghunand N, He X, van Sluis R, Mahoney B, Baggett B, Taylor CW, Paine-Murrieta G, Roe D, Bhujwalla ZM, Gillies RJ. Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson 85724-5024, USA.

[iii] Enhancement of chemotherapy by manipulation of tumour pH. Raghunand N, He X, van Sluis R, Mahoney B, Baggett B, Taylor CW, Paine-Murrieta G, Roe D, Bhujwalla ZM, Gillies RJ. Arizona Cancer Center.

[iv] Jerome B. Westin and Elihu Richter, "The Israeli Breast-Cancer Anomaly," in Devra Lee Davis and David Hoel, editors, TRENDS IN CANCER MORTALITY IN INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1990), pgs. 269-279.

Following public outcry, Israel banned these chemicals from being used on feed for dairy cows and cattle. Over the next ten years, the rate of breast cancer deaths in Israel declined sharply, with a 30% drop in mortality for women under 44 years of age, and an 8% overall decline. At the same time, all other known cancer risks--alcohol consumption, fat intake, lack of fruits and vegetables in the diet--increased significantly. During this period, worldwide death rates from cancer increased by 4%. The only answer scientists could find to explain this was the reduced level of environmental toxins.

[v]http://www.urotoday.com/

[vi] Resuscitation outcome in emergency medical systems with increased usage of sodium bicarbonate during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Bar, Joseph G et al; Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2005 Jan;49(1):6 Entrez PubMed

[vii] With the aim to reach the maximum effect, sodium bicarbonate should be administered directly on the neoplastic masses which are susceptible of regression only by destroying the fungal colonies. This is possible by the selective arteriography (the visualisation through instrumentation of specific arteries) and by the positioning of the arterial port-a-cath (these devices are small basins used to join the catheter). These methods allow the positioning of a small catheter directly in the artery that nourishes the neoplastic mass, allowing the administration of high dosages of sodium bicarbonate in the deepest recesses of the organism. With this method, it is possible to reach almost all organs; they can be treated and can benefit from a therapy with bicarbonate salts which is harmless, fast, and effective – with only the exception of some bone areas such as vertebrae and ribs, where the scarce arterial irrigation does not allow sufficient dosage to reach the targets. Selective arteriography therefore represents a very powerful weapon against fungi that can always be used against neoplasias, firstly because it is painless and leaves no after effects, secondly because the risks are very low.

[viii] Oncol Nurs Forum. 2002 Aug;29(7):1063-80. A research review of the current treatments for radiation-induced oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer.Shih A, Miaskowski C, Dodd MJ, Stotts NA, MacPhail

[ix] These include, Benzotropines (valium) cyclic antidepressants (amytriptayine), organophosphates, methanol (Methyl alcohol is a cheap and potent adulterant of illicit liquors) Diphenhydramine (Benedryl), Beta blockers (propanalol) Barbiturates, and Salicylates (Aspirin). Poisoning by drugs that block voltage-gated sodium channels produces intraventricular conduction defects, myocardial depression, bradycardia, and ventricular arrhythmias. Human and animal reports suggest that hypertonic sodium bicarbonate may be effective therapy for numerous agents possessing sodium channel blocking properties, including cocaine, quinidine, procainamide, flecainide, mexiletine, bupivacaine, and others.

[x] Patient safety incidents in U.S. hospitals increased by three percent overall from 2003 to 2005, and the error gap between the nation's best- and worst-performing hospitals remained wide. America's top rated centers had 40 percent lower rates of medical errors than the poorest-performing hospitals, the study showed. The fourth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study, put out by HealthGrades, an independent health care ratings company, examined over 40 million Medicare hospitalization records at almost 5,000 hospitals from 2003 to 2005. http://news.yahoo.com

[xi] A study of the acidosis, blood urea, and plasma chlorides in uranium nephritis in the dog, and the protective action of sodium bicarbonate. The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 25, 693-719, Copyright, 1917, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York http://www.jem.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/5/693

[xii] JAMA 2004;291:2328-2334,2376-2377. http://www.urotoday.com/

[xiii] Effect of sodium chloride- and sodium bicarbonate-rich mineral water on blood pressure and metabolic parameters in elderly normotensive individuals: a randomized double-blind crossover trial. J Hypertens. 1996 Jan;14(1):131-5. Department of Internal Medicine, Universitatsklinikum Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Germany.

[xiv] One of the most important supplements for the breast cancer patient is high doses of the hormone melatonin at bedtime. Melatonin blocks estrogen receptors somewhat similarly to the drug tamoxifen without the long-term side effects of tamoxifen. Further, when melatonin and tamoxifen are combined, synergistic benefits occur. Melatonin can be safely taken for an indefinite period of time. The suggested dose of melatonin for breast cancer patients is 3 mg to 50 mg at bedtime. Caution: Although melatonin is strongly recommended for breast cancer patients, interleukin-2 (IL-2), which often is combined with melatonin, should be avoided by breast cancer patients. IL-2 may promote breast cancer cell division. http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag99/jan99-protocols.html

[xv] Old fashioned sodium bicarbonate baths for the treatment of psoriasis in the era of futuristic biologics: An old ally to be rescued; Journal of Dermatological Treatment; Volume 16, Number 1/February 2005

[xvi] "A mass spectrographic analysis of cancer cells showed that the cell membrane readily attached cesium, rubidium and potassium, and transmitted these elements with their associated molecules into the cancer cell. In contrast cancer membranes did not transmit sodium, magnesium, and calcium into the cell: the amount of calcium within a cancer cell is only about 1% of that for normal cells. Potassium transports glucose into the cell. Calcium and magnesium transport oxygen into the cell. As a consequence of the above, oxygen cannot enter cancer cells so the glucose which is normally burned to carbon dioxide and water undergoes fermentation to form lactic acid within the cell. This anaerobic condition was pointed out by Warburg, as early as 1924. Potassium, and especially rubidium and cesium are the most basic of the elements. When they are taken up by the cancer cells they will thus raise the pH of the cells. Since they are very strong bases as compared to the weak lactic acid it is possible that the pH will be raised to values in the 8.5 to 9 range. In this range the life of the cancer cell is short, being a matter of days at the most. The dead cancer cells are then absorbed by the body fluids and eventually eliminated from the system." - Dr. Brewer http://www.mwt.net/~drbrewer/highpH.htm

Here's a link to a list of acid/alkaline/neutral foods

http://www.chimachine4u.com/AA.html

What Can You Do To Protect Yourself From the Fallout- Symptoms of Radiation Poisoning

2011-04-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

I found a report on Chernobyl and thought it may be the best information to determine what we may be dealing with since we can't seem to get rational answers or those that are trustworthy.
The link below will open the entire report and conclusions but for speed I'm copying excerpts following the link for brevity.
Chernobyl Accident and its Consequences
Key Facts

The April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the product of a severely flawed reactor design. In addition, serious mistakes were made by the plant operators, who violated procedures intended to ensure safe operation of the plant.

The accident destroyed the reactor in Unit 4, killed 31 people (one immediately and 30 within three months) and contaminated large areas of Belarus (formerly Byelorussia), Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The Chernobyl accident was a unique event, on a scale by itself. It was the only time in the history of commercial nuclear electricity generation that radiation-related fatalities occurred.

Epidemiological studies have been hampered in the former Soviet Union by a lack of funds, an infrastructure with little or no experience in chronic disease epidemiology, poor communication facilities and an immediate public health problem with many dimensions. Emphasis has been placed on screening rather than on well-designed epidemiological studies. International efforts to organize epidemiological studies have been slowed by some of the same factors, especially the lack of a suitable scientific infrastructure.

An increased incidence of thyroid cancer among children in areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia affected by the Chernobyl accident has been firmly established as a result of screening programs and, in the case of Belarus, an established cancer registry. The findings of most epidemiological studies must be considered interim, say experts, as analysis of the health effects of the accident is an ongoing process.

The activities undertaken by Belarus and Ukraine in response to the accident--remediation of the environment, evacuation and resettlement, development of noncontaminated food sources and food distribution channels, and public health measures--have overburdened the governments of those countries. International agencies and foreign governments have provided extensive logistic and humanitarian assistance. In addition, the work of the European Commission and World Health Organization in strengthening the epidemiological research infrastructure in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus is laying the basis for major advances in these countries' ability to carry out epidemiological studies of all kinds.

The Accident: What Happened

The RBMK design used at Chernobyl has a "positive void coefficient." This means the nuclear chain reaction and power output increases when cooling water is lost. The large value of the "positive void coefficient" caused the uncontrollable power surge that led to Chernobyl's destruction. To make matters worse, the Soviet operators had disengaged several safety and cooling systems and taken other unauthorized actions during a test of electrical equipment. This made the Chernobyl unit even more vulnerable to the uncontrollable power surge. The power surge and chemical explosions that followed were so powerful that they lifted the 1,000-metric-ton cover off the top of the reactor.

The Chernobyl plant did not have the massive containment structure common to most nuclear power plants elsewhere in the world. Without this protection, radioactive material escaped to the environment. However, because the estimated energy released by the explosions was greater than most containment designs could withstand, it is highly unlikely that a containment structure could have prevented the release of radioactive material at Chernobyl. The crippled Chernobyl reactor is now enclosed in a hurriedly constructed concrete sarcophagus, which is growing weaker over time. The Ukrainian government is considering the feasibility of building a second structure over the sarcophagus.

Contamination, Exposures, Evacuations

Soviet scientists have reported that the Chernobyl Unit 4 reactor contained about 190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fission products. Estimates of the amount of this material that escaped range from 13 percent to 30 percent.

Contamination from the Chernobyl accident was not evenly spread across the surrounding countryside, but scattered irregularly depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and Western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60 percent of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union. But a large area in the Russian Federation south of Bryansk was also contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine.

Short-Term Impact. Workers involved in the recovery and cleanup after the accident received high doses of radiation. In most cases, these workers were not equipped with individual dosimeters to measure the amount of radiation received, so experts can only estimate their doses. Also, dosimetric procedures varied. Some workers are thought to have better estimated doses than others. According to Soviet estimates, between 300,000 and 600,000 people were involved in the cleanup of the 30-kilometer evacuation zone around the reactor, but many of them entered the zone two years after the accident. (Estimates of the number of "liquidators"--workers brought into the area for accident management and recovery work--vary; the World Health Organization, for example, puts the figure at about 800,000.) In the first year after the accident, the number of cleanup workers in the zone was estimated to be 211,000, and these workers received an estimated average dose of 165 millisievert (16.5 rem).

Some children in the contaminated areas were exposed to high thyroid doses (up to 5,000 rad) because of an intake of radioiodine, a relatively short-lived isotope, from contaminated local milk. Several studies have found that the incidence of thyroid cancer among children in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia has risen sharply (see World Health Organization, page 154; Ivanov, Tsyb Studies, page 159; European Commission Program, page 159; Ukrainian Studies, page 160; and Swiss-Belarussian Paper, page 162). The childhood thyroid cancers that have appeared are of a large and aggressive type, and if detected early, can be treated. Treatment entails surgery followed by iodine-131 therapy for any metastases. To date, such treatment appears to have been successful in all diagnosed cases.

Longer-Term Impact. Right after the accident, the main health concern involved radioiodine, with a half-life of eight days. Today, in addition to radioiodine, there is concern about contamination of the soil with cesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years.

According to reports from Soviet scientists at the First International Conference on the Biological and Radiological Aspects of the Chernobyl Accident (September 1990), fallout levels in the 10-kilometer zone around the plant were as high as 130,000 curies per square kilometer. The so-called "red forest" of pine trees killed by heavy radioactive fallout lies within the 10-kilometer zone.

Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around Chernobyl within 36 hours of the accident. By May 1986, about a month later, all those living within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of the plant--about 116,000 people--had been relocated.

According to reports from Soviet scientists, 28,000 square kilometers (10,811 sq.mi.) were contaminated by cesium-137 to levels greater than five curies per square kilometer. Roughly 830,000 people lived in this area. About 10,500 square kilometers (4,054 sq.mi.) were contaminated by cesium-137 to levels greater than 15 curies per square kilometer. Of this total, roughly 7,000 sq.km. (2,703 sq.mi.) lie in Belarus, 2,000 sq.km. (772 sq.mi.) in the Russian Federation and 1,500 sq.km. (579 sq.mi.) in Ukraine. About 250,000 people lived in this area. These reported data were corroborated by the International Chernobyl Project.

~snip~

World Health Organization. In 1992, a team of medical specialists under the auspices of the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional office in Europe visited Minsk to study reports of an increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in Belarus. The team examined 11 children in Belarus who had been operated on for thyroid cancer and were hospitalized for treatment or evaluation. The team also studied the histological slides of 104 children who had been diagnosed since January 1989 with thyroid cancer, and examined data on the incidence of thyroid cancer in Belarus.

In a letter on its work published in the British science magazine Nature in September 1992, the team said that the experience in Belarus suggested that the consequences to the human thyroid of radioactive fallout are much greater than previously thought. The team concluded, "The accident and its impact on Belarus poses a challenge to the international community to help...in promoting research for the understanding of the basic processes underlying the phenomenon. Understanding the consequences of Chernobyl will provide an important basis for preventive action in future."

he same issue of Nature carried a letter from medical authorities in Belarus, who reported a "great increase" in cases of thyroid cancer among children, with the greatest increase in the Gomel region, where fallout from Chernobyl was highest. "We believe that the only realistic explanation for the increase...is that it is the direct consequence of the accident at Chernobyl," wrote the authors Vasiliy Kazakov, Yevgeniy Demidchik and Larisa Astakhova.

~snip~
The International Program on the Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident (IPHECA), established under the auspices of WHO in 1991, was a cooperative effort involving Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, WHO and several other countries and organizations. The program's aim was to quantify the effects of the Chernobyl accident on the population, provide recommendations for treatment, and devise more effective programs for managing such accidents in the future.

Under the program, five pilot projects were launched: on thyroid disease, hematologic disease, brain damage in utero, management of epidemiological studies, and oral health (in Belarus). The pilot thyroid project, which ran for three years, screened 70,000 children from the contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to determine the nature of any short-term health effects. The screening identified a very large increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in the affected countries, according to WHO.

These findings of increased childhood thyroid cancer were reviewed by an international scientific panel and published in a letter in the March 25, 1995, issue of the British Medical Journal. The letter, written by scientists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and WHO, reported an increased incidence of childhood thyroid cancer between 1991 and 1994 of 96.4 per million in the Gomel region of Belarus, 11.5 per million in five regions in the north of Ukraine, and 10 per million in Russia's Bryansk and Kaluga regions. The authors concluded: "It is notable that in the regions most affected about 2.3 million children were resident at the time of the accident. This led to unprecedented exposure of a population to ionising radiation, which demands an international response."

~snip~

In 1992, the European Commission published a report by a panel of experts on childhood thyroid cancer. According to the panel, which documented its findings on the occurrence of childhood thyroid cancer in Belarus and northern Ukraine, there was a true increase in the incidence of this cancer in areas around Chernobyl, and intensive screening programs were unlikely to have accounted for much of the increase. The panel concluded that radioactive iodine was the most likely cause of the increase. The panel also noted that affected children were not receiving optimum treatment, despite the efforts of medical authorities in Belarus and Ukraine, because of the lack of adequate surgical and therapeutic facilities.

In 1994, the European Commission's European Office for Humanitarian Aid launched a project to supply specialist equipment and medicines for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of children with thyroid cancer in Belarus and Ukraine.

The work sponsored by the European Commission, as well as by the World Health Organization, is helping to provide a foundation for advances in the capability of Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian researchers to carry out epidemiological studies of all kinds. This assistance includes training in radiation epidemiology and cancer registration, translation of a book on epidemiology into Russian, and agreement on the development of a common data format between Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The expertise that Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian researchers develop is also likely to prove useful in conducting future clinical trials of therapy.

Norwegian Study. In 1994, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Institute released the results of a study of the effects of the Chernobyl accident on Norway's ecosystem. According to the institute, radioactive cesium from the accident could remain in Norway's ecosystem for 10-20 years. Norwegian authorities reportedly estimate that 6-7 percent of the cesium released from Chernobyl came down in Norway.

Ukrainian Studies. Anatoliy Prisyazhiuk of the Ukrainian Scientific Center for Radiation Medicine reported data in 1994--published by the center--on the incidence of childhood leukemia, thyroid cancer and other cancers in three districts within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the Chernobyl plant. According to the center, data for the period from 1981 to 1993 show a decline in the incidence rate for leukemia in children 10 to 14 years old, but an increase in the incidence rate for thyroid cancer in this age group. The three Ukrainian districts--Polesskoye, Nordichiy and Ovruch--were not evacuated after the accident, but according to soil testing they received the heaviest contamination in Ukraine outside the 30-kilometer (18-mile) zone around the Chernobyl plant.

In a letter published in a June 1995 issue of Nature, Ukrainian and U.K. researchers reported on the increased incidence of childhood thyroid cancer in Ukraine. The authors--Likhtarev, Sobolev and Kairo of the Scientific Center for Radiation Medicine, Tronko, Bogdanova, Oleinic and Epshtein of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Beral of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford--concluded that "the pattern of thyroid cancer in relation to thyroid dose from 131I suggests that the increase in thyroid cancer in childhood reported in the Ukraine is likely to be a direct consequence of the accident at Chernobyl."

French-Russian Study. France's Institute of Nuclear Protection and Safety (IPSN) and the St. Petersburg Center for Ecological Medicine in Russia agreed in October 1994 to conduct a joint study of the so-called liquidators--the civilians and military personnel who participated in the Chernobyl accident cleanup. The two organizations will carry out research in biological dosimetry, which permits an estimation of the dose received by an individual by examining damage to his organism, and in digestive radiobiology, which entails the study of the effects of ionizing radiation on the digestive system.

The official Russian register lists more than 160,000 liquidators, most of whom worked within the 30-kilometer "forbidden zone" in the first two years after the accident and received an estimated average radiation dose of 165 millisievert (16.5 rem).

The St. Petersburg center has a Chernobyl registry with data on about 75,000 liquidators, and is studying about 14,000 of them. Aleksey Nikiforov, director of the center, is reported as saying that the liquidators being treated at the center are ill more often than the general population, suffer from old-age diseases such as arteriosclerosis before the age of 45, and have a much higher incidence of psychological disorders. In addition, the center's doctors are reportedly seeing an increase in solid tumors in the lung, bronchial tubes and stomach.

U.S. Studies. Under an agreement signed between the United States and the U.S.S.R. in 1988, the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been working with the governments of Belarus and Ukraine to prepare scientific protocols for thyroid studies in those two countries, and for leukemia studies in Ukraine. To support this work, the U.S. government has sent equipment and supplies to Belarus, and plans to send them to Ukraine. NCI is providing scientific, technical and medical expertise to Belarus and Ukraine for all aspects of the studies. In addition, Belarus and Ukraine will provide candidates for professional training in the United States.

The NCI thyroid studies are long-term (10-20 years or more) and involve the evaluation and medical follow-up of about 15,000 people in Belarus and 70,000 people in Ukraine who were children at the time of the Chernobyl accident.

In May 1994, Belarus and the United States agreed on a scientific protocol for the study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid disease among approximately 15,000 children. In July 1995, Ukraine and the United States agreed on a scientific protocol for the study of thyroid disease, especially cancer, among approximately 70,000 children who lived in areas of Ukraine heavily contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident. In both countries, children up to 18 years of age, and those in utero, at the time of the accident will be examined for thyroid disease at least every two years. Some 70,000 children had their thyroids measured for radioactivity during the first few weeks following the accident. The studies, which will be funded by the U.S. government, seek to quantify the thyroid cancer risk due to exposure to radioiodine, particularly iodine-131, and the role of potential cofactors, especially dietary iodine deficiency.

The NCI leukemia studies in Ukraine will involve some of the approximately 100,000 Ukrainian clean-up workers ("liquidators") who worked in the Chernobyl area in 1986 and 1987. Using physical and biological dosimetry techniques to reconstruct bone-marrow doses, researchers will study the incidence of leukemia and lymphoma over the next 10-20 years.

In another U.S. study, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, in collaboration with researchers from Russia, will explore the feasibility of physical dose reconstruction and biologic dose estimation; the collection, transportation and storage of blood; and the feasibility of identifying, locating and examining groups of exposed individuals.

Swiss-Belarussian Paper. According to a study published in 1994 by Theodor Abelin of the University of Berne in Switzerland and Belarussian researchers, the incidence of thyroid cancer in children up to 15 years of age in Belarus had risen from less than 0.1 per 100,000 children in 1986 to 2.6 per 100,000 in 1992. The authors' analysis of geographic variation in thyroid cancer in Belarus shows a reasonable correlation with presumptive patterns of radioiodine fallout.

The Health Impact: Some Cautionary Notes

There is no doubt that the Chernobyl accident caused enormous dislocation, stress and anxiety among the people living in the areas touched by the fallout. There is also evidence that it has caused an increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among children. But radioactive contamination cannot be blamed for all the illnesses reported. Other factors must be considered:

Much of the affected population had never received modern, adequate health care. The extensive medical surveillance given these people since the accident may be uncovering medical problems and conditions that have always existed.

Medical data frequently do not exist for the period before the accident in 1986. As a result, it is difficult to measure the health impact of the Chernobyl accident, because there are often no baseline data to compare with post-accident statistics.

Parts of the affected region--particularly Belarus--are known to be iodine-poor areas with a high incidence of goiters (a thyroid abnormality). As a result, it is not possible to attribute all thyroid-related problems to radioiodine released during the accident.

The latency period for solid cancers--other than leukemia and thyroid cancer--to develop is usually at least 10 years. In spite of lurid reports of thousands of new cancer cases since the accident, there has not been sufficient time to determine the extent of Chernobyl-related cancers. However, several studies have found a sharp increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among children in contaminated areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The thyroid cancer latent period is likely to be shorter in children (5-10 years) than in adults (10-15 years).

Medical personnel in the region are generally not well trained in radiation science. Consequently, they attribute many illnesses to radiation, when radiation is not the cause.

There has been an increase--based on historic rates--in cases of high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, anemia and various pulmonary disorders since the accident. Although often attributed to radiation, these illnesses are more likely a result of the tremendous stress imposed on the region's population. Such stress appears to have been exacerbated by scientifically unfounded reports of the health effects of the accident. Also contributing to the rise in stress-related illnesses may be the widespread notion among the affected population that alcohol is an effective antidote to the effects of radiation. Some Western researchers say they have met cleanup workers who believe that death is imminent. This sense of doom, coupled with alcoholism and drug abuse among these workers, may be a factor in the reportedly high suicide rate for this group.

In the longer term, the radiation doses from the accident may lead to an increase in cancers and cancer deaths. The ability to detect future excess cancers, however, will depend on whether groups that received the highest doses and those that received lower doses can be identified and followed up satisfactorily. Unless the mortality registries (and the registries of cancer incidence) and the dose reconstruction exercises are improved substantially, a good correlation between disease and dose is not likely to be achieved.

December 1995

For the entire report read contents here http://web.archive.org/web/20080210172017/http://www.insc.anl.gov/neisb/neisb4/NEISB_3.3.A1.1.html
Read more on radiation sickness symptoms and protective measures

The following are various pages with basic info regarding what to look for if we're exposed enough and recommendations on prevention. I've tried to eliminate anything that looked like promotional or unfounded info.
Radiation sickness

By Mayo Clinic staff

The severity of signs and symptoms of radiation sickness depends on how much radiation you've absorbed. How much you absorb depends on the strength of the radiated energy and the distance between you and the source of radiation.

Absorbed dose and duration of exposure

The absorbed dose of radiation is measured in a unit called a gray (Gy). Diagnostic tests that use radiation, such as an X-ray, result in a small dose of radiation — typically well below 0.1 Gy, focused on a few organs or small amount of tissue.

Signs and symptoms of radiation sickness usually appear when the entire body receives an absorbed dose of at least 1 Gy. Doses greater than 6 Gy to the whole body are generally not treatable and usually lead to death within two days to two weeks, depending on the dose and duration of the exposure.

Initial signs and symptoms

The initial signs and symptoms of treatable radiation sickness are usually nausea and vomiting. The amount of time between exposure and when these symptoms develop is an indicator of how much radiation a person has absorbed.

After the first round of signs and symptoms, a person with radiation sickness may have a brief period with no apparent illness, followed by the onset of new, more serious symptoms.

In general, the greater your radiation exposure, the more rapid and more severe your symptoms will be.

Early symptoms of radiation sickness

Mild exposure (1-2 Gy) Moderate exposure (2-6 Gy) Severe exposure (6-8 Gy) Very severe exposure (8-10 Gy or higher)

Nausea and vomiting Within 6 hours Within 2 hours Within 1 hour Within 10 minutes

Diarrhea -- Within 8 hours Within 3 hours Within 1 hour

Headache -- Within 24 hours Within 4 hours Within 2 hours

Fever -- Within 3 hours Within 1 hour Within 1 hour

Later symptoms of radiation sickness

Dizziness and disorientation -- -- Within 1 week Immediate

Weakness, fatigue Within 4 weeks Within 1-4 weeks Within 1 week Immediate

Hair loss, bloody vomit and stools, infections, poor wound healing, low blood pressure -- Within 1-4 weeks Within 1 week Immediate

Source: Adapted from "Bushberg JT. Radiation exposure and contamination. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals" and "Upton AC. Radiation injury. In: Goldman L, et al., eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007."

Research on Protection from Radiation Exposure

In 1945, at the time of the atomic bombing of Japan, Tatsuichiro Akizuki, M.D. was Director of the Department of Internal Medicine at St. Francis’s Hospital in Nagasaki. Most patients in the hospital, located one mile from the center of the blast, survived the initial effects of the bomb, but soon after came down with symptoms of radiation sickness from the fallout that has been released.

Dr. Akizuki fed his staff and patients a strict diet of brown rice, miso and tamari soy soup, wakame, kombu and other seaweed, Hokkaido pumpkin, and sea salt and prohibited the consumption of sugar and sweets.

As a result, he saved everyone in his hospital, while many other survivors perished from radiation sickness.

Source: Tatsuichiro Akuziki, M.D. Nagasaki 1945, London Quarter books, 1981. (Brown rice, miso, Sea vegetables, Salt)

In 1968 Canadian researchers reported that sea vegetables contained a polysaccharide substance that selectively bound radioactive strontium and helped eliminate it from the body. In laboratory experiments, sodium alginate prepared from kelp, kombu, and other brown seaweeds off the Atlantic and pacific coasts was introduced along with strontium and calcium into rats. The reduction of radioactive particles in bone uptake, measured in the femur, reached as high as 80%, with little interference with calcium absorption.

WHOLE GRAINS PROTECT IN FIVE WAYS

(Whole grains help to protect us from the deleterious health effects of radiation exposure in five ways):

1) Grains are low on the food chain. Although they may have been exposed to pollution and radiation, they do not have the concentration of contaminants that is found in meat and large fish, which are at the top of the food chain.

2) Important with respect to radiation protection is the high fiber and phosphorous contents in grains. The binding ability of these substances helps the body to remove poisons.

3) The bulking factor of grains lessens the intestinal transit time and so hasten the elimination of all toxins.

4) Being neither very acid nor very alkaline, grains help us to maintain the middle-range pH that has been found to increase our resistance to radiation.

5) Whole grains provide vitamin B6, which is indispensable for the thymus. In addition, their calcium content guards against uptake of radioactive strontium, and their vitamin E and selenium prevent cellular damage caused by free radicals.

(Ed: when the body lacks calcium it replaces it with srontium, a radioactive element. Both have identical atomic structures. The intake of refined/simple sugar/dairy products are the main causes of this depletion of calcium) (Identical structure Strontium and Calcium (pdf file))

THE FOODS BETTER TO AVOID:

1) Refined, genetic modified and processed foods

2) Fatty foods (meat, dairy products)- especially what isn’t hormone-free, organic, etc.

3) Simple sugars (white sugar), soft drinks

Source: Diet for the Atomic Age by Sara Shannon-Avery Publishing Group Inc., Wayne, New Jersey.

The products mentioned in this message are available in most of the health stores.
(Excerpted from: http://home.iae.nl/users/lightnet/health/radiation.htm)

Important Supplements For Protection from EMF

Supplements for Protection From EMF

Iodine - The MOST important supplement to help protect against the damage of all types of radiation AND helps repair the damage after exposure. The main reason iodine protects against EMF damage is the support it gives the thyroid which gives EMF protection, it ensures programmed cell death of damaged and diseased cells (cancer cells shrink when given iodine), iodine helps remove heavy metals (heavy metals encourage electromagnetic radiation damage) and has a protective effect on brain tissue.

In order to properly utilize iodine take selenium, magnesium and vitamin C with it. The most effective iodine I found to help my EMF hypersensitivity and to protect from EMF exposure is Lugol's iodine.

Spirulina - Having electromagnetic sensitivity, I have found a strong protective effect of taking spirulina on a daily basis and especially before I go into environmental EMF radiation areas. Provides cell protection and proper bone marrow functioning including production of red blood cells (red blood cells are destroyed by EMF radiation), provides carotenes that protect against cancer cell generation.

Spirulina is a whole food so you need to consume at least the recommended serving amount or more for best protection from EMF.

Noni - Has stabilized iridoids which are powerful adaptogens.

Curcumin - Neutralizes free radicals which protect against cell damage, protects from detrimental effects of radiation by regulating cell division. Also reduces inflammation caused by radiation. Prevents and eliminates plaque in brain associated with alzheimer's and can be caused from EMF radiation exposure.

Algin - Detoxes the body from ionizing radiation like strontium 90, cesium 137, along with blocking their absorption and also detoxes heavy metals like mercury from the body which magnifies EMF radiation damage.

Melatonin - Production is decreased by exposure to EMF’s, probably second most important supplement consideration for protection from EMF next to iodine. New study shows it helps reverse damage to brain neurons caused by EMF exposure. Necessary for good sleep, regulates gonadal hormones, moods, behavior, key component of immune system, regulates internal clock and has direct effect on the growth of breast, prostate and colon cancers. Take only at night.

Minerals for EMF Health

When exposed to EMF radiation, the protective calcium coating is removed from the outside of the cells allowing the cell to dump its selenium, potassium, lithium, calcium and magnesium causing a shortage in these minerals which must them be replenished for best protection from EMF.

Selenium - Exposure to EMF’s cause a loss of this mineral, protects DNA from radiation damage, assists in the proper utilization of iodine in the body, known to have a protective effect against the production of cancer cells.

Potassium - Exposure to EMF’s cause loss of this mineral, deficiency associated with Alzheimer’s, muscle/nerve weakness, mental confusion, heart disturbances, water imbalances, pH balance, kidney and adrenal malfunction.

Lithium - Protects brain neurons from radiation damage, exposure to EMF’s cause loss of this mineral, loss of this nutrient contributes to stress, ADHD, depression and other psychological disorders such as declined mood and lack of calmness. Use organic aspartate plant source and start out with much less than recommended. Full dosage on bottle is rarely needed.
Magnesium - Exposure to EMF’s cause loss of this nutrient, helps neutralize bad effects from exiting calcium, has a calming effect, second in concentration amounts in the cells, deficiency associated with muscle/nerve weakness, mental confusion, heart disturbances, promotes restful sleep, supports regular bowel function, assists potassium and calcium metabolism, regulates blood pressure.

Copper - Alternating magnetic currents deplete this mineral in the body which is responsible for protecting the myelin sheath. Myelin sheath damage is what causes multiple sclerosis. MS is one of the health problems associated with EMF radiaion. See more about diseases associated with EMF exposure. Deficienies of copper also affect connective tissue (arthritis issues), heart function, colon problems (including cancer, IBS, diarrhea), hemoglobin production, choloesterol, thyroid, mental and emotional health, seizures, skin, bone abnormalties. Copper supplementation must be balanced with zinc, selenium and vitamin C supplementation.

Calcium - Exposure to EMF’s cause loss of this nutrient, exiting calcium causes arthritis, kidney stones, osteoporoses, pH imbalance, required for mood stabilization and calmness.

New Info For Protection Against Radiation - Antioxidants May Prevent DNA Damage from Nuclear Meltdown Fallout

2011-03-31T01:47:00.000-07:00

I notice certain sources on the web stirring up panic when it's best to be aware, take precautionary measures you are able to such as Iodine which hopefully you've been able to locate by now and get it into your system, then the other protectants listed like Bentonite Clay, Cilantro, Antioxidant .. there's a lot of those but simple Vitamin C is easy to find, N-Acetyl Cysteine, MSM, Baking Soda and Spirilina, Chlorella which all are said to alkalinize your ph making your body less acidic and therefore not a fertile place for disease, magnesium, selenium, and other things listed from the posts by doctor's written over the past weeks. All of which are good for your health anyway, so read up and start to protect yourself and worry isn't going to change anything for the best.

Sending positive energy, prayer or intention can't hurt, it's energy and as we are finding out, energy moves, so maybe we don't know everything about positive energy and intention yet, no harm in sending it to where it's truly needed now.

Shame on the fear stirrers.... is it really necessary when people are already losing it just for the sake of web traffic? Man... that's low.
Read on for some hopeful news..

Contact: Ellen Acconcia
eacconcia@sirweb.org
703-460-5582
Society of Interventional Radiology

Antioxidant formula prior to radiation exposure may prevent DNA injury

Small trial finds that pre-administering a mixture easily absorbed into body is safe for adults, may provide protection against cell damage, say interventional radiologists

CHICAGO, Ill. (March 29, 2011)—A unique formulation of antioxidants taken orally before imaging with ionizing radiation minimizes cell damage, noted researchers at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago, Ill. In what the researchers say is the first clinical trial of its kind, as much as a 50 percent reduction in DNA injury was observed after administering the formula prior to CT scans.
"In our initial small study, we found that pre-administering to patients a proprietary antioxidant formulation resulted in a notable dose-dependent reduction in DNA injury," said Kieran J. Murphy, M.D., FSIR, professor and vice chair, director of research and deputy chief of radiology at the University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. "This could play an important role in protecting adults and children who require imaging or a screening study," he added.
"Pre-administering this formula before a medical imaging exam may be one of the most important tools to provide radioprotection and especially important for patients in the getting CT scans," said Murphy. The study's data support the theory about a protective effect during these kinds of exposure, he explained.
"There is currently a great deal of controversy in determining the cancer risks associated with medical imaging exams. Although imaging techniques, such as CT scans and mammograms, provide crucial and often life-saving information to doctors and patients, they work by irradiating people with X-rays, and there is some evidence that these can, in the long run, cause cancer," explained Murphy. The interventional radiologist researchers responded to this patient need by exploring a way to protect individuals from these potentially harmful effects. This may be of importance to interventional and diagnostic radiologists and X-ray technologists who have occupational exposure also.
The small study showed that even though many antioxidants are poorly absorbed by the body, one particular mixture was effective in protecting against the specific type of injury caused by medical imaging exams. People are 70 percent water, and X-rays collide with water molecules to produce free radicals (groups of atoms with an unpaired number of electrons that are dangerous when they react with cellular components, causing damage and even cell death) that can go on to do damage by direct ionization of DNA and other cellular targets, noted Murphy. The research team evaluated whether a special combination of antioxidants have an ability to neutralize these free radicals before they can do damage.
"Our intent was to develop an effective proprietary formula of antioxidants to be taken orally prior to exposure that can protect a patient's DNA against free radical mediated radiation injury, and we have applied to patent this formulation and a specific dose strategy," said Murphy.
The experiments measured DNA damage as a surrogate marker for DNA injury. Blood was drawn from two study volunteers in duplicate, creating four individual tests per data point. DNA strand breaks are repaired by a big protein complex that binds to the site of the damage. The researchers labeled one of the proteins with a fluorescent tag. Then, under a powerful 3-D microscope, the DNA is examined for signs of repair. The more repair that is seen, the more DNA damage must have been done by the CT scan to initiate that repair. The experiments clearly showed a reduction of DNA repair in the treatment group, which means that there was less DNA injury as a result of pre-administering the antioxidant mixture, said Murphy.
The researchers concede that this is a small study and that a lot more research needs to be done; however, these initial results point toward a positive future for this kind of treatment. The group says the next step is a clinical trial in Toronto.

###

More information about the Society of Interventional Radiology, interventional radiologists and minimally invasive treatments for many conditions can be found online at www.SIRweb.org. Interventional radiology is one of the modern medicine's most dynamic fields, known for pioneering best practices in performing minimally invasive procedures. Interventional radiologists continue to set the standards for patient safety and the delivery of quality care.
Poster 266: "Antioxidants Taken Orally Prior to Radiation Exposure Can Prevent DNA Injury at CT Doses of Ionizing Radiation," J. Barfett; Stephanie Spieth, K. J. Murphy and D. J. Mikulis; all from the department of medical imaging, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, SIR 36th Annual Scientific Meeting March 26󈞋, Chicago, Ill. This abstract can be found at www.SIRmeeting.org.
About the Society of Interventional Radiology
Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine. Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue.
Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org.
The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its 36th Annual Scientific Meeting March 26󈞋, 2011, in Chicago, Ill. The theme of the meeting is "IR Rising: Leading Image Guided Medicine," the theme chosen to reflect the optimism and pride the IR community feels as IR continues to revolutionize modern medicine.

Get Iodine Into Your Body NOW,- Dr.Gives Wake Up Call On Radiation -

2011-03-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't taken iodine and are reading this, you may want to get some bentonite clay to detox anything that's managed to get into your body. It's relatively inexpensive but according to what I've read one teaspoon will absorb 900 sq ft of toxins such as herbicides, heavy metals and I've read that it includes radioactive iodine and other poison from nuclear fallout. I bought a bottle from a local health food store and saw nascent iodine for sale as well as potassium iodide, so many vendors are already stocked to take advantage of the crisis. Go get it, the alternative isn't pretty.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Japanese Radiation Update 6: Worsening Crises

The news from Japan gets worse and worse. Now, reports show radioactive iodine has been found in rainwater in Massachusetts. Similar findings have occurred in California, Washington state and Pennsylvania. The bad news from Japan makes it clear that there will be more radiation coming our way.

"The drinking water supply in Massachusetts is unaffected by this short-term elevation in radiation," said Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach (www.msn.com). I don't know about you, but this statement does not reassure me.

For those low in iodine, this is a problem. Unfortunately, that is a lot of Americans. This is not a call to panic. I do not believe that people will get sick and die from the exposure to this amount of radiation. However, there is no doubt that individuals who are iodine deficient will take up this radioactive iodine in larger amounts as compared to someone who is iodine sufficient.

As I have said in previous blog posts, now is the time to have your iodine checked and work with someone knowledgeable about iodine. Also, keep in mind that the average Japanese ingests approximately 12mg/day of iodine.

My clinical experience has shown this dose safe for the vast majority of people. One Iodoral (Optimox) or Iodozyme HP (Biotics) tablet contains 12.5mg of iodine. Two drops of Lugol's solution equals 12.5mg of iodine. This amount of iodine will result in a 95% decrease in radioactive iodine uptake by the thyroid gland. Children need to be dosed down for their size.

Is iodine safe for everyone to take? As with any substance, there can be adverse effects. The best results with iodine occur when it is used in a comprehensive holistic treatment regimen. More information can be found in my book, Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It.

One last thought. This needs to be your wakeup call. If you are already taking iodine, you have nothing to worry about. It is important to maintain adequate iodine levels not only to achieve your optimal health but to also be prepared for problems like the Japanese disaster.

I have been asked many questions about pets. Pets should be our concern as they are outside and closer to the ground. My friend and holistic veterinarian Dr. John Simon said that pets can take iodine. He was not sure of the dosing but thought that they could take amounts similar to what I posted for children (0.08mg/pound). I would be open to any other advice about dosing iodine in pets.

I will keep abreast of the situation and follow up with further blog posts

Statin Drug Use Linked to Type 2 Diabetes-

2011-03-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

I read this article today with shock. I'd been under the belief that statin drugs were a last resort for the medical response dealing with out of control cholesterol levels. To learn now that not only are these drugs prescribed way too often and easily, they have very bad side effects that seriously endanger the health of those using them, unaware of how it's affecting their blood sugar levels.

Being a very active promoter of the Bioslife Slim product, as you may have noticed, I'm happy to say that this article further validates the need for Slim as one of the mechanisms of this fantastic natural product is that it prevents the reuptake of cholesterol from the liver and does some very sophisticated things by simply blocking and restricting the speed and amount of absorption and release of sugar, starches and fats from your meals into the blood stream. By restricting the culprits, you get to eat what you like but reduce the effects of sugar/starch and fats in your body. The insulin response is less because there's less sugar triggering it into your system. When insulin is regulated you're able to access the stored fat on your body for fuel, creating a fat burning zone.
See the 4-4-12 video to the right for more details on how it works Or check out the info at http://www.breakthru4life.com/

If you are on statin drugs or know anyone who is, it's imperative they get informed and take action for the sake of their health long term.

The Hidden Diabetes Link No One is Telling You About...

By Suzy Cohen, R.Ph.

Coronary heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States, killing one in five adults, and doctors are very quick to prescribe statins. In fact, statin drug sales rank in the billions each year globally.

These drugs are so pervasive that they are no longer just indicated for hypercholesterolemia, they are also being prescribed for elevations in C reactive protein, and are promoted for kids as young as eight years old.

Heart disease is so pervasive that some have boldly suggested that we should put statins in our water supply as some kind of protection.

This is very disturbing.

Do You Really Need a Statin Drug?

By far, statin drugs are the most popular cholesterol-lowering drugs available today. They work in your liver by preventing your body from making cholesterol. The drugs block an enzyme called HMG-CoA Reductase. This can be helpful, but only if you are one of those people who happen to produce too much cholesterol.

It doesn't do a good job at removing it from your clogged arteries, contrary to what most people think.

Physicians and health experts now agree that statins seem to offer more benefit through their ability to reduce dangerous inflammatory chemicals in your body, rather than by reducing production of cholesterol, which usually leads to uncomfortable, unwanted and dangerous side effects. One study found that lowering cholesterol too much actually backfires.

Cholesterol is good for you; it's one of your body's most powerful antioxidants, it makes important neurotransmitters and sex hormones so this madness to lower it as much as possible really concerns me. Plus, I believe the indiscriminate use of statins has contributed to the staggering rise in diabetes…

The Statin—Diabetes Connection Few People Know About

I watched this happen to my mom who was given a statin, and then told months later she suddenly had diabetes. All of a sudden? This happened many years ago, and it began my search to understand the connection. It also prompted me to write a book on the subject entitled "Diabetes Without Drugs" (Rodale, 2010).

It typically happens like this:

Many statin users come back to see their physician for a routine visit and after the blood work is drawn, they find their cholesterol ratios may be improved, but now they have high blood glucose.

It's entirely possible that some physicians then mistakenly diagnose their patients with "Type 2 diabetes" when in fact they just have hyperglycemia—a side effect, and the result of a medication that was prescribed to them months earlier.

Do you think you have type 2 diabetes?

I will provide more information so you can see for yourself that so-called "diabetes" diagnosis might not really be genuine diabetes. It may just be hyperglycemia (high blood sugar)—the result of your cholesterol medication, and for some people, it may be reversible with drug discontinuation. Whether or not you are able to discontinue your medication is between you and your physician.

Research Suggesting Raised Blood Sugar is a Side Effect of Statin Use
Several studies have indicated that statins can cause high blood sugar, which can be mistaken for "diabetes." For example, researchers in Glasgow, Scotland conducted a meta analysis, known as the JUPITER trial, which took into account 13 statin trials that each included 1,000 patients or more. The participants were followed for over than a year. The conclusion was there was indeed an increase, albeit small, in the development of Type 2 diabetes.

It should be considered that some of the patients in this meta analysis already had symptoms of insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome, so it could be said that they were on their way to diabetes anyway.

Now consider another meta-analysis published in the Lancet Here, the researchers reviewed randomized controlled trials beginning in 1994 and ending in 2009, for a total of 91,140 participants who took either a statin or a placebo.

They found that people treated with statin drugs showed a nine percent increase for diabetes. They did not evaluate other factors however, which would be considered pre-diabetes, so I suspect their nine percent number to be on the low side.

Insulin is a pancreatic hormone that reduces blood sugar. You want some insulin to maintain blood glucose levels, but too much of it is bad—it's an inflammatory compound in your body when it is elevated. And guess what? The use of statin drugs appears to INCREASE your insulin levels! High insulin is extremely harmful to your health.
For starters, elevated insulin levels lead to heart disease, and isn't that the reason cholesterol drugs are prescribed in the first place?

The ratio of glucose to insulin should be less than 10:1, this ratio is far more important than the levels of glucose or insulin alone. Keep that in mind if you seek a complete recovery. For more information about the harmful effects of elevated insulin levels, see my article on dearpharmacist.com, or my book Diabetes Without Drugs.

You want to keep insulin normal, to protect yourself from heart disease and high blood pressure. Chronically elevated insulin causes a cascade of inflammatory chemicals and high cortisol which lead to belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, plus major diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and cancer.

Unfortunately, the most popular cholesterol drugs in the world seem to increase insulin levels. However, that's just one mechanism by which these drugs can raise your risk for diabetes.

How Statins Raise Your Insulin

Keeping things simple, you might imagine it like this: When you eat a meal that contains starches and sugar, some of the excess sugar goes to your liver, which then stores it away as cholesterol and triglycerides. Now stay with me -- when you have a statin on board, it's like a message to your liver saying, "No! Don't make any more cholesterol, please stop."

So your liver sends the sugar back OUT to your bloodstream. As a result, your blood sugar goes up.

In 2009, it was proven that statins could directly raise blood sugar, whether or not you have diabetes. Over 340,000 people were included before this conclusion was made. The people who did not have diabetes but took statins experienced a rise in blood glucose from 98 mg/dl to 105 mg/dl. Those who already had diabetes and also took statins experienced a rise from 102 mg/dl to 141 mg/dl.

After adjustments for age and medication use were considered, researchers concluded that both diabetic and non-diabetic statin users showed a statistically significant rise in blood sugar.

Why take all these risks, just to get the convenience of taking a pill instead of eating a better diet and exercising?

It's been scientifically discussed and even published in JAMA that eating a better diet could lower cholesterol as well as the statin drug lovastatin.

And of course, there are so many other benefits to eating a healthier diet that consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lean meats. Besides feeling better and increasing lifespan, you can squeeze into those skinny jeans you're hiding in your closet.

Another way statins can affect your blood sugar is via their "drug mugging" effect. A drug mugger is my term, and the title of my newest book, which describes how a drug can rob your body's warehouse of a valuable nutrient. In the case of statins, they rob your body of two different nutrients, both of which are needed to maintain ideal blood sugar.

Two Important Nutrients Decimated by Statins

The first nutrient that is mugged is vitamin D. There have been mixed studies regarding the D-depletion effect of statins, but statins reduce your body's natural ability to create active vitamin D called 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, shortened to "calcitriol" when it is eventually converted to its active hormone form.
This happens because statins reduce cholesterol, and you need cholesterol to make vitamin D! It is the raw material that exposure to UVB from sunlight will convert to vitamin D.

It is well documented that D improves insulin resistance, so needless to say, when you take a drug mugger of vitamin D (like statins), then you increase your risk for diabetes.

More specifically, a 2004 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition determined that raising a person's serum vitamin D levels (from 25 to 75 nmol/l) could improve insulin sensitivity by a whopping 60 percent.

Compare that to the blockbuster diabetes drug metformin, one of our pharmaceutical gold-standards, which can dispose of blood sugar by a meager 13 percent according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Now, statins also suppresses your natural coenzyme Q10— also called "ubiquinol" in its active form; it makes energy for every cell in your body, and it's produced mainly in your liver.

This powerful antioxidant just so happens to also play a role in maintaining blood glucose. When you deplete levels of CoQ10 by taking a drug mugger of it, like a statin drug, then you lose that benefit. You also raise your risk for heart failure, high blood pressure and heart disease as CoQ10 deficiencies can contribute to those conditions. A study by Hodgson et al, published in 2002 found that 200mg CoQ10 taken daily caused a 0.4 percent reduction in hemoglobin A1c.

Moreover, CoQ10 protects your body from oxidative stress, a strong contributing factor in the development of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart attacks. You want to make sure you have enough CoQ10 (or ubiquinol) on board to protect every cell in your body. The take home point is that statins annihilate this compound and you need it for good health.

In summary, if you take a statin medication and you've been told that you have diabetes, it may be drug-induced, and it's possible that it can be reversed over the course of time. However, you will have to eat right, exercise, and take supplements that help to lower your risk for heart disease naturally.

About the Author

Suzy Cohen, R.Ph., has been a licensed pharmacist for 22 years, and has had a weekly syndicated health column for the past 13 years which you can get for free by signing up at her website Widely recognized as "America's most trusted pharmacist," she has appeared on The Dr OZ Show, The View, Good Morning America Health and The 700 Club.

Cohen is also the author of three books: The 24-Hour Pharmacist, Diabetes Without Drugs, and Drug Muggers: Keep Your Medicine from Stealing the Life Out of You.

For more information, see www.SuzyCohen.com.

Sources:

Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology May 1, 2004; 18(7): 805-815

Journal of Investigative Medicine March 2009; 57(3): 495-499

About.com February 20, 2010

The Lancet February 2010; 375(9716): 735 – 742

The Lancet February 27, 2010; 375(9716): 700 – 701

Reuters March 10, 2011

International Journal of Obesity February 8, 2011 [Epub ahed of print]

American Heart Journal (ENHANCE trial) February 2005; 149(2): 234-239
Lancet February 27, 2010; 375(9716): 735-42

Journal of Investigative Medicine March 2009; 57(3): 495-499

JAMA 2003;290(4):502-510

How Much Radiation Are You Living With Currently? What's The Dose?

2011-03-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

The AQMD appears to be the site to go to for updates officially on radiation levels in CA and I assume each state has something similar.

Radiation Network looks a little archaic and not so easy to glean info from other than a map with points of monitoring and colors which is better than nothing. There's global maps available there as well but they also seem interested in selling their software. Hey, I get it.. why not. They're claiming to be on the job with readings for those who want to keep track now and for the foreseeable future as we're not speaking about something that blows over, its cumulative and the earth's atmosphere is contained, it's not like there's some other overflow space for bad stuff, it goes round and round and this is why you need to start dosing up now to build up protection for the long haul.

In California there's this guy who didn't trust either and has his own geiger counter set to show anyone looking. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/california-radiation-levels/index.htm
Cali is okay at the moment, okay being a subjective term.

Well I thought I'd try and see if I could find a source for current levels in various locations and thought the Nuclear Society might be a good place but then it occured to me they are an industry and money is the name of the game in industry so perhaps not so trustworthy a source. More to come as I find it but here's their site and verbiage.

http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/

Radiation Dose Chart

We live in a radioactive world - humans always have. Radiation is part of our natural environment. We are exposed to radiation from materials in the earth itself, from naturally occurring radon in the air, from outer space, and from inside our own bodies (as a result of the food and water we consume). This radiation is measured in units called millirems (mrems).

The average dose per person from all sources is about 620 mrems per year. It is not, however, uncommon for any of us to receive less or more than that in a given year (largely due to medical procedures we may undergo). International Standards allow exposure to as much as 5,000 mrems a year for those who work with and around radioactive material.

I found a resource that may be a good place to start bombarding just to let them know we aren't placated by the talking heads any longer and want to have information and access to this store of iodine.

http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/emerg-preparedness/about-emerg-preparedness/potassium-iodide.html
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Iodine Dosage, Doctor's Advice in Response to Japan's Radiation Threat- Dr. D. Brownstein- Iodine Guru

2011-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

While trying to wrap my mind around a global catastrophe who's outreach is yet unknown but predictably severe I thought at least I could find out what Dr.David Brownstein, a leading authority on the supplementation needs of the body with iodine/iodide to see what his dose suggestions are in this particular for protection and also to post his current messages since my last post of his right after the initial warning on it. Keep in mind this is a week old with no recent comments. Wonder why that is.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Japan Radiation Update 5: Question and Answer

Since the disaster in Japan began, I have been inundated with questions about supplementing with iodine. I apologize for not being able to answer all of your questions. I do try to read each and every question. Feel free to keep them coming (I may regret that statement). However, I will try and answer as many questions as I can. I will attempt to answer the commonly asked questions. Rest assured, in future books, newsletters, blogs, etc., I will try to answer all of your questions.

1. Can those with Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease take iodine?

A: I explain this topic in much more detail in my book, but let me summarize the answer. M research has shown that both Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease are caused, in part, from low iodine. In fact, nearly every new patient with either a diagnosis of Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease has tested significantly low for iodine. My experience has shown that the vast majority of patients suffering with these illnesses improve their condition when iodine deficiency is rectified. However, some people (including those with and without Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease) may have problems with iodine supplementation. Of course, there can be an adverse effect to anything, iodine included.

The best results with iodine supplementation occur in those that have their levels checked and are followed by a health care provider who is knowledgeable about iodine. Furthermore, iodine supplementation works better when used as part of a complete holistic treatment regimen.

2. My understanding is that the reactor in Japan did not release any

radioactive gases into the atmosphere so no action is required of us here in

the United States. Is this true?

A: So far, the amount of radiation that has made its way to the North America has been small. However, if there is a nuclear meltdown, there will be much larger amounts released. This incident should be a wakeup call for Americans. If we eat better, exercise and maintain optimal whole body iodine sufficiency, there would be little concern about the amount of radioactive iodine that makes it to the U.S.

One final note. Even small amounts of radioactive iodine can be detrimental to those who are iodine deficient. It is best to maintain iodine sufficiency.

3. How many days should I take iodine?

A: The best results obtained with iodine are seen in those who use it for the long-term. Over the last 30 years, due to the toxic world we live in, our iodine requirements have markedly increased. This is due to the increasing amounts of toxic halides bromide, fluoride and chlorine that have permeated our food supply and our consumer goods. If we maintain iodine sufficiency, we will not have to worry about radiation clouds from Japan. How much iodine is required to maintain body sufficiency? My experience has shown that, for most adults, 6-50mg/day will achieve sufficiency. However, there may be some people that need more and some that need less. Remember, it is best to work with a health care provider knowledgeable about iodine. He/she can test your levels and make the appropriate recommendations.

4. Do children need iodine?

A: Yes, children need iodine just as adults need it. However, children need lower doses. They need to be dosed down for their size. A good rule of thumb for children is 0.08mg I/pound. I am not suggesting that anyone supplement a child without seeking care from their health care provider (that also holds for adults).

I will try to answer more questions in upcoming blogs.

posted by Dr. David Brownstein @ 4:37 PM 0 Comments

Friday, March 18, 2011

Japan Radiation Update 4

This is my fourth post about the Japanese nuclear disaster. First, I have to give credit to the U.S. government for suggesting that U.S. citizens move further away (50 miles) from the radiation danger. This action would serve to verify the severity of the crises.

I believe this crisis should highlight the need for each of us to take a more active role in our own health care decisions. It is important to take the proper steps to achieve your optimal health before a crisis arises. Many times these steps include eating a healthy diet and taking the correct supplements. My experience has shown that ensuring an adequate iodine level is one piece of the puzzle to obtaining your optimal health.

If the Japanese are not able to control the nuclear reaction that is occurring a true nuclear meltdown will occur. What will that mean to us? A nuclear meltdown could cause a large radiation cloud to leave Japan and deposit radiation over the U.S. However, that has not occurred yet. If that occurs, it is important to take precautions including ensuring that you and your family are taking iodine.

Here is how it works. Iodine binds to receptors throughout the body. For example, there are receptors for iodine in the thyroid gland. When iodine binds to its receptors, thyroid hormone is produced. Individuals who are iodine deficient suffer the majority of problems when exposed to radioactive iodine. In these people, radioactive iodine will bind to wherever there are open or empty iodine receptors. After radioactive iodine binds to these receptors, the surrounding tissue will be destroyed due to the radioactive iodine. Furthermore, it will damage the DNA of the surrounding cells. Damaged DNA is one cause of cancer.

Which tissues bind iodine? The largest concentration of iodine occurs in the thyroid gland. However, the largest amount of iodine is found in the fat tissue. Large concentrations of iodine are also found in many other tissues including the breast, ovary, uterus, and prostate. If radioactive iodine binds to any of these sites, it will destroy surrounding tissue and potentially damage DNA. This can lead to long-term problems such as cancer of these tissues.

It is important to keep in mind that every cell needs and utilizes iodine. Therefore, radioactive iodine exposure can have a dramatic effect on the body.

Exposure to radiation is cumulative. That means any exposure to ionizing radiation builds up in the body over time. We should all strive to minimize exposure to radiation. Some forms or radiation are unavoidable such as normal background radiation. However, radioactive iodine emitted from a nuclear disaster in Japan (or anywhere else) is largely avoidable if your body is iodine sufficient.

If your body has enough iodine binding to its receptors in the thyroid, breasts, ovaries, etc., then the radioactive iodine has nowhere to bind. That is why it is so important to have your iodine levels checked before a disaster such as this occurs. If you are iodine deficient, you can rectify this problem by simply taking iodine.

Due to our exposure to so many toxic items that inhibit or block iodine utilization in the body--fluoride, bromide and chlorine--our body’s need for iodine has dramatically increased over the last 30 years. My experience has shown that milligram amounts of iodine are necessary for achieving whole-body iodine sufficiency. In fact, any iodine supplementation program should strive for whole body iodine sufficiency, not just thyroid sufficiency.

How much iodine is needed to achieve whole-body iodine sufficiency? My clinical experience has clearly shown that milligram amounts of iodine are needed to achieve whole-body sufficiency. These amounts can vary between 6-50mg/day for most people. Some may need more, some less.

There is no doubt that the radiation cloud from Japan will pass over the U.S. This radiation exposure is a potential health risk. How much iodine should you take to ensure that your body will not absorb radioactive iodine? Without proper testing, it is impossible to say what dose is perfect for everybody. However, I have recommended that adults take 12-14mg/day of a combination of iodine and iodide. That amount will prevent nearly 95% of radioactive iodine from binding to the thyroid gland and still leave other amounts of iodine available for the rest of the body’s need. Children will need smaller amounts. You can dose a child down for his/her size. A general rule of thumb for children is 0.08mg I/pound of body weight. If a newborn is breast feeding, they do not need iodine supplementation if the mother is iodine sufficient. Iodine can be excreted in the breast milk.

I generally recommend either Lugol’s iodine, Iodoral (from Optimox) or Iodozyme Hp (from Biotics). Lugol’s iodine dosage is 2 drops per day (12.5mg) or 1 tablet of each of either Iodoral or Optizyme HP (both products are 12.5mg/ tablets). When should people begin iodine supplementation? At this point, with the disaster still progressing, I would say it is time to begin supplementation with iodine.

As with any substance, there can be problems with iodine supplementation. Before beginning supplementation, it is best to discuss this option with your health care provider. More information about iodine can be found in my books, Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It and Overcoming Thyroid Disorders.
n the next few days, I will begin to answer some of the many questions sent to me.

posted by Dr. David Brownstein @ 4:53 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Japanese Radiation Update 3

As the news in Japan worsens, I am getting more and more questions about what to do. Let me try and address as many questions as possible. I will keep blogging about this until most of the questions are answered.

First, I believe the Japanese government is not being truthful about the magnitude of the disaster. I believe they do not want to create a panic. This disaster is far from over. In Japan, I feel the situation will get much worse before it gets better. However, for those of us in North America, we will get a much smaller dose of radioactive iodine as compared to the Japanese.

Therefore, the most important thing to keep in mind is do not panic. I do not believe that people will by dying in the U.S. due to the radioactive spread from Japan. However, depending on the amount of radiation released and weather patterns, it is not clear what our exposure will be. I may be wrong on my assessment. Time will tell.

The good news is that there is a safe and effective treatment widely available that prevents harm from exposure to radioactive iodine. It is the use of nonradioactive, inorganic iodine. That is the form of iodine I have been researching and using in my practice for nearly 10 years.

What dose of iodine will prevent damage from exposure to radioactive iodine? My mentor, Dr. Guy Abraham’s research answered this question. His research indicated that milligram doses (note: this is 1,000 times a microgram dose) are necessary to prevent radioactive iodine from damaging the thyroid gland. How much? Around 13mg/day prevents approximately 96% of radioactive iodine from binding to the thyroid gland. That is the approximate dosage of iodine ingested daily by the Japanese. This is over 100x the average daily dose ingested by Americans.

Please keep in mind it is not just the thyroid gland that is at risk with exposure to radioactive iodine. The breasts, ovaries, uterus, prostate, skin, and other organs all bind and require iodine for optimal functioning. In fact, every cell in our body requires iodine for optimal functioning. Therefore, if we are iodine deficient, exposure to radioactive iodine can potentially result in damage to all the cells of the body. My experience has shown over 95% of patients are deficient in iodine.

I believe iodine deficiency is one of the underlying causes of the epidemic of cancer of the breast, thyroid, ovaries, uterus and prostate. Furthermore, iodine deficiency is the underlying cause of thyroid disorders including Hashimoto’s disease, Grave’s disease, goiter, and hypothyroidism. Our iodine levels have fallen 50% over the last 30 years. During that time, all of the above conditions have been rising at near epidemic rates.

I have written extensively about these ideas in my book, Iodine Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It.

Who should supplement with iodine? If you don’t have a contraindication to iodine supplementation, I believe it should be a part of most people’s daily regimen. As with any substance, some people may not tolerate iodine. My experience has shown that most people can tolerate the doses I have written about. Before supplementing with iodine, I suggest discussing this with your health care provider.

I will do my best to keep you updated on this situation. Let’s send our thoughts, prayers, and support to the Japanese.

More Protective Measures to Combat Radiation Poisoning

2011-03-21T04:40:00.000-07:00

Detoxify or Die: Natural Radiation Protection Therapies for Coping With the Fallout of the Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Saturday, 19 March 2011 02:26

Foot-dragging in recognizing obvious problems and the resultant delays in preventing exposure and mitigating the effects lies at the door of nuclear power advocates more interested in preserving the status quo than in helping millions of innocent people who are suffering through no fault of their own. – Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.

Smoke ascends from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant's Unit 3 on Monday 14 after a second hydrogen explosion.

Smoke ascends from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant’s Unit 3 on Monday 14 after a second hydrogen explosion.

We have had conflicting reports from mainstream news sources regarding the nuclear emergency in Fukushima, Japan. Some say that it is not nearly as bad as the Chernobyl catastrophe, others say that it will be much worse than Chernobyl. What are we to make of this? Who can we trust?
With the current state of affairs, I think it is reasonable enough to expect and prepare for the worst, hope for the best and take what comes. It is with this state of mind that I set out to review the available literature about accessible and alternative therapies in case of nuclear disasters as well as data about the Chernobyl catastrophe. What I found was shocking enough but know that there is also well-documented essential knowledge that can protect you and your loved ones.
This article includes an overview of the publication Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment which appeared in Annals of the New York Academy (2009). The authors – Alexey V. Nesterenko (Institute of Radiation Safety (BELRAD), Belarus) and Alexey V. Yablokov (Russian Academy of Sciences) along with Vassily B. Nesterenko – synthesized information from several thousand cited scientific papers and other materials, including successful and widely available natural therapies that worked. There are also other numerous studies about alternative effective treatments in case of radiation. It will give you a clear idea of what to expect and what you can do in case of a nuclear disaster in Japan.
This is a matter that concerns all of us as no country in the world is capable of providing complete protection from radiation for those living in affected areas and from eating locally grown foods that are contaminated with radiation.
A Lesson from History or What to Expect: The Chernobyl Catastrophe
We have to look only as far back to Chernobyl to understand why we are having so many conflicting reports and little information about what is happening in Japan.
In the last days of spring and the beginning of summer of 1986, radioactivity was released from the Chernobyl power plant and fell upon hundreds of millions of people. The resulting levels of radionuclides were hundreds of times higher than that from the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
The normal lives of tens of millions were destroyed. Today, more than 6 million people live on land with dangerous levels of contamination. More than 20 years after the catastrophe, due to the natural migration of radionuclides, the dangerous consequences in these areas have not decreased, but have actually increased and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Authorities typically provided the least possible financial means for detoxification therapies and disaster control while they denied the facts and documented data concerning dangerous levels of radiation among the population, in foods and the environment.
Sound familiar? This attitude has been the norm rather than the exception.
As a result of the catastrophe, 40% of Europe was contaminated with dangerous radioactivity. Asia and North America were also exposed to significant amounts of radioactive fallout. According to Yablokov et al., the claim by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), and several other groups that the Chernobyl radioactive fallout added “only” 2% to the natural radioactive background ignores several facts:

“First, many territories continue to have dangerously high levels of radiation. Second, high levels of radiation were spread far and wide in the first weeks after the catastrophe. Third, there will be decades of chronic, low-level contamination after the catastrophe. Fourth, every increase in nuclear radiation has an effect on both somatic [body] and reproductive cells of all living things.”

Another important lesson from the Chernobyl experience is that experts and organizations tied to the nuclear industry have dismissed and ignored the consequences of the catastrophe. It was only after 8 or 9 years from the catastrophe that the medical authorities began to finally admit the universal increase in cataracts among the population. The same occurred with thyroid cancer, leukemia and organic central nervous system disorders.
In addition to that, it is known that the percentage of food products with radioactive contamination in excess of official permissible levels did not decrease for 14 years after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. On the contrary, this percentage began to increase in 1996. In spite of official secrecy, the full picture of Chernobyl food contamination in countries as far away as the United States has finally begun to emerge:

“Many people suffer from continuing chronic low-dose radiation 23 years after the catastrophe, owing primarily to consumption of radioactively contaminated food. An important consideration is the fact that given an identical diet, a child’s radiation exposure is three- to fivefold higher than that of an adult. Since more than 90% of the radiation burden nowadays is due to Caesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years, contaminated areas will continue to be dangerously radioactive for roughly the next three centuries.
“When children have the same menu as adults, they get up to five times higher dose burdens from locally produced foodstuffs because of their lower weight and more active processes of metabolism. Children living in rural villages have a dose burden five to six times higher than city children of the same age.
“Daily exposure to small amounts of radionuclides (mostly Cs-137) is virtually unavoidable as they get into the body with food (up to 94%), with drinking water (up to 5%), and through the air (about 1%). Accumulation of radionuclides in the body is dangerous, primarily for children, and for those living in the contaminated territories where there are high levels of Cs-137 in local foodstuffs. The incorporation of radionuclides is now the primary cause of the deterioration of public health in the contaminated territories.
“Experience has shown that existing official radioactive monitoring systems are inadequate (not only in the countries of the Former Soviet Union). Generally, the systems cover territories selectively, do not measure each person, and often conceal important facts when releasing information. The common factor among all governments is to minimize spending for which they are not directly responsible, such as the Chernobyl meltdown, which occurred 23 years ago. Thus officials are not eager to obtain objective data of radioactive contamination of communities, individuals, or food.
“We have to take responsibility not only for our own health, but for the health of future generations of humans, plants, and animals, which can be harmed by mutations resulting from exposure to even the smallest amount of radioactive contamination. [Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov]

Chernobyl Disaster

All people living in territories heavily contaminated by Chernobyl fallout continue to be exposed to low doses of chronic radiation. Without special equipment to identify levels of environmental contamination, it is impossible to know what radionuclide levels are in our food and water or have been incorporated into our bodies.
The radioactive elements Caesium-137 (Cs-137), Strontium-90 (Sr-90), Plutonium (Pu), and Americium (Am) released in Chernobyl concentrate in the roots of plants and it is now known that they will continue to be mobilized for decades, even up to several hundreds of years into the future. Agricultural products have contained – and will continue to contain – radioactivity in all of the Northern Hemisphere countries contaminated by Chernobyl.
The level of radionuclide incorporation in our bodies varies according to each organ. In Chernobyl the most affected organs (from autopsies) were the thyroid gland, the adrenal glands, the pancreas, the thymus, the skeletal muscle, the spleen, the heart and the liver (in decreasing order).
The thyroid gland is the most affected since radioactive iodine (Iodine-131) binds to it, making supplemental non-radioactive iodine a key therapy in the case of nuclear radiation. The natural iodine will bind to the thyroid, blocking the radioactive iodine from binding to it. The affliction of the adrenals is worthy of attention, since there were many “new” diseases that emerged after the Chernobyl disaster whose symptoms resemble those of adrenal fatigue.
The total Chernobyl death toll for the period from 1987 to 2004 has reached nearly 417,000 in other parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and nearly 170,000 in North America, accounting for nearly 824,000 deaths worldwide. This number of Chernobyl victims will continue to increase for several generations.
A Note on Radiation
Radiation poisoning damages organ tissues by excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation consists of particles or electromagnetic waves that are energetic enough to detach electrons from atoms or molecules, thus ionizing them. Direct ionization from the effects of single particles or single photons produces free radicals, which are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons, and which tend to be especially chemically reactive due to their electronic structure.
This means that they become chemically unstable and highly reactive ions as free radicals are formed. These unstable metabolic by-products strive to stabilize by ‘stealing’ a replacement electron from any neighboring molecule, leaving even more damaged molecules in their wake. This is how free radicals in our bodies are produced and cause inflammation, a process that is best known as oxidative stress, oxidative damage or lipid perodixation. Oxidation can even cause debilitating changes to your DNA. This is why anti-oxidants are so important. Antioxidants help to counteract or neutralize the free radicals before they can damage our healthy cells by lending a hand (actually, an electron) when stabilization is needed. This is the reason why we are fond of so many antioxidants such as vitamin C, E, carotenoids, resveratrol, taurine, coenzyme Q10 and melatonin, to name but a few.
Medical Syndromes
Nuclear or ionizing radiation that penetrates the body can affect your body in a number of different ways, and the adverse health effects of extreme radiation exposure may not be apparent for many years.
Among the specific health disorders associated with Chernobyl radiation there was increased morbidity and prevalence of the following groups of diseases:

Circulatory system (owing primarily to radioactive destruction of the endothelium, the internal lining of the blood vessels).

Endocrine system (especially nonmalignant thyroid problems).

Immune system (“Chernobyl AIDS,” increased incidence and seriousness of all illnesses).

Respiratory system.

Urogenital tract and reproductive disorders.

Musculoskeletal system (including pathologic changes in the structure and composition of bones: osteopenia and osteoporosis).

Central nervous system (changes in frontal, temporal, and occipitoparietal lobes of the brain, leading to diminished intelligence and behavioral and mental disorders).

Eyes (cataracts, vitreous destruction, refraction anomalies, and conjunctive disorders).

Digestive tract.

Congenital malformations and anomalies (including previously rare multiple defects of limbs and head).

Thyroid cancer (All forecasts concerning this cancer have been erroneous; Chernobyl-related thyroid cancers have rapid onset and aggressive development, striking both children and adults. After surgery the person becomes dependent on replacement hormone medication for life.)

Leukemia (blood cancers) not only in children and liquidators, but in the general adult population of contaminated territories.

Other malignant neoplasms.

[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Other health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe include:

Changes in the body’s biological balance, leading to increased numbers of serious illnesses owing to intestinal toxicoses, bacterial infections, and sepsis.

Intensified infectious and parasitic diseases (e.g., viral hepatitis and respiratory viruses).

Increased incidence of health disorders in children born to radiated parents (both to liquidators and to individuals who left the contaminated territories), especially those radiated in utero. These disorders, involving practically all the body’s organs and systems, also include genetic changes.

Catastrophic state of health of liquidators (especially liquidators who worked in 1986 – 1987).

Premature aging in both adults and children.

Increased incidence of multiple somatic and genetic mutations.

Chernobyl actually “enriched” the medical vocabulary with such terms as “cancer rejuvenescence,” as well as three new syndromes:

“Vegetovascular dystonia” – dysfunctional regulation of the nervous system involving cardiovascular and other organs (also called autonomic nervous system dysfunction), with clinical signs that present against a background of stress.

“Incorporated long-life radionuclides” – functional and structural disorders of the cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, and other systems owing to absorbed radionuclides.

“Acute inhalation lesions of the upper respiratory tract” – a combination of a rhinitis, throat tickling, dry cough, difficulty breathing, and shortness of breath owing to the effect of inhaled radionuclides, including “hot particles.”

[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Several other new syndromes, reflecting increased incidence of some illnesses, appeared after Chernobyl. Among them:

“Chronic fatigue syndrome” – excessive and unrelieved fatigue, fatigue without obvious cause, periodic depression, memory loss, diffuse muscular and joint pains, chills and fever, frequent mood changes, cervical lymph node sensitivity, weight loss; it is also often associated with immune system dysfunction and CNS disorders.

“Lingering radiating illness syndrome” – a combination of excessive fatigue, dizziness, trembling, and back pain.

“Early aging syndrome” – a divergence between physical and chronological age with illnesses characteristic of the elderly occurring at an early age.

Specific Chernobyl syndromes such as “radiation in utero“, “Chernobyl AIDS”, “Chernobyl heart”, “Chernobyl limbs,” and others await more detailed and definitive medical descriptions.
But deterioration of public health (especially of children) in the Chernobyl-contaminated territories 23 years after the catastrophe is not due to psychological stress or radiophobia, or from resettlement… it is mostly and primarily due to Chernobyl irradiation. Other than the first powerful shock in 1986 there is the continual chronic low-dose and low-dose-rate radionuclide exposure.
Psychological factors (“radiation phobia”) simply have no bearing on the pathologies described because morbidity continued to increase for some years after the catastrophe, whereas radiation concerns have decreased.
Infections on the Rise

There is evidence of increased incidence and severity of diseases characterized by intestinal toxicoses, gastroenteritis, bacterial sepsis, viral hepatitis, and respiratory viruses in areas contaminated by Chernobyl radionuclides (Batyan and Kozharskaya, 1993; Kapytonova and Kryvitskaya, 1994; Nesterenko et al., 1993; Busuet at al., 2002; and others). Genetic instability markedly increased in the contaminated territories and has resulted in increased sensitivity to viral and other types of infections (Vorobtsova et al., 1995).

Chernobyl children

Whether activation and dispersion of dangerous infections is due to mutational changes in the microorganisms (which render them more pathogenic), impaired immunological defenses in the populations, or a combination of both, has not yet been fully answered.

One gram of soil contains some 2,500,000,000 microorganisms (bacteria, microfungi, and protozoa). Up to 3 kg of the mass of an adult human body is made up of bacteria, viruses, and microfungi. In spite of the fact that these represent such important and fundamentally live ecosystems, there are only scarce data on the various microbiological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe. – Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov

There was activation of retroviruses (Kavsan et al., 1992). Tuberculosis became more virulent in the more contaminated areas of Belarus (Chernetsky and Osynovsky, 1993; Belookaya, 1993; Borschevsky et al., 1996). From 1993 to 1997 the hepatitis viruses B, C, D, and G became noticeably activated in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus (Zhavoronok et al., 1998a,b). Herpes viruses were activated in the heavily contaminated territories of Belarus 6 to 7 years after the catastrophe (Matveev, 1993; Matveev et al., 1995; Voropaev et al., 1996). Among soil bacteria that most actively accumulate Cs-137 are Agrobacterium sp., Enterobacter sp. and Klebsiella sp. Sharp reduction in the abundance of healthy gut bacteria (bifidus bacteria) and the prevalence of microbes of the class Escherichia; in particular, a sharp increase in E. coli has been noted in the intestines of evacuee children living in Ukraine.

All microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) and microbiological communities as a whole undergo rapid changes after any additional irradiation. The mechanism of such changes is well known: inclusion and increase in the frequency of mutations by natural selection and preservation of beneficial novel genes that for whatever reason appear more viable under the new conditions. This microevolutionary mechanism has been activated in all radioactively contaminated areas and leads to activation of old and the occurrence of new forms of viruses and bacteria. All but a few microorganisms that have been studied in Chernobyl-affected territories underwent rapid changes in heavily contaminated areas.
Our contemporary knowledge is too limited to understand even the main consequences of the inevitable radioactive-induced genetic changes among the myriad of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi that inhabit the intestines, lungs, blood, organs, and cells of human beings. The strong association between carcinogenesis and viruses (papilloma virus, hepatitis virus, Helicobacter pylori, Epstein – Barr virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and herpes virus) provides another reason why the cancer rate increased in areas contaminated by Chernobyl irradiation (for a review, see Sreelekha et al., 2003).
Not only cancer, but also many other illnesses are connected with viruses and bacteria. Radiologically induced pathologic changes in the microflora in humans can increase susceptibility to infections, inflammatory diseases of bacterial and viral origin (influenza, chronic intestinal diseases, pyelonephritis, cystitis, vaginitis, endocolitis, asthma, dermatitis, and ischemia), and various pathologies of pregnancy.
The long-term consequences for microbial biota may be worse than what we understand today.
- Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov

A Note on Environmental Consequences
All the initial forecasts of rapid clearance or decay of the Chernobyl radionuclides from ecosystems were wrong, it is now known that they are taking much longer than predicted because they recirculate. The overall state of the contamination in water, air, and soil appears to fluctuate greatly and the dynamics of Sr-90, Cs-137, Pu, and Am contamination still present surprises to Chernobyl scientists.

“As a result of the accumulation of Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu, and Am in the root soil layer, radionuclides have continued to build in plants over recent years. Moving with water to the above-ground parts of plants, the radionuclides (which earlier had disappeared from the surface) concentrate in the edible components, resulting in increased levels of internal irradiation and dose rate in people, despite decreasing total amounts of radionuclides from natural disintegration over time.
“In 1986 the levels of irradiation in plants and animals in Western Europe, North America, the Arctic, and eastern Asia were sometimes hundreds and even thousands of times above acceptable norms. The initial pulse of high-level irradiation followed by exposure to chronic low-level radionuclides has resulted in morphological, physiological, and genetic disorders in all the living organisms in contaminated areas that have been studied – plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, bacteria, and viruses.
“What happened to voles and frogs in the Chernobyl zone shows what can happen to humans in coming generations: increasing mutation rates, increasing morbidity and mortality, reduced life expectancy, decreased intensity of reproduction, and changes in male/female sex ratios.
[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Proven Effective Detox Protocols

The therapies described here are widely available as over-the-counter supplements in most countries.

Green stuff and other sea food

In Chernobyl, 5 grams of spirulina for 45 days was used successfully against radiation poisoning. Chlorella algae also has shown radio-protective effects. A study showed that spirulina reduced urine radioactivity levels by 50% after only 20 days and so the Institute of Radiation Safety in Belarus developed a special program to treat 100 children every 20 days with spirulina. Furthermore, the healing occurred during the continuous presence of radiation as well as the presence of radiation contaminated food and water sources. In particular, spirulina given to children with accumulated high doses of radionuclides reduced radioactive cesium. No side effects were registered. Only buy spirulina or chlorella from a certified heavy-metal free source.

Studies on sea vegetables with sodium alginate have shown that they selectively bound with radioactive strontium and eliminated it from the body. Sodium alginate is found in many seaweeds, especially kelp. Sodium alginate binds tightly to such substances as strontium, calcium, barium, cadmium and radium. Some seaweeds are contaminated with lead or arsenic so you only want to consume seaweed that is deep ocean harvested or has been tested to be free of metal toxicity (such as kelp from the west coast of South Africa).

Black and green tea have shown radioprotective effects when taken either before or after exposure to radiation. This anti-radiation effect was observed in several Japanese studies, and studies from China also suggest that the ingredients in tea are radioactive antagonists. Tea catechins are associated with antioxidant properties and can have radio-protective effects when taken both before and after irradiation.

Kelp also has organic iodine which will saturate the thyroid so radioactive iodine will not be absorbed. You can take 1 or 2 tsp or 5 to 10 tablets.

Pectin

Pectin is one of the most effective means of protecting against radiation when consumption of contaminated food becomes unavoidable. Pectin preparations, along with vitamins and minerals, have demonstrated a high efficiency in eliminating incorporated radionuclides. The recommended dose is 5 grams once or twice a day for one month, 4 times a year.

“In 1999 BELRAD together with “Hermes” Hmbh (Munich, Germany) developed a composition of apple pectin additives known as Vitapect® powder, made up of pectin (concentration 18 – 20%) supplemented with vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, C, E, beta-carotene, folic acid; the trace elements K, Zn, Fe, and Ca; and flavoring. BELRAD has been producing this food additive, which has been approved by the Belarussian Ministry of Health, since 2000.
“The pectin additive Vitapect with clean nutrition appears to be 50% more effective in decreasing the levels of Cs-137 than clean nutrition alone (Nesterenko et al., 2004).
“A clinical study of 94 children, 7 to 17 years of age, divided into two groups according to their initial level of Cs-137 contamination determined by whole body counting (WBC) and given Vitapect orally for 16 days (5 g twice a day) revealed both a significant decrease in incorporated Cs-137 and marked improvement in their electrocardiograms.
“From 1996 to 2007 a total of more than 160,000 Belarussian children received pectin food additives during 18 to 25 days of treatment (5g twice a day). As a result, levels of Cs-137 in children’s organs decreased after each course of pectin additives by an average of 30 to 40%.
“Based on long-term experience, the BELRAD Institute recommends that all children living in radioactive contaminated territories receive a quadruple course of oral pectin food additives annually along with their conventional food ration. Eleven years of BELRAD’s activities in controlling levels of incorporated Cs-137 in more than 327,000 children has not caused alarm in the population or radiophobia and has led to the spread of knowledge concerning radiation protection and an increased sense of personal responsibility for one’s health.”
[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Antioxidants and Sulfur Compounds

DMSO is available in various formats.

Sulfur has a long history of use as an antidote for acute exposure to radioactive material. Antioxidants have the capacity to reduce toxic effects of radiation in our bodies. Early research identified sulfur-containing antioxidants as among those with the most beneficial therapeutic effects.

Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is the classical sulfur compound and a powerful anti-oxidant, exactly what we need for detoxification and protection from radiation. A Japanese study showed that even low concentrations of DMSO had radio-protective effects through the facilitation of DNA double-strand break repair, providing protection against radiation damage at all cellular levels in the whole body. The information and experience on DMSO is so fascinating that it can be described only as miraculous. Due to its importance, we have dedicated an entire article to it. See DMSO: The Antidote for Radiation Poisoning.

The use of anti-oxidants such as alpha lipoic acid, Vitamin E, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin B, selenium, N-acetylcysteine and other sulfur compounds becomes crucial. It is important to use several of them, as they work best as a team. In addition to that, individual anti-oxidants can act as pro-oxidants when they themselves are oxidized, therefore individual anti-oxidants could enhance the progression of post-irradiation damage to tissues and organs. Several studies have shown the importance of anti-oxidant supplementation to be an effective therapy against radiation hazards.

Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is a crucial supplement. It is water and fat soluble and it is also capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. This means that it is capable of reaching and preventing damage in our fatty tissues, our brains, and every single organ for that matter. ALA also repairs DNA. It is a good heavy metal chelator, it protects the heart and brain from cell death, stimulates the regeneration of liver tissue and is rapidly absorbed high up into the digestive tract. ALA recycles other antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione which is an indispensable antioxidant for detoxification and is synthesized within the mitochondrion. Glutathione may not reliably be augmented by oral supplementation because it cannot always pass over the mitochondrial membrane, therefore it must be synthesized within the mitochondrion. ALA and its metabolite DHLA provoke the cell to produce significantly higher levels of glutathione (even by 70%). So if the glutathione levels in a cell are kept up to a satisfactory level by ALA, even if the cell is poisoned, the cell will have a better chance of recovering instead of dying. It is of critical importance in order to reduce or reverse radiation-induced oxidative damage after radiotherapy. The recommended dose of ALA is 100mg twice a day with meals, although others have used higher doses of between 300mg and 600mg. A study conducted on some of those who worked on the Chernobyl clean-up operation 10 years after the accident showed that 600 mg of lipoic acid for two months was able to normalize many, but not all, of their lab abnormalities.

The anti-oxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), as a source of glutathione and sulfur, is an excellent supplement to take. Studies have suggested that it might prove efficient in saving individuals exposed to lethal and sub-lethal radiation doses with few or no side effects on individuals exposed to lower doses. It is also widely available. Around 500mg twice a day is a good dose, although some have used with great success around 5 grams of NAC (per day, in a hospital setting) in 7 day cycles in order to detoxify heavy metals.

Other important supplements include magnesium and vitamin C. For more information on the many forms of magnesium and dose recommendation, see here. Calcium and magnesium both help your body to pass off Strontium 90, but make sure to take enough magnesium in order to properly metabolize the levels of calcium.

For vitamin C (ascorbic acid), 1-4 grams as a daily maintenance is a good dose, but during detox or acute exposure, more will probably be required. Vitamin C cannot only protect against radiation but also repair damage from previous exposure. It will also be very handy in case of infections. You can try taking 4 grams of vitamin C 3 times per day. If you have diarrhea or abdominal bloating, cut out one dose. If there are no signs of intestinal “gurgles”, you can increase your dose throughout the day.

Consider taking also a good B complex which help to normalize the red and white blood cell count, since the destruction of white blood cells by radiation can last for extended periods of time.

Vitamin E 800-1000 IU per day and selenium 200 mcg per day are also important since radiation studies support evidence for the synergistic effects of vitamin E and Selenium in protecting from oxidative damage.

Zinc has been successfully used to chelate americium-241 from a nuclear accident victim. Natural zinc will also help the body eliminate several toxic heavy metals including cadmium, aluminum and lead. The recommended dose is 50 mg per day. You might want to supplement yourself with a good mineral complex in order to avoid deficiencies or imbalances brought on by increasing your zinc intake.

If there is a deficiency in potassium , radionuclides like cesium-137, cesium-134, potassium-40 and potassium-42, are absorbed through selective uptake. Too much potassium supplementation can be dangerous, so make sure to follow label instructions.

Melatonin, other than being our “sleeping hormone”, also has powerful antioxidant properties. Animals subjected to whole-body irradiation and given melatonin exhibited increased survival and the protection against radiation-induced oxidative damage was apparent throughout the body. More importantly, melatonin administered orally results in higher circulating levels and more rapidly increasing tissue concentrations. As soon as an exposure occurs, depending on the wind direction after radiation explosion, people living at a distance could protect themselves by oral administration of melatonin, which can be ingested repeatedly as required.

Curcumin is a naturally occurring compound contained in the spice turmeric. Curcumin has been found to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activity in a variety of animal models of human diseases including radiation-induced pulmonary diseases.

Breathing and meditation techniques

The Éiriú Eolas Healing and Rejuvenation program is a key ingredient in detoxing

The proven and effective Éiriú Eolas program includes well-known stress control techniques that stimulate the vagus nerve, which then activates the parasympathetic system which is a powerful anti-inflammatory system. It also includes well known emotional releasing techniques. It can be applied to improve symptoms associated with breathing difficulties, autoimmune diseases and mood problems. It reduces oxidative stress with an improvement of the overall antioxidant status, and thus it has application in numerous diseases including, chronic radioactive exposure.

There is no question but that social and economic factors are dire for those sick from radiation. Sickness, deformed and impaired children, death of family and friends, loss of home and treasured possessions, loss of work, and dislocation are serious financial and mental stresses. – Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko.

During the breathing exercises and the meditation portion of the program, levels of the anti-stress hormones GABA, melatonin, and serotonin are increased, and levels of the stress hormones cortisol and norepinephrine are decreased. Learn more about the many benefits of this program here. The program is available for free at eebreathe.com.

Diet

There are several simple cooking techniques that decrease radionuclides: boil foods several times and discard the water, wash food thoroughly, soak some foods and discard the water, avoid the peels of fruits and vegetables, salt and pickle some foods but throw away the pickling juice! Avoid eating strong broths, use butter, etc.

Remember that another way of boosting your body’s detox capabilities and overall anti-oxidant levels is through the foods we eat which then become key to survival in these stressful times. Being on a detox diet is crucial to regaining health in a toxic environment. Our extensive experience and research shows that those on a no grain/low carb (no gluten) and non dairy diet fare MUCH better.

Chronic ailments often involves an imbalanced immune/defense system in which food sensitivities are involved even if they are not the cause of the problem, leading in turn to chronic inflammation – which translates into disease. This is why it is important to undergo an elimination diet in order to balance the body’s immune system. Some of our immune cells take 6 months to regenerate, so it can take that much time in order to see results if you are very sick. But often you can see positive results in the first two weeks on an appropriate diet, even when you can’t afford any other detox therapies. You can find the diet and how to transition to it here.

Everyone is different and it is only by testing foods that we can discern our individual problematic foods. Having said that, no one should be eating cereals or dairy products or high processed foods because the human system is simply not constructed to digest them properly. What we eat is crucial in recovering our health and it is a great healing medicine when done correctly.

Garlic and onions, being sulfur containing foods, help bind and deactivate both the radioactive isotopes and toxic metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury. The sulfur will help the kidneys and liver detoxify the body.

The most direct way of decreasing radionuclide intake is to avoid foods that are potentially heavily contaminated and to consume foodstuffs with lower levels. However, this is not easy to do because the average level of radionuclide bio-accumulation differs in each region owing to differences in soils, agricultural techniques, etc.

The Chernobyl experience tells us that soaking in water, boiling, salting and pickling foods such as vegetables can decrease the amount of radionuclides in some foods several-fold. Milk always contains high levels of radiation; processed products that reduce contamination levels, such as butter and ghee butter, are safer.

Radionuclide concentrations in the visceral organs of animals are usually significantly higher than in muscle tissue. Among visceral organs the order of decreasing levels of Cs-137 is: lung > kidney > liver > fat.

The Chernobyl experience showed that in contaminated territories the same species of fish taken from rivers and streams have significantly lower radionuclide levels than those from lakes and ponds. Plant feeding fish had three to four times lower radionuclide levels than predatory species (catfish, pike, etc.). Fishes at lower levels of the ocean (crucian, tench, etc.) had several times more contamination than fish which live in the top water layers (small fry, chub, etc.).

It is very important to avoid radionuclides in food and if they are consumed to try to eliminate them from the body as quickly as possible. In a baby, the biological half-life of Cs-137 is 14 days; for a 5-year old it is 21 days; for a 10-year old, 49 days; for teenagers, about 90 days; and for a young male, about 100 days (Nesterenko, 1997).

From the Chernobyl experience, the order of decreasing levels of Cs-137 were: chicken > beef > lamb > pork. Meats from older animals have more radionuclides that meat from younger ones owing to accumulation over time. Bones of young animals have more Sr-90. Eggs: shell > egg-white > yolk.

Pork and fats were not only the safest, they also prove to be a very healthy option for detox and healing purposes. For more information, see ‘I have high cholesterol, and I don’t care‘.

The biological properties of Cs-137 are similar to those of stable potassium and Rubidium, and Sr-90 and Pu are similar to calcium. These properties determine where they concentrate in the body so the use of stable elements may help to decrease the absorption of radionuclides.

Foods rich in potassium include potatoes, beets, raisins, dried apricots, bananas, tea, nuts, lemons, and dried plums. Calcium rich foods include butter and ghee butter, eggs, horseradish, green onions, turnip, parsley, dill, and spinach. Green vegetables, apples, sunflower seeds, black chokeberries are rich in iron; and Rubidium is found in red grapes.

A diet to protect against radioactive contamination should include uncontaminated fruits and vegetables, especially those rich in pectin such as apples to promote the rapid elimination of radionuclides.

Sleeping in Total Darkness

Low melatonin production leaves you not only susceptible to radiation damage, but it also leaves you vulnerable to accelerated aging, depression, weight gain. People with lower levels of melatonin have lower immune/defense function, less antioxidant activity and accelerated cancer cell proliferation, and they also tend to have more unhealthy imbalances in gut bacteria. But sleeping in total darkness is a natural way of enhancing the secretion of melatonin during the night. The room where you sleep has to be completely dark to the point of not been able to see anything. If lights seeps underneath your door, put a towel along the base. Cover your electric clock radio with something. Even the smallest light can decrease melatonin secretion, even if you’re not able to see it with your own eyes.

Miscellaneous

Natural zeolites (i.e., those found in volcanogenic sedimentary rocks) is a mineral which possesses attractive properties that contribute directly to their use in the extraction of Cs and Sr from nuclear wastes and the mitigation of radioactive fallout, but also as a dietary supplement for heavy metal detoxification. It also has anti-bacterial properties and it stimulates the immune system. It was used during successfully during Chernobyl.

Organic Germanium (Ge-132) protects cells exposed to cesium-137 without affecting cellular growth or survival. 25 mg to 100 mg per day has been typically used. (My favorite colon cleanser has organic germanium on it).

Activated charcoal has the ability to absorb and neutralize radioactive substances and some toxic materials. Researchers report that 10 grams or 1 tablespoon of charcoal can absorb about 3 to 7 grams of materials.

There are excellent articles out there focusing on iodine, clays, magnesium therapies and sodium bicarbonate. For more information, see:

Treatments for Nuclear Contamination

Iodine Treatments for Radiation Exposure

Greenmedinfo.com – Radioprotective

All this information will help you to not only protect yourself from chronic radiation exposure, but it will also help you to regain your health by improving your mood and mental functions in these crucial and stressful times.

Sources

Bill Bodri. How to help support the body’s healing after intense radioactive or radiation exposure. Top Shape Publishing, LLC. 2004.
Brown SL, Kolozsvary A, Liu J, Jenrow KA, Ryu S, Kim JH. Antioxidant diet supplementation starting 24 hours after exposure reduces radiation lethality. Radiat Res. 2010 Apr;173(4):462-8.
Burt Berkson, M.D., PhD. The Alpha Lipoic Acid Breakthrough, New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
James C. Lee, Paul A. Kinniry, Evguenia Arguiri, Matthew Serota, Stathis Kanterakis, Shampa Chatterjee, Charalambos C. Solomides, Prashanthi Javvadi, Constantinos Koumenis, Keith A. Cengel and Melpo Christofidou-Solomidou (2010) Dietary Curcumin Increases Antioxidant Defenses in Lung, Ameliorates Radiation-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis, and Improves Survival in Mice. Radiation Research: May 2010, Vol. 173, No. 5, pp. 590-601.
Dan Jia, Nathan A. Koonce, Robert J. Griffin, Cassie Jackson and Peter M. Corry (2010) Prevention and Mitigation of Acute Death of Mice after Abdominal Irradiation by the Antioxidant N-Acetyl-cysteine (NAC). Radiation Research: May 2010, Vol. 173, No. 5, pp. 579-589.
Davis GD, Masilamoni JG, Arul V, Kumar MS, Baraneedharan U, Paul SF, Sakthivelu IV, Jesudason EP, Jayakumar R. Radioprotective effect of DL-alpha-lipoic acid on mice skin fibroblasts. Cell Biol Toxicol. 2009 Aug;25(4):331-40. Epub 2008 Jun 13.
Kashino G, Liu Y, Suzuki M, Masunaga S, Kinashi Y, Ono K, Tano K, Watanabe M.An alternative mechanism for radioprotection by dimethyl sulfoxide; possible facilitation of DNA double-strand break repair. J Radiat Res (Tokyo). 2010;51(6):733-40.
Mumpton FA. La roca magica: uses of natural zeolites in agriculture and industry.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Mar 30;96(7):3463-70.
Nesterenko, A. B., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, A. V. (2009), Chapter II. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for Public Health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1181: 31 – 220. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04822.x
Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, A. V. (2009), Chapter IV. Radiation Protection after the Chernobyl Catastrophe. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1181: 287 – 327. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04836.x
Okunieff P, Swarts S, Keng P, Sun W, Wang W, Kim J, Yang S, Zhang H, Liu C, Williams JP, Huser AK, Zhang L. Antioxidants reduce consequences of radiation exposure. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2008;614:165-78. Review.
Parcell S. Sulfur in human nutrition and applications in medicine.Altern Med Rev. 2002 Feb;7(1):22-44.
Vijayalaxmi, Reiter RJ, Tan DX, Herman TS, Thomas CR Jr. Melatonin as a radioprotective agent: a review. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2004 Jul 1;59(3):639-53.
Chris Wambi, Jenine Sanzari, X. Steven Wan, Manunya Nuth, James Davis, Ying-Hui Ko, Carly M. Sayers, Matthew Baran, Jeffrey H. Ware and Ann R. Kennedy (2008) Dietary Antioxidants Protect Hematopoietic Cells and Improve Animal Survival after Total-Body Irradiation. Radiation Research: April 2008, Vol. 169, No. 4, pp. 384-396.
Weiss JF, Landauer MR. Protection against ionizing radiation by antioxidant nutrients and phytochemicals.. Toxicology. 2003 Jul 15;189(1-2):1-20.
T. S. Wiley, Bent Formby. Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival. Atria (2001).
Yablokov, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Nesterenko, A. V. (2009), Chapter III. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for the Environment. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1181: 221 – 286. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04830.x

Are We Being Lied to? Update on Radiation Poisoning and Protecting Yourself and Family from the experts

2011-03-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

http://blog.imva.info/medicine/iodine-treatments-radiation-exposure

This is a lot of information but it could prevent you and your kids from long term thyroid and health damage. The upshot is that we're being calmed down, lied to, given unreliable info about our potential high risk of poisoning by radioactive material blowing our way. There are basic things we can do now to start to pump up our levels of iodine, vitamin C and Sulphur as well as water, hydration to help protect ourselves.

For those who don't pay attention to supplementing it would be wise to start now. I'm extremely grateful to have found out about iodine deficiency over a year ago and have been taking high levels to help my thyroid out and to detox from the environmental polution we all are exposed to in daily life. I've been taking cutting edge supplements for 2 decades and I never expected to be needing them for something like this but I'm sure glad I and my family are covered. Please listen and read, it's worth your effort to grasp and get into action now.
Swanson's Vitamins sells Lugol's Iodine Solution for $10.99 and hopefully still has it in stock. Sorry they are out of stock, you can try E-bay, look for a seller named Full Orchestra, he has a top seller history and may still have some. His prices were extremely low, no telling what they are now. You shouldn't have problems locating any of the other supplements listed below which are also important. Nascent Iodine may be more easily located at this point since Lugol's was in such high demand.

Watch/listen to Part one of the revealing interview between these two doctors who have been prominent in the research and forerunners in spreading the word about iodine deficiency and other non- mainstream natural support basic to health.
Part two of the interview is at the lower part of the entry or read it at the link to the blog.

After testing over 500 patients, I found that 94.7
percent of my patients are deficient in inorganic iodine.

Dr. David Brownstein

Clearly we are just at the beginning of this disaster and very far from its end, and already it is unprecedented in scope. “If this accident stops right now it will already be one of the three worst accidents we have ever had at a nuclear power plant in the history of nuclear power,” said Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear materials and president of the U.S.-based Ploughshares Fund, a firm involved in security and peace funding.

There is absolutely zero chance that this disaster in progress is going to stop now or any time soon, so precautions need to be taken right away by every citizen in the northern hemisphere that is downwind and on the track of the jet stream that will quickly carry radioactive materials first to North America then to Europe and beyond to Russia. This is all going to be much worse than people want to believe, so rush to get your iodine right now! Get your hands on whatever you can for in a few days there will be no iodine to have of any type.

Dr. Brownstein writes, “If there is enough inorganic, non-radioactive iodine in our bodies, the radioactive fallout has nowhere to bind in our bodies. It will pass through us, leaving our bodies unharmed. It is important to ensure that we have adequate iodine levels BEFORE this fallout hits.” There is some very important information about iodine below not being presented by the government or press. This is an IMVA Emergency Alert and we will be updating this document in the days and weeks ahead so check back to the IMVA blog for the most current form.

Think again, think seven times again before you leap

and start construction of new nuclear power plants.

Mikhail Gorbachev

June 2006

Though the United States, Canadian and European governments are not warning their citizens of the dangers that will drop down on them from the jet stream, this following video does a good visual job of showing what areas will be most affected. With the true size of the catastrophe starting to take shape populations downwind across the entire northern hemisphere had better start becoming concerned enough to secure supplies of iodine to protect themselves from one large part of the radioactive dangers.

Humans tolerate large doses of iodine so the very high dosages recommended for protection for radioactive iodine are not usually a problem except for those who already have serious problems with their thyroids, which is quite a lot of people considering how many are deficient in this vital nutrient. The government’s recommendation of a onetime pulse dose might perhaps be appropriate when confronted with a nuclear blast but for chronic long term exposure, which is suggested with what is in progress in Japan, calls for different formula and dosages through time.

Dr. Michael B. Schachter says, “The treatment dose when a person is iodine insufficient is generally between 12.5 mg and 50 mg daily. Preliminary research indicates that if a person is iodine insufficient, it takes about three months to become iodine sufficient while ingesting a dosage of 50 mg of iodine daily and a year to achieve that while ingesting a dosage of 12.5 mg of iodine daily.

If radiation threatens, it behooves people to start taking the highest dosages tolerable to protect not only their thyroids but also all the glandular tissues as well. Iodine protects the thyroid, breasts, prostate and ovary glands as well as other tissues in the body from radiation if present in sufficient quantities

When treating life-threatening diseases we do not have months to fool around with low dosages. We need to zoom up iodine levels quickly. And we need to get it concentrated to certain tissues or organs. Just to give you an idea of how high iodine dosages have been taken we have to revisit the 1930s when iodine was still a universal medicine present in the U.S. Pharmacopeia and used at much higher dosages than anyone even dreams of using today.

The usual dose for treatment back then was 300 mgs (46 drops of full strength Lugol’s) to 1 gm (1000 mg, 154 drops). It is very important to realize that today’s Lugol’s is not universally the same as it was because of new federal legal requirements about concentration levels. The best company offers Lugol’s at varying concentration levels. (my note: I take 50mg of 2% solution which equates to 20 drops which has been confirmed by people on the iodine group on Yahoo who use much higher doses due to illnesses they are battling. Please read about accompanying supplements to help with detox symptoms that can appear with 50mg doses.

Supporting Nutrients for taking Iodine -

a. Vit C - 2,000 - 5,000 mgs / day
b. Selenium - 200 - 400 mcg / day
c. Unrefined salt (Celtic, Redmonds real salt or other non refined ) - ½ tsp / day
d. Magnesium - 400 mgs / day

e. Optional - ATP CoFactors -1 tablet 2x / day

THEN, IF you have detox symptoms:

Iodine-related (not caused by iodine but by detoxification of bromides in the body, such as fluoride and others.. symptoms may include but are not limited to:
eye lid twitching

foot twitching
tingling in hands or feet
dark thoughts (e.g., there is no reason to live)
depression (e.g., there is no reason to get out of bed)
anxiety
emotionality
mouth and tongue sores and cuts or "sore mouth"
"different" acne,"bromide acne," "acne-like eruptions" without "coniform."
(Some iodine users found zinc helps bromide acne.)
skin "cuts"
hair loss
brain fog
leg and hip ache (feels like arthritis)
rash (bromaderma)
metallic taste
sinus ache
runny nose
headache
sedation
lethargy
odd swallowing sensation (reported in old medical literature as "swollen glotti")
body odor (bromos is Greek for stench)
unusual urine odor
dry mouth
ureteral spasm, frequent urination (mistaken for urinary infection)
diarrhea
constipation
vision changes
irritability
increased salivation
dream changes
hormone changes
kidney pain
breast tenderness (transient symptom reported to resolve)
you salt load:

1. What is the Salt Loading Protocol? Perform the salt loading protocol when you are experiencing issues with iodine supplementation.
1/2 tsp celtic (or other unrefined) salt in 1/2 cup of warm water
Follow the above with a glass of 12 oz filtered water.
** Repeat every 30-45 minutes as needed until urination begins.
Why does this help?

Salt (not white processed table salt we're accustomed to, real unprocessed salt) - containing chloride - binds to the bromide in the blood stream and carries it out through the kidneys.
You don't salt load unless you NEED to AFTER taking the protocol. Detox symptoms means your pathways are not clearing out the toxins quickly, and you may need to take liver supporting/cleansing stuff to help.

Also, you can order your own tests, probably much cheaper and get what you want from:
www.healthcheckusa.com

For Part Two of Interview Read On..

Potassium iodide (also called KI) is a salt of stable (not radioactive) iodine. Stable iodine is an important chemical needed by the body to make thyroid hormones. Following a radiological or nuclear event, radioactive iodine may be released into the air and then breathed into the lungs of any being breathing that air. Radioactive iodine may also contaminate the local food supply and get into the body through food or drink. In the case of internal contamination with radioactive iodine, the thyroid gland quickly absorbs this chemical. Radioactive iodine absorbed by the thyroid can then injure the gland. Because non-radioactive iodine acts to block radioactive iodine from being taken into the thyroid gland, it can help protect this gland from injury.

There will be little or no time to consult doctors and other health care practitioners to get the proper dosage. The standard dose for potassium iodide during radiation emergencies: For infants, babies and children, KI is administered for exposure of 5 centigrays (cGy) or more. For birth through 1 month, 16 mg can be administered; for 1 month through 3 years, 32 mg can be administered; for 3-12 years, 65 mg can be administered; for adolescents ages 12-18 years, 65 mg can be administered (or up to 120 mg if the adolescent is approaching adult size).

Nascent iodine, though more expensive, actually tastes and feels good while going down and is gentle enough to give to children, who do not seem to complain about its taste. My recommendation would be to use the Nascent Iodine in high dosages to both saturate the thyroid (which makes it less vulnerable to chemical and radioactive attack) while it will also knock out any contaminants already absorbed. Nascent iodine contains approximately 400 mcg per drop so 10 drops is 4 mg and 100 drops is only 40 so it’s safe to take much higher dosages than is suggested on the bottle. In fact one has to completely ignore the suggested dosages on the bottle and take some of the information below as ones guidance for dealing with threatening radiation dropping down out of the clouds that are moving along with the jet stream.

One hundred drops a day is a strong dose, but when treating life threatening diseases it would not be unheard of to use upward of 200 drops a day in divided doses, but if you get your iodine on the day the news is sounding the radiation alarm I would jump right to 100 drops or 50 drops in divided dosages for children. It is my belief that the Nascent atomic form is much more efficient than the molecular form meaning you would need less but when confronted with a cloud of radiation one wants to work beyond the speculative. Again the government is recommending a onetime dosage, which makes sense if there is no time to address iodine deficiencies.

It normal conditions it is important to remember that one should not shoot straight up to these dosage levels; rather, start at low dosages and monitor for detoxification reactions, which will be less if sodium bicarbonate and other substances are used in conjunction with it. But in emergencies involving radiation we have not the luxury of time so one has to thrust iodine levels up sharply in burst dosages.

Dr. Brownstein said he was using 200-300 mg with his prostate and breast cancer patients, and those who have metastases needing the highest dosages. He also uses both Lugol’s and Nascent reserving the Nascent for his more sensitive patients. There is also the tablet form of varying dosages (Iodoral), which is used by more than several of the iodine doctors I know.

Iodine is needed in microgram amounts for the thyroid,

milligram amounts for breast and other tissues,

and can be used therapeutically in gram amounts.

Dr. David Miller

Potassium iodide can be found in many health food stores. Combinations of iodide/iodine can be obtained from holistic physicians. Iodoral, Iodozyme HP, and Lugol’s solution are examples of this form of iodine. I prefer the Nascent iodine, especially for children, because it is gentler on the system being that it is in the atomic form making it easy for the body to convert it into the needed forms—iodide and iodine.

These onetime high pulse dosages of potassium iodine are necessary during an emergency but they do not come without some risk of side effects, which include: severe allergic reactions (rash, hives, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, swelling of the mouth, face, lips or tongue), black, tarry stools, confusion, fever, irregular heartbeat, metallic taste in the mouth, mouth sores, numbness or tingling of the hands or feet, skin rash, stomach pains, swelling in the neck or throat, unusual tiredness, weakness.

Endocrinologic side effects have included both hyper- and hypothyroidism. By inhibiting the release of thyroid hormone from the thyroid gland, iodide can cause goiter and hypothyroidism. This has been called the Wolff-Chaikoff effect, occurring in approximately four percent of patients and may be more likely in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Iodide may induce hyperthyroidism, called the Jod-Basedow effect, when given to patients with preexisting iodide deficiency or autonomous, “hot” thyroid nodules. Iodide can cause parotid gland swelling.

Usually, side effects of potassium iodide happen when people take higher doses for a long time but they can occur from taking the government’s recommended onetime pulse dose. The standard warning from the mainstream is that “we should be careful not to take more than the recommended dose or take it for longer than you are told,” which is only once. “Side effects are unlikely because of the low dose and the short time you will be taking the drug.” This is not good advice at all since too-low dosages will not protect one from the radioactive iodine fallout and the short time of application is absolutely out of the question when the fallout will be continuous, as it will be because of the continuous venting of radioactive materials into the atmosphere at the crippled Japanese reactor sites.

When faced with a radioactive cloud it is absolutely imperative that you take iodine, whatever iodine you can get your hands on. If the only iodine available is topical iodine that is not suitable for oral use then you should paint your body and your children’s bodies with it. Few people have ready access to the Nascent iodine so will not enjoy its ease of application in repeated measured dosages that are more gentle to the system, thus yielding fewer side effects. Because Nascent is in the atomic form (I¹), it is absorbed faster and that can also be advantageous in emergency situations. Its only downside is the expense of having to use so much of it.

Don’t Trust Governments Recommendations

Dr. John W. Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology in the University of California at Berkeley, has written extensively about the effort to belittle the menace of low-level radiation. People associated with the nuclear and medical industries assert falsely, “there is no evidence that exposure to low-dose radiation causes any cancer—the risk is only theoretical,” or “the risk is utterly negligible,” or “the accidental exposures were below the safe level,” and even “there is reasonably good evidence that exposure to low-dose radiation is beneficial and lowers the cancer rate.” By any reasonable standard of scientific proof, the weight of the human evidence shows decisively that cancer is inducible by ionizing radiation even at the lowest possible dose and dose-rate—which means that the risk is never theoretical.

Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling described this process as follows: “The rays of high-energy radiation are like little bullets that shoot through the body. They tear electrons away from molecules and through subsequent reactions of the molecular ions that are formed, the molecules may be broken in two, some atoms may be torn away from them, some new molecules may be formed. The dose of 500 roentgens that usually leads to death by acute radiation sickness causes about 500,000 changed molecules to be formed in each cell. If any of the special molecules [that control the process by which the cell divides] happen to be damaged by a single little bullet of radiation from a single radioactive atom, it may be changed in such a way as to cause the cell to divide much more rapidly than the other cells. This cell may then produce a colony of rapidly dividing cells, which in the course of time would outnumber the normal cells of that type. Then the human being may die from cancer—perhaps leukemia, bone cancer, some other kind of cancer—caused by the single radioactive atom that produced the single little bullet of radiation.”

Radioactive materials, plutonium in particular, affect the

deepest level of the human being—bone marrow, DNA,

genetic structure, inner organs and the deepest of emotions.

The message is clear. We have created a horrific heritage.

Jeremy Sherr

Iodine will do nothing to protect a person from uranium, cesium or plutonium radiation exposure so one has to turn to my full protocol and especially to eating clay and clay baths to try to remove these other particles as fast as possible.

Part Two of Interview

Emergency Additions to Radiation Protocol

Dr. Marcus Sircus speaks to Dr. David Brownstein on what's really going on in Japan at the reactor site and what it means to the world at large even with the seeming lax and bored stand from the media.

Protect yourself all year round with these protocols. Read his blog post below:

In this informal conversation I had with Dr. David Brownstein he brings us back to the very basics of what we need to do to protect ourselves to the maximum possible from increasing radiation in the environment. So even before rushing out to buy iodine we might better start with hydrating our bodies to the 100 plus level because just like they need to spray down the reactors and spent rod pools with water, we ourselves need to spray down our entire cellular colony within our bodies. Simply put, our cells will burn a lot faster when dehydrated then when fully hydrated especially with purified water with some bicarbonate it in. David also makes the important point about vitamin C, so take yourself and everyone in the family up to bowel tolerance level. He also stresses not using common table salt but instead Real Salt, Himalayan or Celtic salts that are unprocessed; he explains how these salts can provide vital minerals that will protect the cells quickly.

Dr. Gabriel Cousins, in his book Conscious Eating, says, “Foods containing chlorophyll have long been known to protect against radiation. Generally speaking, any green foods have chlorophyll. From 1959 to 1961, the Chief of the U.S. Army Nutrition Branch in Chicago found that high-chlorophyll foods reduced the effects of radiation on guinea pigs by 50 percent. This includes all chlorophyll foods: cabbage, leafy green vegetables, spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass, any sprouts, and the blue-green algae from Klamath Lake called Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA). This variety of blue-green algae is an excellent anti-radiation food because of its high cellular immutability and high regenerative energy, as well as its high chlorophyll content. It should be taken in a dose of four capsules (one gram) four times per day for one week before, and several weeks after, radiation exposure.”

In my essay Treatments for Nuclear Contamination I mentioned that spirulina and chlorella have been used heavily by the Russians after the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. Dr. Cousins knows his medicine and his food. What he says above is critical information and that is why I recommend Rejuvenate in high doses because of its high spirulina and chlorella content and because it is refined cellular rocket fuel providing them with a broad range of concentrated nutrients in high enough dosages to make a huge difference to the cells, especially when they are under oxidative stress. Dr. Gabriela Segura reminds us that, “radiation produces free radicals (inflammatory molecules) that damage cells that make up tissues such as organs, glands, muscles, and bones. Besides causing the cells to age more quickly they also become distorted, or mutated, creating cancers such as leukemia, anemia, birth defects, and other diseases.” As you will see on my blog post about Rejuvenate, it is its great taste that makes it much easier to overwhelm the cells with concentrated broad-spectrum nutrition.

While we are talking basics I want to remind people also to stock up on vitamin E tablets and one way to go with this is with MegaFoods’ combined selenium and vitamin E formula or any formula that is whole food oriented like New Chapter formulas are. Megafood and New Chapter are companies that set the standards when it comes to quality whole food oriented manufacture of vitamin and mineral supplements.

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that will help to prevent damage to cell membranes caused by ionizing radiation. It works by stopping the chain reactions triggered by the radiation that oxidize the polyunsaturated lipids in the membranes. These chain reactions are what make fatty food go rancid if you keep them for too long. In effect, radiation makes your cell membranes go rancid and it is this that does most of the damage to the rest of the cell, including damage to its DNA.

I just got this letter:

I leave in Japan 200km from the Nuclear Power plant. We get no information or if they say anything is that things won’t be as bad as in Chernobyl. I’m a teacher we have hundreds of children is there anything I can do? What is the best thing to do in this situation? Please help me to help them.

Anna

Dear Anna,

The first thing I would tell you to do is go to my blog.imva.info and read all my posts from this week. Then I would tell you to think seriously of getting the kids and yourself out of there. To the south of Japan or out of the country altogether for the first principle of dealing with toxicity is to avoid exposure. If that is not possible read my protocol and start buying up as much of the items as you can and to sign up for my newsletter and watch for updates. Also I will be doing a live teleconference soon on how to administrate my Natural Allopathic Medicine protocol for radiation contamination. That should be in mid or late in the week.

I received this reply:

I just had a meeting with one engineer who works for nuclear plant in Japan. I was so shocked by what he was saying. He says it’s not dangerous and there is no need to move. He believes what the government says I was so shocked I couldn’t believe my ears. He has one year old baby I told him to immediately go to at least south of Japan because any exposure to radiation for a little girl like her could be fatal. He leaves 200km from the plant and thinks it’s safe. They still think it’s OK and they have things under control. Please I beg you if you have any other information let me know ASAP. I don’t mind dying but I can’t stand and watch thousands of innocent children suffering for years to come. Please help us I’ll pass the message to those who are willing to listen. Ignorance is so dangerous, isn’t it?

Anna

"The most troubling thing to me is the fear that’s out of proportion to the risk," said Dr. Henry Duval Royal, a radiologist at Washington University Medical School. Men and statements like this truly make me sick. How can we not be troubled for the fate Japanese children who will be left to die at the hands of dim-witted medical people who have not the slightest idea what we are dealing with in Japan? The world and all the people in it are already suffering tremendously from the onslaught of heavy metals, chemicals and radiation exposures of many different kinds and sources and medicine has its head absolutely stuck in the sand on this.

Japan faces a catastrophe as radiation penetrates the entire northern half the country and could easily spread to the south. Early on in the crisis fear prompted some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies. Fear sometimes is our best friend since it’s like an early warning radar device telling us of low flying dangers.

Yesterday I was on the radio with my colleague Dr. Gabriela Segura, a French heart surgeon. She and I have both recently published on the side effects and dangers of MMS (Miracle Mineral Supplement) and neither of us would be surprised if its advocates start preaching that it’s good for nuclear fallout as well.

Dr. Segura recently posted an important page on the Net that introduces something I overlooked completely in my first report on how to protect one from radiation as well as treat radiation sickness. This is incredibly important information for people to have in the northern hemisphere because radiation levels are only going to increase from this point on. This problem is not going away, though the authorities will try to hide as much as they can.

We need extra sulfur in our systems to help protect and treat radiation contamination. Segura published that, “Sulfur has a long history of use as an antidote for acute exposure to radioactive material. DMSO is the classical sulfur compound. A Japanese study showed that even low concentrations of DMSO had radio-protective effects through the facilitation of DNA double-strand break repair, providing protection against radiation damage at all cellular levels in the whole body. Remember that boosting your body’s detox capabilities and overall antioxidant levels is a key to survive in these stressful times. Being on a detox diet is crucial to regaining health in a toxic environment. Our extensive experience and research shows that those on a no grain/low carb (no gluten) and non-dairy diet fare MUCH better.”

There are four ways to get sulfur into our systems that I know of. There is DMSO, then sodium Thiosulfate, which I have recommended to people for years to put in their therapeutic baths and can be taken orally as well; there is also MSM and of course Epsom salts. I suggest you flood the companies that sell these products with your orders because like everything necessary and helpful for surviving the coming onslaught of slowly increasing radiation, these things will be in short supply.

DMSO: The Antidote for Radiation Poisoning

DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) is an effective painkiller. It blocks nerve conduction ?bers that produce pain. It reduces in?ammation and swelling by reducing in?ammatory chemicals. It improves blood supply to an area of injury by dilating blood vessels and increasing delivery of oxygen and by reducing blood platelet stickiness. It stimulates healing, which is a key to its usefulness in any condition. It is among the most potent free radical scavengers known to man, if not the most potent one.

In 1866, Russian scientist Alexander Saytzeff isolated a most curious and peculiar chemical compound. It was crystalline, odorless, non-toxic and had a garlic-like taste when consumed. At the time, Saytzeff had no way to predict that his discovery was going to prove highly controversial throughout its entire medical history, that it was going to be tested in thousands of studies, providing miraculous relief in numerous patients.

I’m talking here about dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), an organic sulfur compound that was used only as an industrial solvent, that is, until its medical properties were discovered in 1963 by a research team headed by Stanley W. Jacob, MD. DMSO is a byproduct of kraft pulping (the “sulfate process”), which converts wood into wood pulp consisting of almost pure cellulose fibers. As industrial as it may sound, the process simply entails a treatment of wood chips with a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, known as white liquor, breaking the bonds which link lignin (from the Latin word lignum, meaning wood) to the cellulose.

DMSO is useful as a pain reliever, in burns, acne, arthritis, mental retardation, strokes, amyloidosis, head injury, scleroderma; it soothes toothaches, eases headaches, hemorrhoids, muscle strains; it prevents paralysis from spinal chord injuries; it softens scar tissues. In fact, it is useful in well over 300 ailments and is safe to use. You would think that a compound that has so many alleged uses and benefits would be automatically suspect, but careful examination of its properties and the data available will shed some light in this miraculous chemical.

Sulfur: The Stuff of Life

DMSO is an intermediate product of the global sulfur cycle, which distributes bioavailable sulfur for all animal and plant life (Parcell, 2002). Sulfur compounds are found in all body cells and are indispensable for life; they are needed for a number of chemical reactions involved in the detoxification of drugs and other harmful toxins, and they have potential clinical applications in the treatment of a number of conditions such as depression, fibromyalgia, arthritis, interstitial cystitis, athletic injuries, congestive heart failure, diabetes, cancer, and AIDS (Parcell, 2002). Among the sulfur compounds, DMSO is probably the one that has the widest range and greatest number of therapeutic applications ever shown for any other single chemical. It has around 40 pharmacological properties that may be beneficial in the prevention, relief or reversal of numerous diseases (Morton, 1993).

More on Iodine dosages:

Dr. Schachter wrote,” Dr. Abraham started this Iodine Project around 1998 when he became aware of the many benefits of treating patients with iodine using doses far beyond the 2 mg a day, which most physicians consider to be potentially toxic. He noted that starting in the 1820s, the French physician Jean Lugol used these higher doses to treat a wide variety of conditions. Dr. Lugol combined elemental iodine (5 %) and potassium iodide (10%) with 85 % water. Since iodine kills infectious agents, Dr. Lugol successfully treated many infectious conditions with this solution, which became known as Lugol’s solution, and which is still available today. Prior to World War II, many American and European physicians used Lugol’s solution to treat thyroid conditions, using doses higher than 2 mg daily without apparent significant adverse effects.”

When you look at mainstream recommendations all the above information seems strange but this is because dosage and RDA are set obscenely low. Note instead of talking in milligrams (mg) the RDA is in micrograms (mcg) which is a scale exactly 1000 times less. Meaning it takes 1000 mcg to equal 1 mg and it takes 1000 mg to equal a gram.

Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):50mcg daily for infants 0-12 months; 90mcg daily for 1-8 years; 120mcg daily for 9-13 years; 150mcg daily for 14-18 years.

Adequate Intake (AI) for infants:110mcg daily for ages 0-6 months; 130mcg daily for 7-12 months.

Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL): 200mcg/day for ages 1-3 years; 300mcg/day for 4-8 years; 600mcg/day for 9-13 years; 900mcg/day for 14-18 years (including pregnancy and lactation).

Radiation emergencies: Potassium iodide (KI) should be taken just prior to, or as soon as possible after exposure. For infants, babies, and children, KI is administered for exposure of 5 centigrays (cGy) or more. For birth through 1 month, 16mg can be administered; for 1 month through 3 years, 32mg can be administered; for 3-12 years, 65mg can be administered; for adolescents ages 12-18 years, 65mg can be administered (or up to 120mg if the adolescent is approaching adult size).

The highest dosage I have heard any doctor using today is 100 mg and that is quite a bit when you take iodine in a form where you can taste and appreciate what you are taking into your body. My favorite iodine (Nascent) is ideal for oral and aerosol applications into both nebulizers and vaporizers though I believe Lugol’s, which is harsher on the stomach and has a very bitter taste, is better for transdermal application to the skin not only because it is less expensive but because you can get it at higher concentration.

Latest Expert Advice on Iodine Protection for Radiation Exposure and Overall Health

2011-03-19T02:32:00.000-07:00

Below is the most current commentary from Dr. Brownstein, one of the foremost experts on iodine therapy, addressing the current radiation concerns to help people understand why it's critical for protection and the doseage amount amidst the confusion and misinformation bombarding us via media and word of mouth.

It should be a crime to price gouge on any substance so elementary and critical to life and health in a crisis such as this by anyone let alone company's and retailers who have doubled or worse in the shortages of panic.
If you don't want to pay double or any inflated price for Lugol's solution simply click the Swanson's logo to the right and in the search box type in "lugol's" and you'll see the 2% solution offered at the regular price of $10.99 ~~which appears to be in stock.~~
Swanson's is an excellent source with an excellent double the difference price guarantee and a 12 month guarantee on all their products and minimal shipping charges to boot.

Or use this link--> J. Crow's Lugol's Solution 2% Iodine Just learned they are out of supply from manufacturer.

Otherwise, If you have trouble locating a source for iodine supplements log into the iodine group on yahoo for info on reliable, ethical sources. The link is included in my earlier post on this from a couple days ago or can be easily located via search engine.

See earlier post showing how to make Lugol's Solution and Dr. Brownstein's first blog commentary etc HERE

http://drdavidbrownstein.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-radiation-update-4.html

Friday, March 18, 2011

Japan Radiation Update 4

This is my fourth post about the Japanese nuclear disaster. First, I have to give credit to the U.S. government for suggesting that U.S. citizens move further away (50 miles) from the radiation danger. This action would serve to verify the severity of the crises.

I believe this crisis should highlight the need for each of us to take a more active role in our own health care decisions. It is important to take the proper steps to achieve your optimal health before a crisis arises. Many times these steps include eating a healthy diet and taking the correct supplements. My experience has shown that ensuring an adequate iodine level is one piece of the puzzle to obtaining your optimal health.

If the Japanese are not able to control the nuclear reaction that is occurring a true nuclear meltdown will occur. What will that mean to us? A nuclear meltdown could cause a large radiation cloud to leave Japan and deposit radiation over the U.S. However, that has not occurred yet. If that occurs, it is important to take precautions including ensuring that you and your family are taking iodine.

Here is how it works. Iodine binds to receptors throughout the body. For example, there are receptors for iodine in the thyroid gland. When iodine binds to its receptors, thyroid hormone is produced. Individuals who are iodine deficient suffer the majority of problems when exposed to radioactive iodine. In these people, radioactive iodine will bind to wherever there are open or empty iodine receptors. After radioactive iodine binds to these receptors, the surrounding tissue will be destroyed due to the radioactive iodine. Furthermore, it will damage the DNA of the surrounding cells. Damaged DNA is one cause of cancer.

Which tissues bind iodine? The largest concentration of iodine occurs in the thyroid gland. However, the largest amount of iodine is found in the fat tissue. Large concentrations of iodine are also found in many other tissues including the breast, ovary, uterus, and prostate. If radioactive iodine binds to any of these sites, it will destroy surrounding tissue and potentially damage DNA. This can lead to long-term problems such as cancer of these tissues.

It is important to keep in mind that every cell needs and utilizes iodine. Therefore, radioactive iodine exposure can have a dramatic effect on the body.

Exposure to radiation is cumulative. That means any exposure to ionizing radiation builds up in the body over time. We should all strive to minimize exposure to radiation. Some forms or radiation are unavoidable such as normal background radiation. However, radioactive iodine emitted from a nuclear disaster in Japan (or anywhere else) is largely avoidable if your body is iodine sufficient.

If your body has enough iodine binding to its receptors in the thyroid, breasts, ovaries, etc., then the radioactive iodine has nowhere to bind. That is why it is so important to have your iodine levels checked before a disaster such as this occurs. If you are iodine deficient, you can rectify this problem by simply taking iodine.

Due to our exposure to so many toxic items that inhibit or block iodine utilization in the body--fluoride, bromide and chlorine--our body's need for iodine has dramatically increased over the last 30 years. My experience has shown that milligram amounts of iodine are necessary for achieving whole-body iodine sufficiency. In fact, any iodine supplementation program should strive for whole body iodine sufficiency, not just thyroid sufficiency.

How much iodine is needed to achieve whole-body iodine sufficiency? My clinical experience has clearly shown that milligram amounts of iodine are needed to achieve whole-body sufficiency. These amounts can vary between 6-50mg/day for most people. Some may need more, some less.

There is no doubt that the radiation cloud from Japan will pass over the U.S. This radiation exposure is a potential health risk. How much iodine should you take to ensure that your body will not absorb radioactive iodine? Without proper testing, it is impossible to say what dose is perfect for everybody. However, I have recommended that adults take 12-14mg/day of a combination of iodine and iodide. That amount will prevent nearly 95% of radioactive iodine from binding to the thyroid gland and still leave other amounts of iodine available for the rest of the body's need. Children will need smaller amounts. You can dose a child down for his/her size. A general rule of thumb for children is 0.08mg I/pound of body weight. If a newborn is breast feeding, they do not need iodine supplementation if the mother is iodine sufficient. Iodine can be excreted in the breast milk.

I generally recommend either Lugol's iodine, Iodoral (from Optimox) or Optizyme Hp (from Biotics). Lugol's iodine dosage is 2 drops per day (12.5mg) or 1 tablet of each of either Iodoral or Optizyme HP (both products are 12.5mg/ tablets). When should people begin iodine supplementation? At this point, with the disaster still progressing, I would say it is time to begin supplementation with iodine.

As with any substance, there can be problems with iodine supplementation. Before beginning supplementation, it is best to discuss this option with your health care provider. More information about iodine can be found in my books, Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It and Overcoming Thyroid Disorders.

In the next few days, I will begin to answer some of the many questions sent to me.

Iodine for Health & Radiation Protection; Lugol's Iodine Solution- What is it and how to make it yourself

2011-03-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Above photo of raw materials used to formulate Lugol's Iodine Solution, a folk remedy used to help with goiters and thyroid symptoms before synthetic drugs became the western medical standard. Iodine is necessary for every cell in your body and deficiencies are reported to be worldwide.

I purchased these elements and a bottle of prepared Lugol's 2% Iodine Solution

from an Ebay seller for extremely reasonable cost. You can also purchase a bottle of the formulation many places on the web. Swanson's Vitamins sells a bottle for about $10.

Use the link on the right for any current discounts available.

Or click this link to go directly to the Lugol's page

J. Crow's Lugol's Solution 2% Iodine

For those interested in learning how to make your own, here's a youtube video link to a naturopath demonstrating how to make it. I don't have any connection to this person, these videos are posted for the sole purpose of explaining the process and uses of Lugol's Iodine Solution. All other opinions are his alone.

Iodine has rapidly become the topic of the web since the nuclear fallout of Japan's power plant meltdown. So many people are out of the loop on iodine and why you need it, coupled with confusion and fear, there's a feeding frenzy and lot's of bad info going around.

While many are new to the concept of using iodine to replenish the body's deficiency, there's a growing number of people becoming aware of this issue and the news is spreading about how valuable iodine is to the body and it's numerous values attributed to its use. From reversing health problems of myriad types to energy and detoxification from halides that we absorb and which block iodine uptake, the list is long and vast.

This brings us back to the old folk medicine recipes long ago abandoned by 'civilized society' as thyroid meds and other so called medical advances have become the norm. The doctors tell us iodine is poisonous and there's no need for if you use table salt. They aren't aware of the common deficiencies being detected and how iodine interelates to so many crucial function in the body. Not to mention protection from radiation poisoning.

You may be intrigued and want to try it for yourself but it's important you understand this is NOT the tincture of Iodine , not the stuff you find on drug store shelves used for wounds. It's also not Povidone Iodine. Those are topical use only. Then there's others you can take internally but some are more bioavailable and active than others. It's a little intimidating unless you've got solid information which I urge you to get for yourself prior to starting on it. The forerunning pioneers of this movement are doctors who've put their information and research out there for review The Iodine Group at http://www.iodine4health.com/basic/iodinegroup.htm .

From reproduction challenges, thyroid, fybromyalgia, breast cancer and so many more, the reasons to pay attention to iodine is vast and the interest is growing, but not without attracting controversy as all new schools of thought do. Since it's rare that your doctor will prescribe iodine it's going to take an informed decision and the web has a lot of it. Some commercially driven, some benevolent and experiential with a lot of testimonials to back them up.

There are a number of places on the web to learn about the use and benefit of iodine therapy which you should definitely take the time to research and learn about prior to jumping into this therapy. Learning about the amounts to take is very important as well as which types are most effective, and the difference in cost is something to factor in as well.

Too high a dose starting off can overwhelm you. There are also labs that offer tests to check out your levels.

You can also join the Iodine Group on Yahoo.com for in depth personal experience from people using the formulation and clinical information or visit the curezone.com and check out their iodine resources.
Regarding the Radiation concerns and iodine;

Here's the blog of Dr.Brownstein, the doctor who wrote the book on iodine and why your body needs it. You can find it offered at his site below where he also addresses the radiation concerns from the Japanese nuclear powerplant and personal protection here. https://www.drbrownstein.com/homePage.php

Japan Radiation Update

I have received many questions from my post yesterday about the nuclear disaster in Japan. Unfortunately, there has been little information about the amount of radiation released from either Japan or the U.S. I find it hard to believe no one in the U.S. government has any idea on the amount of radiation that has been released and the amount of radiation that is predicted to fall over the U.S. in the next 3-7 days.

What should we do? I still say that we have time to sit tight as there is still time to take enough iodine in order to prevent problems from radioactive iodine. How much iodine? As stated yesterday, the U.S. government recommends 130mg of potassium iodide in the event of a nuclear disaster. However, that amount is only necessary for those who are near a nuclear explosion.

Thankfully, we are not near the explosion. As the cloud drifts over the ocean, the amount of radioactivity will dissipate. Although there is no sure amount that we know will prevent damage from this catastrophe, ensuring adequate iodine intake will minimize any exposure to radioactive iodine. How much iodine is that? Until we know what the exposure is going to be, no one can know what dose of iodine to take.
Now it is time to get off the fence. The average Japanese ingests around 13mg of iodine per day. This is 100x more than the average U.S. citizen. I have discussed this in my book, Iodine Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It. Since I have been recommending most people take 6-50mg of iodine per day, I would suggest taking the average Japanese dose of 13mg/day. This is one Iodoral pill or one Iodozyme HP pill or two drops of Lugol’s iodine. I do not believe microgram doses will do the trick.

There is risk with taking iodine, just as there is risk with any substance, but my experience has shown this dose to be safe for the vast majority of people. Please discuss this dosage with your health care provider before beginning supplementation.

In the next day or two, I will try to answer the questions that I have received about this crises. Also, I will keep you informed if any new information becomes available.

Tapping (EFT) Quick Start Manual – Tapping Points and Instructions — Thriving Now

2010-11-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

Tapping (EFT) Quick Start Manual – Tapping Points and Instructions — Thriving Now

Welcome to Energy Tapping – EFT

2010-11-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Energy Tapping – EFT

Tapping Points - FREE Images - For Energy Tapping, EFT, Meridian Tapping, MTT

2010-11-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

Tapping Points - FREE Images - For Energy Tapping, EFT, Meridian Tapping, MTT

The FDA- Public Watchdog - Death By Medicine

2010-10-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

I started today adding a clarification to a comment I made on the Huffington Post's site regarding food addiction and the FDA. As I wrote I drifted away from food into the drug side, which if you really break food down you'll find that it's what our bodies run on. The nutrients supply necessary vitamins, minerals and substance our cells, nerves and brain chemistry run on. One of the reasons people overeat, gain weight and can't seem to lose weight are related to chemical impulse or lack thereof which cause physiological results.

This is where the FDA , The Food and Drug Association comes in to determine which are which, and apply their controls to them, allegedly protecting us from irresponsible products and manufacturer's of these segments.
We see headlines screaming about Ephedra killing a young athlete and panic ensues. The widespread media hysteria paints the picture and the public responds in fear with outcry that supports the awaiting FDA to ban this herb which has been used for respiratory support among other things for over 5000 years. Same thing with Tryptophan, a natural substance we create internally which helped people for decades to sleep without drugs, addiction or side effect but because of a tainted batch of a single manufacturer, Pow, it's banned. The outcry of the public eventually brought it back to the shelves recently but the speed of which it was deemed dangerous without proper investigation was immediate. Why is it that the supplements, vitamins, herbals and natural supports are the ones under attack while the pharmaceutical and medical field which has spun out of control becoming an unmanageable monster of cost, expense, reduced quality, and collateral damage goes relatively unpublicized, no big media blurbs, hardly anything except from the lawsuits advertised by law firms on class actions.

So I found something very interesting on the site one of my most trusted sources for longevity information, Life Extension Foundation. (http://www.lef.org)

Here's one article from the site called As We See It- Dangerous Medicine
Here's an excerpt from the article but be sure to read the rest and learn about Codex. This is worth your attention if you care about personal health freedom.

Dangerous Medicine

William Faloon

The FDA claims that the drugs it approves are “safe.” This charade is rapidly collapsing. PBS television’s investigative series Frontline has aired a shocking exposé of dangerous prescription drugs and the FDA’s complicity in allowing this outrage to occur.1
The Frontline producers initially investigated drugs that had been withdrawn from the market. After filming began, current and former FDA employees started coming forward to give a powerful critique of what really goes on inside the agency. As the story evolved, rather than making a documentary about drug safety, Frontline ended up shifting its focus to the FDA itself.
A major emphasis of the documentary was the FDA’s reliance on drug companies’ research of their own products to determine safety. As Frontline found out, the FDA does not conduct clinical trials, because the agency is not in the business of conducting medical research. The FDA instead reviews the results submitted by pharmaceutical companies. This means that the basis for FDA approval of a new drug is often “safety data” provided by the very company that makes the drug!

Frontline exposed this questionable drug approval sham to the world in a one-hour broadcast aired November 17, 2003. It was FDA drug reviewers who made the most appalling disclosures. These current and former FDA employees revealed incidences in which drug dangers were clearly present but were ignored or covered up by higher-level FDA officials. Only after many injuries and deaths were these drugs withdrawn or relabeled. A survey of all FDA employees showed a significant number felt they were pressured by others in the agency to give favorable reviews to dangerous and ineffective drugs.
The most absurd part of this saga is the FDA’s historical record of attempting to restrict consumers’ access to dietary supplements. The FDA deceitfully implies that supplements have hidden dangers. Yet the data supporting the safety and efficacy of nutrients usually come from independent sources, as opposed to the company-sponsored studies the FDA relies on to certify drug safety.
Frontline showed that in too many cases, the safety data supplied by drug companies are flawed and altered, with the result being an alarming number of injuries and deaths from prescription drug toxicities. Deaths from adverse drug reactions have become so commonplace that they rarely make the news.
For the past 18 years, Life Extension has harshly criticized this corrupt system of drug approval. What Life Extension lacked was the “inside” data gathered by Frontline that show specifically how the FDA conspires with the drug industry to approve dangerous drugs. Even more disturbing are instances in which the FDA allows toxic drugs to remain on the market even after injuries and deaths are reported. If the FDA had even a vestige of credibility remaining about its role of “protecting” the public against dangerous drugs, this Frontline documentary tore it to shreds. The emperor (the FDA) clearly has no clothes (credibility).

~Snip~

Odd to me that the agency who claims to protect the US population is stepping in to protect us from ourselves in an aim to control the natural supplements we're able to use. Odder still is the conflict in the revenue stream of the pharmaceutical industry where supplements have long been proven to aid in wellness and immune enhancement, there's needed to be decades long supreme court battles to put the FDA in its place when it comes to freedom of information and what we as citizens are able to say about natural supplements and their usefulness. It seems to me there's a link to the interest in the revenue stream driven by illness and pharmaceutical use and the revenue diverted away from that stream by the use of supplements, which the FDA seems bent on controlling. As I was writing this I thought It would be interesting to see how the disease and mortality related figures compare annually between pharmaceutical drugs prescribed to people, the use of supplements and vitamins, and other available substances like tobacco. So I ran a search on it and found staggering statistics on the medical and pharmaceutical side. Just the deaths and damage from acetaminophen aka Tylenol annually are incredibly high. Here's an interesting stat on acetaminophen from the website of http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/case/tylenol.html; There's a lot more than this info there but this makes my point:

"Acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of liver failure in the US and the United Kingdom and the leading cause of calls to the Poison Control Centers across the US. It is estimated that acetaminophen poisoning calls exceed 100,000 per year. Studies indicate that acetaminophen overdose results in over 56,000 injuries, 2,500 hospitalizations, and an estimated 450 deaths per year."

While we're at it, we can still buy tobacco when it's threat and dangers have clearly been established but there's money to be made and Commerce wins again. I read today in Natural News , an opinion of the author of the e-zine stating that Congress needs to be abolished as they're not helping anyone or anything but rather are costing us. He went on to say that it was almost pointless to appoint others to replace congresspersons because they change once in the system. I'll withhold my decision on that but he stated something I've noticed more and more daily, that we are controlled by corporations and commerce. The government doesn't give a rat's ass if you're healthy or ill, they want to wring every last buck out of you for commercial coffers.
Here's the link to the piece called Vote No for Congress.

Here's an excerpt: "From this, many people are crying for change in Washington. But this idea of sending new people to Washington, I submit, is merely another gimmick foisted upon the American people by members of Congress who seem more interested in looting America than saving her. Because the real secret in Washington is that it doesn't matter whether Democrats or Republicans are in charge. It's the corporations that control both parties in the end."

Why the corporations are in control

The corporations, you see, have been running Washington for decades -- on both sides of the political fence. It was the Bush Administration, you may remember, that rigged a secret back-room deal with Big Pharma to make it illegal for the U.S. government to negotiate discount pricing for large-scale Medicare drug purchasing. This locked in a Big Pharma monopoly that has already cost the taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in the years since.
The articles I've pointed out from Life Extension Foundation were originally published in 2004, six years ago.. and nothing much has changed. To give you an idea of the content and doctors behind this alert I'll post the first of 6 pages, the remaining deal with specifics on unnecessary surgeries, medical error, over prescribing antibiotics, drugs in our water, women's experience in health care and the neglect we are subject to and much more. It's worth the read for your own sake.

Here's the article written by a group of reputable MD.'s

Death by Medicine

By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD

Something is wrong when regulatory agencies pretend that vitamins are dangerous, yet ignore published statistics showing that government-sanctioned medicine is the real hazard.
Until now, Life Extension could cite only isolated statistics to make its case about the dangers of conventional medicine. No one had ever analyzed and combined ALL of the published literature dealing with injuries and deaths caused by government-protected medicine. That has now changed.
A group of researchers meticulously reviewed the statistical evidence and their findings are absolutely shocking.4 These researchers have authored a paper titled “Death by Medicine” that presents compelling evidence that today’s system frequently causes more harm than good.
This fully referenced report shows the number of people having in-hospital, adverse reactions to prescribed drugs to be 2.2 million per year. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is 20 million per year. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million per year. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million per year.
The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US. (By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.5)
We placed this article on our website to memorialize the failure of the American medical system. By exposing these gruesome statistics in painstaking detail, we provide a basis for competent and compassionate medical professionals to recognize the inadequacies of today’s system and at least attempt to institute meaningful reforms.

Natural medicine is under siege, as pharmaceutical company lobbyists urge lawmakers to deprive Americans of the benefits of dietary supplements. Drug-company front groups have launched slanderous media campaigns to discredit the value of healthy lifestyles. The FDA continues to interfere with those who offer natural products that compete with prescription drugs.

These attacks against natural medicine obscure a lethal problem that until now was buried in thousands of pages of scientific text. In response to these baseless challenges to natural medicine, the Nutrition Institute of America commissioned an independent review of the quality of “government-approved” medicine. The startling findings from this meticulous study indicate that conventional medicine is “the leading cause of death” in the United States .

The Nutrition Institute of America is a nonprofit organization that has sponsored independent research for the past 30 years. To support its bold claim that conventional medicine is America 's number-one killer, the Nutritional Institute of America mandated that every “count” in this “indictment” of US medicine be validated by published, peer-reviewed scientific studies.

What you are about to read is a stunning compilation of facts that documents that those who seek to abolish consumer access to natural therapies are misleading the public. Over 700,000 Americans die each year at the hands of government-sanctioned medicine, while the FDA and other government agencies pretend to protect the public by harassing those who offer safe alternatives.

A definitive review of medical peer-reviewed journals and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good.
Each year approximately 2.2 million US hospital patients experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to prescribed medications.(1) In 1995, Dr. Richard Besser of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections to be 20 million; in 2003, Dr. Besser spoke in terms of tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually.(2, 2a) Approximately 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed annually in the US,(3) while approximately 8.9 million Americans are hospitalized unnecessarily.(4)
As shown in the following table, the estimated total number of iatrogenic deaths—that is, deaths induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures— in the US annually is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is itself the leading cause of death and injury in the US . By comparison, approximately 699,697 Americans died of heart in 2001, while 553,251 died of cancer.(5)

See the rest here
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.htm

Table 1: Estimated Annual Mortality and Economic Cost of Medical Intervention

Condition	Deaths	Cost	Author
Adverse Drug Reactions	106,000	$12 billion	Lazarou(1), Suh (49)
Medical error	98,000	$2 billion	IOM(6)
Bedsores	115,000	$55 billion	Xakellis(7), Barczak (8)
Infection	88,000	$5 billion	Weinstein(9), MMWR (10)
Malnutrition	108,800	-----------	Nurses Coalition(11)
Outpatients	199,000	$77 billion	Starfield(12), Weingart(112)
Unnecessary Procedures	37,136	$122 billion	HCUP(3,13)
Surgery-Related	32,000	$9 billion	AHRQ(85)
Total	783,936	$282 billion

Using Leape's 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million(14) multiplied by the 14% fatality rate he used in 1994(16) produces an annual death rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors combined. Using this number instead of Lazorou's 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine 's (IOM) estimated 98,000 annual medical errors would add another 216,000 deaths, for a total of 999,936 deaths annually.

Table 2: Estimated Annual Mortality and Economic Cost of Medical Intervention

Condition	Deaths	Cost	Author
ADR/med error	420,000	$200 billion	Leape(14)
Bedsores	115,000	$55 billion	Xakellis(7), Barczak (8)
Infection	88,000	$5 billion	Weinstein(9), MMWR (10)
Malnutrition	108,800	-----------	Nurses Coalition(11)
Outpatients	199,000	$77 billion	Starfield(12), Weingart(112)
Unnecessary Procedures	37,136	$122 billion	HCUP(3,13)
Surgery-Related	32,000	$9 billion	AHRQ(85)
Total	999,936

The enumerating of unnecessary medical events is very important in our analysis. Any invasive, unnecessary medical procedure must be considered as part of the larger iatrogenic picture. Unfortunately, cause and effect go unmonitored. The figures on unnecessary events represent people who are thrust into a dangerous health care system. Each of these 16.4 million lives is being affected in ways that could have fatal consequences. Simply entering a hospital could result in the following:

In 16.4 million people, a 2.1% chance (affecting 186,000) of a serious adverse drug reaction(1)
In 16.4 million people, a 5-6% chance (affecting 489,500) of acquiring a nosocomial infection(9)
In16.4 million people, a 4-36% chance (affecting 1.78 million) of having an iatrogenic injury (medical error and adverse drug reactions).(16)
In 16.4 million people, a 17% chance (affecting 1.3 million) of a procedure error.(40)

These statistics represent a one-year time span. Working with the most conservative figures from our statistics, we project the following 10-year death rates.

Table 3: Estimated 10-Year Death Rates from Medical Intervention

Condition	10-Year Deaths	Author
Adverse Drug Reaction	1.06 million	(1)
Medical error	0.98 million	(6)
Bedsores	1.15 million	(7,8)
Nosocomial Infection	0.88 million	(9,10)
Malnutrition	1.09 million	(11)
Outpatients	1.99 million	(12, 112)
Unnecessary Procedures	371,360	(3,13)
Surgery-related	320,000	(85)
Total	7,841,360

Our estimated 10-year total of 7.8 million iatrogenic deaths is more than all the casualties from all the wars fought by the US throughout its entire history.

Our projected figures for unnecessary medical events occurring over a 10-year period also are dramatic.

Table 4: Estimated 10-Year Unnecessary Medical Events

Unnecessary Events	10-year Number	Iatrogenic Events
Hospitalization	89 million(4)	17 million
Procedures	75 million(3)	15 million
Total	164 million

These figures show that an estimated 164 million people—more than half of the total US population—receive unneeded medical treatment over the course of a decade.

INTRODUCTION

Never before have the complete statistics on the multiple causes of iatrogenesis been combined in one article. Medical science amasses tens of thousands of papers annually, each representing a tiny fragment of the whole picture. To look at only one piece and try to understand the benefits and risks is like standing an inch away from an elephant and trying to describe everything about it. You have to step back to see the big picture, as we have done here. Each specialty, each division of medicine keeps its own records and data on morbidity and mortality. We have now completed the painstaking work of reviewing thousands of studies and putting pieces of the puzzle together.

Is American Medicine Working?

US health care spending reached $1.6 trillion in 2003, representing 14% of the nation's gross national product.(15) Considering this enormous expenditure, we should have the best medicine in the world. We should be preventing and reversing disease, and doing minimal harm. Careful and objective review, however, shows we are doing the opposite. Because of the extraordinarily narrow, technologically driven context in which contemporary medicine examines the human condition, we are completely missing the larger picture.

Medicine is not taking into consideration the following critically important aspects of a healthy human organism: (a) stress and how it adversely affects the immune system and life processes; (b) insufficient exercise; (c) excessive caloric intake; (d) highly processed and denatured foods grown in denatured and chemically damaged soil; and (e) exposure to tens of thousands of environmental toxins. Instead of minimizing these disease-causing factors, we cause more illness through medical technology, diagnostic testing, overuse of medical and surgical procedures, and overuse of pharmaceutical drugs. The huge disservice of this therapeutic strategy is the result of little effort or money being spent on preventing disease.

Underreporting of Iatrogenic Events

As few as 5% and no more than 20% of iatrogenic acts are ever reported.(16,24,25,33,34) This implies that if medical errors were completely and accurately reported, we would have an annual iatrogenic death toll much higher than 783,936. In 1994, Leape said his figure of 180,000 medical mistakes resulting in death annually was equivalent to three jumbo-jet crashes every two days.(16) Our considerably higher figure is equivalent to six jumbo jets are falling out of the sky each day.

What we must deduce from this report is that medicine is in need of complete and total reform—from the curriculum in medical schools to protecting patients from excessive medical intervention. It is obvious that we cannot change anything if we are not honest about what needs to be changed. This report simply shows the degree to which change is required.

We are fully aware of what stands in the way of change: powerful pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, along with other powerful groups with enormous vested interests in the business of medicine. They fund medical research, support medical schools and hospitals, and advertise in medical journals. With deep pockets, they entice scientists and academics to support their efforts. Such funding can sway the balance of opinion from professional caution to uncritical acceptance of new therapies and drugs. You have only to look at the people who make up the hospital, medical, and government health advisory boards to see conflicts of interest. The public is mostly unaware of these interlocking interests.

For example, a 2003 study found that nearly half of medical school faculty who serve on institutional review boards (IRB) to advise on clinical trial research also serve as consultants to the pharmaceutical industry.(17) The study authors were concerned that such representation could cause potential conflicts of interest. A news release by Dr. Erik Campbell, the lead author, said, "Our previous research with faculty has shown us that ties to industry can affect scientific behavior, leading to such things as trade secrecy and delays in publishing research. It's possible that similar relationships with companies could affect IRB members' activities and attitudes.”(18)

Medical Ethics and Conflict of Interest in Scientific Medicine

Jonathan Quick, director of essential drugs and medicines policy for the World Health Organization (WHO), wrote in a recent WHO bulletin: "If clinical trials become a commercial venture in which self-interest overrules public interest and desire overrules science, then the social contract which allows research on human subjects in return for medical advances is broken."(19)

As former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine , Dr. Marcia Angell struggled to bring greater attention to the problem of commercializing scientific research. In her outgoing editorial entitled “ Is Academic Medicine for Sale?” Angell said that growing conflicts of interest are tainting science and called for stronger restrictions on pharmaceutical stock ownership and other financial incentives for researchers:(20) “When the boundaries between industry and academic medicine become as blurred as they are now, the business goals of industry influence the mission of medical schools in multiple ways.” She did not discount the benefits of research but said a Faustian bargain now existed between medical schools and the pharmaceutical industry.

Angell left the New England Journal in June 2000. In June 2002, the New England Journal of Medicine announced that it would accept journalists who accept money from drug companies because it was too difficult to find ones who have no ties. Another former editor of the journal, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, said that was not the case and that plenty of researchers are available who do not work for drug companies.(21) According to an ABC news report, pharmaceutical companies spend over $2 billion a year on over 314,000 events attended by doctors.

The ABC news report also noted that a survey of clinical trials revealed that when a drug company funds a study, there is a 90% chance that the drug will be perceived as effective whereas a non-drug-company-funded study will show favorable results only 50% of the time. It appears that money can't buy you love but it can buy any "scientific" result desired.

Cynthia Crossen, a staffer for the Wall Street Journal, i n 1996 published Tainted Truth : The Manipulation of Fact in America , a book about the widespread practice of lying with statistics.(22) Commenting on the state of scientific research, she wrote: “The road to hell was paved with the flood of corporate research dollars that eagerly filled gaps left by slashed government research funding.” Her data on financial involvement showed that in l981 the drug industry “gave” $292 million to colleges and universities for research. By l991, this figure had risen to $2.1 billion.

THE FIRST IATROGENIC STUDY

Dr. Lucian L. Leape opened medicine's Pandora's box in his 1994 paper, “Error in Medicine,” which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).(16) He found that Schimmel reported in 1964 that 20% of hospital patients suffered iatrogenic injury, with a 20% fatality rate. In 1981 Steel reported that 36% of hospitalized patients experienced iatrogenesis with a 25% fatality rate, and adverse drug reactions were involved in 50% of the injuries. In 1991, Bedell reported that 64% of acute heart attacks in one hospital were preventable and were mostly due to adverse drug reactions.
Leape focused on the “Harvard Medical Practice Study” published in 1991, (16a) which found a 4% iatrogenic injury rate for patients, with a 14% fatality rate, in 1984 in New York State. From the 98,609 patients injured and the 14% fatality rate, he estimated that in the entire U.S. 180,000 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury.
Why Leape chose to use the much lower figure of 4% injury for his analysis remains in question. Using instead the average of the rates found in the three studies he cites (36%, 20%, and 4%) would have produced a 20% medical error rate. The number of iatrogenic deaths using an average rate of injury and his 14% fatality rate would be 1,189,576.
Leape acknowledged that the literature on medical errors is sparse and represents only the tip of the iceberg, noting that when errors are specifically sought out, reported rates are “distressingly high.” He cited several autopsy studies with rates as high as 35-40% of missed diagnoses causing death. He also noted that an intensive care unit reported an average of 1.7 errors per day per patient, and 29% of those errors were potentially serious or fatal.
Leape calculated the error rate in the intensive care unit study. First, he found that each patient had an average of 178 “activities” (staff/procedure/medical interactions) a day, of which 1.7 were errors, which means a 1% failure rate. This may not seem like much, but Leape cited industry standards showing that in aviation, a 0.1% failure rate would mean two unsafe plane landings per day at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport; in the US Postal Service, a 0.1% failure rate would mean 16,000 pieces of lost mail every hour; and in the banking industry, a 0.1% failure rate would mean 32,000 bank checks deducted from the wrong bank account.
In trying to determine why there are so many medical errors, Leape acknowledged the lack of reporting of medical errors. Medical errors occur in thousands of different locations and are perceived as isolated and unusual events. But the most important reason that the problem of medical errors is unrecognized and growing, according to Leape, is that doctors and nurses are unequipped to deal with human error because of the culture of medical training and practice. Doctors are taught that mistakes are unacceptable. Medical mistakes are therefore viewed as a failure of character and any error equals negligence. No one is taught what to do when medical errors do occur. Leape cites McIntyre and Popper, who said the “infallibility model” of medicine leads to intellectual dishonesty with a need to cover up mistakes rather than admit them. There are no Grand Rounds on medical errors, no sharing of failures among doctors, and no one to support them emotionally when their error harms a patient.
Leape hoped his paper would encourage medical practitioners “to fundamentally change the way they think about errors and why they occur.” It has been almost a decade since this groundbreaking work, but the mistakes continue to soar.
In 1995, a JAMA report noted, "Over a million patients are injured in US hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic death rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined."(23)
At a 1997 press conference, Leape released a nationwide poll on patient iatrogenesis conducted by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), which is sponsored by the American Medical Association (AMA). Leape is a founding member of NPSF. The survey found that more than 100 million Americans have been affected directly or indirectly by a medical mistake. Forty-two percent were affected directly and 84% personally knew of someone who had experienced a medical mistake.(14)
At this press conference, Leape updated his 1994 statistics, noting that as of 1997, medical errors in inpatient hospital settings nationwide could be as high as 3 million and could cost as much as $200 billion . Leape used a 14% fatality rate to determine a medical error death rate of 180,000 in 1994.(16) In 1997, using Leape's base number of 3 million errors, the annual death rate could be as high as 420,000 for hospital inpatients alone.

ONLY A FRACTION OF MEDICAL ERRORS ARE REPORTED

In 1994, Leape said he was well aware that medical errors were not being reported.(16) A study conducted in two obstetrical units in the UK found that only about one-quarter of adverse incidents were ever reported, to protect staff, preserve reputations, or for fear of reprisals, including lawsuits.(24). An analysis by Wald and Shojania found that only 1.5% of all adverse events result in an incident report, and only 6% of adverse drug events are identified properly. The authors learned that the American College of Surgeons estimates that surgical incident reports routinely capture only 5-30% of adverse events. In one study, only 20% of surgical complications resulted in discussion at morbidity and mortality rounds.(25) From these studies, it appears that all the statistics gathered on medical errors may substantially underestimate the number of adverse drug and medical therapy incidents. They also suggest that our statistics concerning mortality resulting from medical errors may be in fact be conservative figures.
An article in Psychiatric Times (April 2000) outlines the stakes involved in reporting medical errors.(26) The authors found that the public is fearful of suffering a fatal medical error, and doctors are afraid they will be sued if they report an error. This brings up the obvious question: who is reporting medical errors? Usually it is the patient or the patient's surviving family. If no one notices the error, it is never reported. Janet Heinrich, an associate director at the U.S. General Accounting Office responsible for health financing and public health issues, testified before a House subcommittee hearing on medical errors that "the full magnitude of their threat to the American public is unknown” and "gathering valid and useful information about adverse events is extremely difficult." She acknowledged that the fear of being blamed, and the potential for legal liability, played key roles in the underreporting of errors. The Psychiatric Times noted that the AMA strongly opposes mandatory reporting of medical errors.(26) If doctors are not reporting, what about nurses? A survey of nurses found that they also fail to report medical mistakes for fear of retaliation.(27)
Standard medical pharmacology texts admit that relatively few doctors ever report adverse drug reactions to the FDA.(28) The reasons range from not knowing such a reporting system exists to fear of being sued.(29) Yet the public depends on this tremendously flawed system of voluntary reporting by doctors to know whether a drug or a medical intervention is harmful.
Pharmacology texts also will tell doctors how hard it is to separate drug side effects from disease symptoms. Treatment failure is most often attributed to the disease and not the drug or doctor. Doctors are warned, “Probably nowhere else in professional life are mistakes so easily hidden, even from ourselves.”(30) It may be hard to accept, but it is not difficult to understand why only 1 in 20 side effects is reported to either hospital administrators or the FDA.(31, 31a)
If hospitals admitted to the actual number of errors for which they are responsible, which is about 20 times what is reported, they would come under intense scrutiny.(32) Jerry Phillips, associate director of the FDA's Office of Post Marketing Drug Risk Assessment, confirms this number. “In the broader area of adverse drug reaction data, the 250,000 reports received annually probably represent only 5% of the actual reactions that occur.”(33) Dr. Jay Cohen, who has extensively researched adverse drug reactions, notes that because only 5% of adverse drug reactions are reported, there are in fact 5 million medication reactions each year.(34)
A 2003 survey is all the more distressing because there seems to be no improvement in error reporting, even with all the attention given to this topic. Dr. Dorothea Wild surveyed medical residents at a community hospital in Connecticut and found that only half were aware that the hospital had a medical error-reporting system, and that the vast majority did not use it at all. Dr. Wild says this does not bode well for the future. If doctors don't learn error reporting in their training, they will never use it. Wild adds that error reporting is the first step in locating the gaps in the medical system and fixing them. Not even that first step has been taken to date.(35)

PUBLIC SUGGESTIONS ON IATROGENESIS

In a telephone survey, 1,207 adults ranked the effectiveness of the following measures in reducing preventable medical errors that result in serious harm.(36) (Following each measure is the percentage of respondents who ranked the measure as “very effective.”)

giving doctors more time to spend with patients (78%)
requiring hospitals to develop systems to avoid medical errors (74%)
better training of health professionals (73%)
using only doctors specially trained in intensive care medicine on intensive care units (73%)
requiring hospitals to report all serious medical errors to a state agency (71%)
increasing the number of hospital nurses (69%)
reducing the work hours of doctors in training to avoid fatigue (66%)
encouraging hospitals to voluntarily report serious medical errors to a state agency (62%).

DRUG IATROGENESIS

Prescription drugs constitute the major treatment modality of scientific medicine. With the discovery of the “germ theory,” medical scientists convinced the public that infectious organisms were the cause of illness. Finding the “cure” for these infections proved much harder than anyone imagined. From the beginning, chemical drugs promised much more than they delivered. But far beyond not working, the drugs also caused incalculable side effects. The drugs themselves, even when properly prescribed, have side effects that can be fatal, as Lazarou's study(1) showed. But human error can make the situation even worse.

Medication Errors

A survey of a 1992 national pharmacy database found a total of 429,827 medication errors from 1,081 hospitals. Medication errors occurred in 5.22% of patients admitted to these hospitals each year. The authors concluded that at least 90,895 patients annually were harmed by medication errors in the US as a whole.(37)
A 2002 study shows that 20% of hospital medications for patients had dosage errors. Nearly 40% of these errors were considered potentially harmful to the patient. In a typical 300-patient hospital, the number of errors per day was 40.(38)
Problems involving patients' medications were even higher the following year. The error rate intercepted by pharmacists in this study was 24%, making the potential minimum number of patients harmed by prescription drugs 417,908.(39)

Recent Adverse Drug Reactions

More-recent studies on adverse drug reactions show that the figures from 1994 published in Lazarou's 1998 JAMA article may be increasing. A 2003 study followed 400 patients after discharge from a tertiary care hospital setting (requiring highly specialized skills, technology, or support services). Seventy-six patients (19%) had adverse events. Adverse drug events were the most common, at 66% of all events. The next most common event was procedure-related injuries, at 17%.(40)
In a New England Journal of Medicine study, an alarming one in four patients suffered observable side effects from the more than 3.34 billion prescription drugs filled in 2002.(41) One of the doctors who produced the study was interviewed by Reuters and commented, "With these 10-minute appointments, it's hard for the doctor to get into whether the symptoms are bothering the patients."(42) William Tierney, who editorialized on the New England Journal study, said “… given the increasing number of powerful drugs available to care for the aging population, the problem will only get worse.” The drugs with the worst record of side effects were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and calcium-channel blockers. Reuters also reported that prior research has suggested that nearly 5% of hospital admissions (over 1 million per year) are the result of drug side effects. But most of the cases are not documented as such. The study found that one of the reasons for this failure is that in nearly two-thirds of the cases, doctors could not diagnose drug side effects or the side effects persisted because the doctor failed to heed the warning signs.

Medicating Our Feelings

Patients seeking a more joyful existence and relief from worry, stress, and anxiety often fall victim to the messages endlessly displayed on TV and billboards. Often, instead of gaining relief, they fall victim to the myriad iatrogenic side effects of antidepressant medication.
Moreover, a whole generation of antidepressant users has been created from young people growing up on Ritalin. Medicating youth and modifying their emotions must have some impact on how they learn to deal with their feelings. They learn to equate coping with drugs rather than with their inner resources. As adults, these medicated youth reach for alcohol, drugs, or even street drugs to cope. According to JAMA , “Ritalin acts much like cocaine.”(43) Today's marketing of mood-modifying drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft ® makes them not only socially acceptable but almost a necessity in today's stressful world.

Television Diagnosis

To reach the widest audience possible, drug companies are no longer just targeting medical doctors with their marketing of antidepressants. By 1995, drug companies had tripled the amount of money allotted to direct advertising of prescription drugs to consumers. The majority of this money is spent on seductive television ads. From 1996 to 2000, spending rose from $791 million to nearly $2.5 billion.(44) This $2.5 billion represents only 15% of the total pharmaceutical advertising budget. While the drug companies maintain that direct-to-consumer advertising is educational, Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe of the Public Citizen Health Research Group in Washington, DC, argues that the public often is misinformed about these ads.(45) People want what they see on television and are told to go to their doctors for a prescription. Doctors in private practice either acquiesce to their patients' demands for these drugs or spend valuable time trying to talk patients out of unnecessary drugs. Dr. Wolfe remarks that one important study found that people mistakenly believe that the “FDA reviews all ads before they are released and allows only the safest and most effective drugs to be promoted directly to the public.”(46)

How Do We Know Drugs Are Safe?

Another aspect of scientific medicine that the public takes for granted is the testing of new drugs. Drugs generally are tested on individuals who are fairly healthy and not on other medications that could interfere with findings. But when these new drugs are declared “safe” and enter the drug prescription books, they are naturally going to be used by people who are on a variety of other medications and have a lot of other health problems. Then a new phase of drug testing called “post-approval” comes into play, which is the documentation of side effects once drugs hit the market. In one very telling report, the federal government's General Accounting Office "found that of the 198 drugs approved by the FDA between 1976 and 1985... 102 (or 51.5%) had serious post-approval risks... the serious post-approval risks (included) heart failure, myocardial infarction, anaphylaxis, respiratory depression and arrest, seizures, kidney and liver failure, severe blood disorders, birth defects and fetal toxicity, and blindness."(47)
NBC Television's investigative show “Dateline” wondered if your doctor is moonlighting as a drug company representative. After a yearlong investigation, NBC reported that because doctors can legally prescribe any drug to any patient for any condition, drug companies heavily promote "off label" and frequently inappropriate and untested uses of these medications, even though these drugs are approved only for the specific indications for which they have been tested.(48)
The leading causes of adverse drug reactions are antibiotics (17%), cardiovascular drugs (17%), chemotherapy (15%), and analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents (15%).(49)

Specific Drug Iatrogenesis: Antibiotics

According to William Agger, MD, director of microbiology and chief of infectious disease at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, WI, 30 million pounds of antibiotics are used in America each year.(50) Of this amount, 25 million pounds are used in animal husbandry, and 23 million pounds are used to try to prevent disease and the stress of shipping, as well as to promote growth. Only 2 million pounds are given for specific animal infections. Dr. Agger reminds us that low concentrations of antibiotics are measurable in many of our foods and in various waterways around the world, much of it seeping in from animal farms.
Agger contends that overuse of antibiotics results in food-borne infections resistant to antibiotics. Salmonella is found in 20% of ground meat, but the constant exposure of cattle to antibiotics has made 84% of salmonella resistant to at least one anti-salmonella antibiotic. Diseased animal food accounts for 80% of salmonellosis in humans, or 1.4 million cases per year. The conventional approach to countering this epidemic is to radiate food to try to kill all organisms while continuing to use the antibiotics that created the problem in the first place. Approximately 20% of chickens are contaminated with Campylobacter jejuni, an organism that causes 2.4 million cases of illness annually. Fifty-four percent of these organisms are resistant to at least one anti-campylobacter antimicrobial agent.
Denmark banned growth-promoting antibiotics beginning in 1999, which cut their use by more than half within a year, from 453,200 to 195,800 pounds. A report from Scandinavia found that removing antibiotic growth promoters had no or minimal effect on food production costs. Agger warns that the current crowded, unsanitary methods of animal farming in the US support constant stress and infection, and are geared toward high antibiotic use.
In the US, over 3 million pounds of antibiotics are used every year on humans. With a population of 284 million Americans, this amount is enough to give every man, woman, and child 10 teaspoons of pure antibiotics per year. Agger says that exposure to a steady stream of antibiotics has altered pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staplococcus aureus, and entercocci, to name a few.
Almost half of patients with upper respiratory tract infections in the U.S. still receive antibiotics from their doctor.(51) According to the CDC, 90% of upper respiratory infections are viral and should not be treated with antibiotics. In Germany, the prevalence of systemic antibiotic use in children aged 0-6 years was 42.9%.(52)
Data obtained from nine US health insurers on antibiotic use in 25,000 children from 1996 to 2000 found that rates of antibiotic use decreased. Antibiotic use in children aged three months to under 3 years decreased 24%, from 2.46 to 1.89 antibiotic prescriptions per patient per year. For children aged 3 to under 6 years, there was a 25% reduction from 1.47 to 1.09 antibiotic prescriptions per patient per year. And for children aged 6 to under 18 years, there was a 16% reduction from 0.85 to 0.69 antibiotic prescriptions per patient per year.(53) Despite these reductions, the data indicate that on average every child in America receives 1.22 antibiotic prescriptions annually.
Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci is the only common cause of sore throat that requires antibiotics, with penicillin and erythromycin the only recommended treatment. Ninety percent of sore-throat cases, however, are viral. Antibiotics were used in 73% of the estimated 6.7 million adult annual visits for sore throat in the US between 1989 and 1999. Furthermore, patients treated with antibiotics were prescribed non-recommended broad-spectrum antibiotics in 68% of visits. This period saw a significant increase in the use of newer, more expensive broad-spectrum antibiotics and a decrease in use of the recommended antibiotics penicillin and erythromycin.(54) A ntibiotics being prescribed in 73% of sore-throat cases instead of the recommended 10% resulted in a total of 4.2 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions from 1989 to 1999.

The Problem with Antibiotics

In September 2003, the CDC re-launched a program started in 1995 called “Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work.”(55) This $1.6 million campaign is designed to educate patients about the overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics. Most people involved with alternative medicine have known about the dangers of antibiotic overuse for decades. Finally the government is focusing on the problem, yet it is spending only a miniscule amount of money on an iatrogenic epidemic that is costing billions of dollars and thousands of lives. The CDC warns that 90% of upper respiratory infections, including children's ear infections, are viral and that antibiotics do not treat viral infection. More than 40% of about 50 million prescriptions for antibiotics written each year in physicians' offices are inappropriate.(2) U sing antibiotics when not needed can lead to the development of deadly strains of bacteria that are resistant to drugs and cause more than 88,000 deaths due to hospital-acquired infections.(9) The CDC, however, seems to be blaming patients for misusing antibiotics even though they are available only by prescription from physicians. According to Dr. Richard Besser, head of “Get Smart”: "Programs that have just targeted physicians have not worked. Direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs is to blame in some cases.” Besser says the program “teaches patients and the general public that antibiotics are precious resources that must be used correctly if we want to have them around when we need them. Hopefully, as a result of this campaign, patients will feel more comfortable asking their doctors for the best care for their illnesses, rather than asking for antibiotics."(56)

What constitutes the “best care”? The CDC does not elaborate and ignores the latest research on the dozens of nutraceuticals that have been scientifically proven to treat viral infections and boost immune-system function. Will doctors recommend vitamin C, echinacea, elderberry, vitamin A, zinc, or homeopathic oscillococcinum? Probably not. The CDC's common-sense recommendations that most people follow anyway include getting proper rest, drinking plenty of fluids, and using a humidifier.

The pharmaceutical industry claims it supports limiting the use of antibiotics. The drug company Bayer sponsors a program called “Operation Clean Hands” through an organization called LIBRA.(57) The CDC also is involved in trying to minimize antibiotic resistance, but nowhere in its publications is there any reference to the role of nutraceuticals in boosting the immune system, nor to the thousands of journal articles that support this approach. This tunnel vision and refusal to recommend the available non-drug alternatives is unfortunate when the CDC is desperately trying to curb the overuse of antibiotics.

Drugs Pollute Our Water Supply

We have reached the point of saturation with prescription drugs. Every body of water tested contains measurable drug residues. The tons of antibiotics used in animal farming, which run off into the water table and surrounding bodies of water, are conferring antibiotic resistance to germs in sewage, and these germs also are found in our water supply. Flushed down our toilets are tons of drugs and drug metabolites that also find their way into our water supply. We have no way to know the long-term health consequences of ingesting a mixture of drugs and drug-breakdown products. These drugs represent another level of iatrogenic disease that we are unable to completely measure.(58-67)

Specific Drug Iatrogenesis: NSAIDs

It's not just the US that is plagued by iatrogenesis. A survey of more than 1,000 French general practitioners (GPs) tested their basic pharmacological knowledge and practice in prescribing NSAIDs, which rank first among commonly prescribed drugs for serious adverse reactions. The study results suggest that GPs do not have adequate knowledge of these drugs and are unable to effectively manage adverse reactions.(68)

A cross-sectional survey of 125 patients attending specialty pain clinics in South London found that possible iatrogenic factors such as “over-investigation, inappropriate information, and advice given to patients as well as misdiagnosis, over-treatment, and inappropriate prescription of medication were common.”(69)

Specific Drug Iatrogenesis: Cancer Chemotherapy

In 1989, German biostatistician Ulrich Abel, PhD, wrote a monograph entitled “Chemotherapy of Advanced Epithelial Cancer.” It was later published in shorter form in a peer-reviewed medical journal.(70) Abel presented a comprehensive analysis of clinical trials and publications representing over 3,000 articles examining the value of cytotoxic chemotherapy on advanced epithelial cancer. Epithelial cancer is the type of cancer with which we are most familiar, arising from epithelium found in the lining of body organs such as the breast, prostate, lung, stomach, and bowel. From these sites, cancer usually infiltrates adjacent tissue and spreads to the bone, liver, lung, or brain. With his exhaustive review, Abel concluded there is no direct evidence that chemotherapy prolongs survival in patients with advanced carcinoma; in small-cell lung cancer and perhaps ovarian cancer, the therapeutic benefit is only slight. According to Abel, “Many oncologists take it for granted that response to therapy prolongs survival, an opinion which is based on a fallacy and which is not supported by clinical studies.”

Over a decade after Abel's exhaustive review of chemotherapy, there seems no decrease in its use for advanced carcinoma. For example, when conventional chemotherapy and radiation have not worked to prevent metastases in breast cancer, high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) along with stem-cell transplant (SCT) is the treatment of choice. In March 2000, however, results from the largest multi-center randomized controlled trial conducted thus far showed that, compared to a prolonged course of monthly conventional-dose chemotherapy, HDC and SCT were of no benefit, (71) with even a slightly lower survival rate for the HDC/SCT group. Serious adverse effects occurred more often in the HDC group than the standard-dose group. One treatment-related death (within 100 days of therapy) was recorded in the HDC group, but none was recorded in the conventional chemotherapy group. The women in this trial were highly selected as having the best chance to respond.

Unfortunately, no all-encompassing follow-up study such as Dr. Abel's exists to indicate whether there has been any improvement in cancer-survival statistics since 1989. In fact, research should be conducted to determine whether chemotherapy itself is responsible for secondary cancers instead of progression of the original disease. We continue to question why well-researched alternative cancer treatments are not used.

Drug Companies Fined

Periodically, the FDA fines a drug manufacturer when its abuses are too glaring and impossible to cover up. In May 2002, The Washington Post reported that Schering-Plough Corp., the maker of Claritin, was to pay a $500 million dollar fine to the FDA for quality-control problems at four of its factories.(72) The indictment came after the Public Citizen Health Research Group, led by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, called for a criminal investigation of Schering-Plough, charging that the company distributed albuterol asthma inhalers even though it knew the units were missing the active ingredient.

The FDA tabulated infractions involving 125 products, or 90% of the drugs made by Schering-Plough since 1998. Besides paying the fine, the company was forced to halt the manufacture of 73 drugs or suffer another $175 million fine. Schering-Plough's news releases told another story, assuring consumers that they should still feel confident in the company's products.

This large settlement served as a warning to the drug industry about maintaining strict manufacturing practices and has given the FDA more clout in dealing with drug company compliance. According to The Washington Post article, a federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that the FDA could seize the profits of companies that violate "good manufacturing practices." Since that time, Abbott Laboratories has paid a $100 million fine for failing to meet quality standards in the production of medical test kits, while Wyeth Laboratories paid $30 million in 2000 to settle accusations of poor manufacturing practices.

UNNECESSARY SURGICAL PROCEDURES

In 1974, 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries were performed, resulting in 11,900 deaths at a cost of $3.9 billion.(73,74) In 2001, 7.5 million unnecessary surgical procedures were performed, resulting in 37,136 deaths at a cost of $122 billion (using 1974 dollars).(3)

It is very difficult to obtain accurate statistics when studying unnecessary surgery. In 1989, Leape wrote that perhaps 30% of controversial surgeries—which include cesarean section, tonsillectomy, appendectomy, hysterectomy, gastrectomy for obesity, breast implants, and elective breast implants(74)— are unnecessary. In 1974, the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held hearings on unnecessary surgery. It found that 17.6% of recommendations for surgery were not confirmed by a second opinion. The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations extrapolated these figures and estimated that, on a nationwide basis, there were 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries performed annually, resulting in 11,900 deaths at an annual cost of $3.9 billion.(73)

According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality(13), in 2001 the 50 most common medical and surgical procedures were performed approximately 41.8 million times in the US. Using the 1974 House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations' figure of 17.6% as the percentage of unnecessary surgical procedures, and extrapolating from the death rate in 1974, produces nearly 7.5 million (7,489,718) unnecessary procedures and a death rate of 37,136, at a cost of $122 billion (using 1974 dollars).

In 1995, researchers conducted a similar analysis of back surgery procedures, using the 1974 “unnecessary surgery percentage” of 17.6. Testifying before the Department of Veterans Affairs, they estimated that of the 250,000 back surgeries performed annually in the US at a hospital cost of $11,000 per patient, the total number of unnecessary back surgeries approaches 44,000, costing as much as $484 million.(75)

Like prescription drug use driven by television advertising, unnecessary surgeries are escalating. Media-driven surgery such as gastric bypass for obesity “modeled” by Hollywood celebrities seduces obese people to think this route is safe and sexy. Unnecessary surgeries have even been marketed on the Internet.(76) A study in Spain declares that 20-25% of total surgical practice represents unnecessary operations.(77)

According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics for 1979 to 1984, the total number of surgical procedures increased 9% while the number of surgeons grew 20%. The study notes that the large increase in the number of surgeons was not accompanied by a parallel increase in the number of surgeries performed, and expressed concern about an excess of surgeons to handle the surgical caseload.(78)

From 1983 to 1994, however, the incidence of the 10 most commonly performed surgical procedures jumped 38%, to 7,929,000 from 5,731,000 cases. By 1994, cataract surgery was the most common procedure with more than 2 million operations, followed by cesarean section (858,000 procedures) and inguinal hernia operations (689,000 procedures). Knee arthroscopy procedures increased 153% while prostate surgery declined 29%.(79)

The list of iatrogenic complications from surgery is as long as the list of procedures themselves. One study examined catheters that were inserted to deliver anesthetic into the epidural space around the spinal nerves for lower cesarean section, abdominal surgery, or prostate surgery. In some cases, non-sterile technique during catheter insertion resulted in serious infections, even leading to limb paralysis.(80)

In one review of the literature, the authors found “a significant rate of overutilization of coronary angiography, coronary artery surgery, cardiac pacemaker insertion, upper gastrointestinal endoscopies, carotid endarterectomies, back surgery, and pain-relieving procedures.”(81)

A 1987 JAMA study found the following significant levels of inappropriate surgery: 17% of coronary angiography procedures, 32% of carotid endarterectomy procedures, and 17% of upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy procedures.(82) Based on the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) statistics provided by the government for 2001, 697,675 upper gastrointestinal endoscopies (usually entailing biopsy) were performed, as were 142,401 endarterectomies and 719,949 coronary angiographies.(13) Extrapolating the JAMA study's inappropriate surgery rates to 2001 produces 118,604 unnecessary endoscopy procedures, 45,568 unnecessary endarterectomies, and 122,391 unnecessary coronary angiographies. These are all forms of medical iatrogenesis.

MEDICAL AND SURGICAL PROCEDURES

It is instructive to know the mortality rates associated with various medical and surgical procedures. Although we must sign release forms when we undergo any procedure, many of us are in denial about the true risks involved; because medical and surgical procedures are so commonplace, they often are seen as both necessary and safe. Unfortunately, allopathic medicine itself is a leading cause of death, as well as the most expensive way to die.

Perhaps the words “health care” confer the illusion that medicine is about health. Allopathic medicine is not a purveyor of health care but of disease care. The HCUP figures are instructive,(13) but the computer program that calculates annual mortality statistics for all US hospital discharges is only as good as the codes entered into the system. In email correspondence, HCUP indicated that the mortality rates for each procedure indicated only that someone undergoing that procedure died either from the procedure or from some other cause.

Thus there is no way of knowing exactly how many people die from a particular procedure. While codes for “poisoning & toxic effects of drugs” and “complications of treatment” do exist, the mortality figures registered in these categories are very low and do not correlate with what is known from research such as the 1998 JAMA study(1) that estimated an average of 106,000 prescription medication deaths per year. No codes exist for adverse drug side effects, surgical mishaps, or other types of medical error. Until such codes exist, the true mortality rates tied to of medical error will remain buried in the general statistics.

AN HONEST LOOK AT US HEALTH CARE

In 1978, the US Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) reported: “Only 10-20% of all procedures currently used in medical practice have been shown to be efficacious by controlled trial."(83) In 1995, the OTA compared medical technology in eight countries ( Australia , Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and the US ) and again noted that few medical procedures in the US have been subjected to clinical trial. It also reported that US infant mortality was high and life expectancy low compared to other developed countries.(84)

Although almost 10 years old, much of what was written in the OTA report holds true today. The report blames the high cost of American medicine on the medical free-enterprise system and failure to create a national health care policy. It attributes the government's failure to control health care costs to market incentives and profit motives inherent in the current financing and organization of health care, which includes such interests as private health insurers, hospital systems, physicians, and the drug and medical-device industries. “Health Care Technology and Its Assessment in Eight Countries” is the last report prepared by the OTA, which was disbanded in 1995. It also is perhaps the US government's last honest, detailed examination of the nation's health care system. An appendix summarizing this 60-page report follows this article.

SURGICAL ERRORS FINALLY REPORTED

An October 2003 JAMA study from the US government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) documented 32,000 mostly surgery-related deaths costing $9 billion and accounting for 2.4 million extra hospital days in 2000.(85) Data from 20% of the nation's hospitals were analyzed for 18 different surgical complications, including postoperative infections, foreign objects left in wounds, surgical wounds reopening, and post-operative bleeding.

In a press release accompanying the study, AHRQ director Carolyn M. Clancy, MD, noted: “This study gives us the first direct evidence that medical injuries pose a real threat to the American public and increase the costs of health care.”(86) According to the study's authors, “The findings greatly underestimate the problem, since many other complications happen that are not listed in hospital administrative data.” They added: "The message here is that medical injuries can have a devastating impact on the health care system. We need more research to identify why these injuries occur and find ways to prevent them from happening." The study authors said that improved medical practices, including an emphasis on better hand washing, might help reduce morbidity and mortality rates. In an accompanying JAMA editorial, health-risk researcher Dr. Saul Weingart of Harvard's Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center wrote, “Given their staggering magnitude, these estimates are clearly sobering.”(87)

UNNECESSARY X-RAYS

When x-rays were discovered, no one knew the long-term effects of ionizing radiation. In the 1950s, monthly fluoroscopic exams at the doctor's office were routine, and you could even walk into most shoe stores and see x-rays of your foot bones. We still do not know the ultimate outcome of our initial fascination with x-rays.

In those days, it was common practice to x-ray pregnant women to measure their pelvises and make a diagnosis of twins. Finally, a study of 700,000 children born between 1947 and 1964 in 37 major maternity hospitals compared the children of mothers who had received pelvic x-rays during pregnancy to those of mothers who did not. It found that cancer mortality was 40% higher among children whose mothers had been x-rayed.(88)

In present-day medicine, coronary angiography is an invasive surgical procedure that involves snaking a tube through a blood vessel in the groin up to the heart. To obtain useful information, X-rays are taken almost continuously, with minimum dosages ranging from 460 to 1,580 mrem. The minimum radiation from a routine chest x-ray is 2 mrem. X-ray radiation accumulates in the body, and ionizing radiation used in X-ray procedures has been shown to cause gene mutation. The health impact of this high level of radiation is unknown, and often obscured in statistical jargon such as, “The risk for lifetime fatal cancer due to radiation exposure is estimated to be 4 in one million per 1,000 mrem.”(89)

Dr. John Gofman has studied the effects of radiation on human health for 45 years. A medical doctor with a PhD in nuclear and physical chemistry, Gofman worked on the Manhattan Project, discovered uranium-233, and was the first person to isolate plutonium. In five scientifically documented books, Gofman provides strong evidence that medical technology—specifically x-rays, CT scans, and mammography and fluoroscopy devices—are a contributing factor to 75% of new cancers. In a nearly 700-page report updated in 2000, “Radiation from Medical Procedures in the Pathogenesis of Cancer and Ischemic Heart Disease: Dose-Response Studies with Physicians per 100,000 Population,”(90) Gofman shows that as the number of physicians increases in a geographical area along with an increase in the number of x-ray diagnostic tests performed, the rate of cancer and ischemic heart disease also increases. Gofman elaborates that it is not x-rays alone that cause the damage but a combination of health risk factors that include poor diet, smoking, abortions, and the use of birth control pills. Dr. Gofman predicts that ionizing radiation will be responsible for 100 million premature deaths over the next decade.

In his book, “Preventing Breast Cancer,” Dr. Gofman notes that breast cancer is the leading cause of death among American women between the ages of 44 and 55. Because breast tissue is highly sensitive to radiation, mammograms can cause cancer. The danger can be heightened other factors including a woman's genetic makeup, preexisting benign breast disease, artificial menopause, obesity, and hormonal imbalance.(91)

Even x-rays for back pain can lead someone into crippling surgery. Dr. John E. Sarno, a well-known New York orthopedic surgeon, found that there is not necessarily any association between back pain and spinal x-ray abnormality. He cites studies of normal people without a trace of back pain whose x-rays indicate spinal abnormalities and of people with back pain whose spines appear to be normal on x-ray.(92) People who happen to have back pain and show an abnormality on x-ray may be treated surgically, sometimes with no change in back pain, worsening of back pain, or even permanent disability. Moreover, doctors often order x-rays as protection against malpractice claims, to give the impression of leaving no stone unturned. It appears that doctors are putting their own fears before the interests of their patients.

UNNECESSARY HOSPITALIZATION

Nearly 9 million (8,925,033) people were hospitalized unnecessarily in 2001.(4) In a study of inappropriate hospitalization, two doctors reviewed 1,132 medical records. They concluded that 23% of all admissions were inappropriate and an additional 17% could have been handled in outpatient clinics. Thirty-four percent of all hospital days were deemed inappropriate and could have been avoided.(93) The rate of inappropriate hospital admissions in 1990 was 23.5%.(94) In 1999, another study also found an inappropriate admissions rate of 24%, indicating a consistent pattern from 1986 to 1999.(95) The HCUP database indicates that the total number of patient discharges from US hospitals in 2001 was 37,187,641,(13) meaning that almost 9 million people were exposed to unnecessary medical intervention in hospitals and therefore represent almost 9 million potential iatrogenic episodes.(4)

WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEDICINE

Dr. Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was world-renowned, the most celebrated doctor of his time. He practiced in the Paris hospital La Salpetriere. He became an expert in hysteria, diagnosing an average of 10 hysterical women each day, transforming them into “iatrogenic monsters” and turning simple “neurosis” into hysteria.(96) The number of women diagnosed with hysteria and hospitalized rose from 1% in 1841 to 17% in 1883. Hysteria is derived from the Latin “hystera” meaning uterus. According to Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, US medicine has a tradition of excessive medical and surgical interventions on women. Only 100 years ago, male doctors believed that female psychological imbalance originated in the uterus. When surgery to remove the uterus was perfected, it became the “cure” for mental instability, effecting a physical and psychological castration. Fugh-Berman notes that US doctors eventually disabused themselves of that notion but have continued to treat women very differently than they treat men.(97) She cites the following statistics:

Thousands of prophylactic mastectomies are performed annually.
One-third of US women have had a hysterectomy before menopause.
Women are prescribed drugs more frequently than are men.
Women are given potent drugs for disease prevention, which results in disease substitution due to side effects.
Fetal monitoring is unsupported by studies and not recommended by the CDC.(98) It confines women to a hospital bed and may result in a higher incidence of cesarean section.(99)
Normal processes such as menopause and childbirth have been heavily “medicalized.”
Synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not prevent heart disease or dementia, but does increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, and gall bladder attack.(100)

As many as one-third of postmenopausal women use HRT.(101,102) This number is important in light of the much-publicized Women's Health Initiative Study, which was halted before its completion because of a higher death rate in the synthetic estrogen-progestin (HRT) group.(103)

Cesarean Section

In 1983, 809,000 cesarean sections (21% of live births) were performed in the US, making it the nation's most common obstetric-gynecologic (OB/GYN) surgical procedure. The second most common OB/GYN operation was hysterectomy (673,000), followed by diagnostic dilation and curettage of the uterus (632,000). In 1983, OB/GYN procedures represented 23% of all surgery completed in the US.(104)
In 2001, cesarean section is still the most common OB/GYN surgical procedure. Approximately 4 million births occur annually, with 24% (960,000) delivered by cesarean section. In the Netherlands, only 8% of births are delivered by cesarean section. This suggests 640,000 unnecessary cesarean sections—entailing three to four times higher mortality and 20 times greater morbidity than vaginal delivery(105)—are performed annually in the US.
The US cesarean rate rose from just 4.5% in 1965 to 24.1% in 1986. Sakala contends that an “uncontrolled pandemic of medically unnecessary cesarean births is occurring.”(106) VanHam reported a cesarean section postpartum hemorrhage rate of 7%, a hematoma formation rate of 3.5%, a urinary tract infection rate of 3%, and a combined postoperative morbidity rate of 35.7% in a high-risk population undergoing cesarean section.(107)

NEVER ENOUGH STUDIES

Scientists claimed there were never enough studies revealing the dangers of DDT and other dangerous pesticides to ban them. They also used this argument for tobacco, claiming that more studies were needed before they could be certain that tobacco really caused lung cancer. Even the American Medical Association (AMA) was complicit in suppressing the results of tobacco research. In 1964, when the Surgeon General's report condemned smoking, the AMA refused to endorse it, claiming a need for more research. What they really wanted was more money, which they received from a consortium of tobacco companies that paid the AMA $18 million over the next nine years during which the AMA said nothing about the dangers of smoking.(108)
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), "after careful consideration of the extent to which cigarettes were used by physicians in practice," began accepting tobacco advertisements and money in 1933. State journals such as the New York State Journal of Medicine also began to run advertisements for Chesterfield cigarettes that claimed cigarettes are "Just as pure as the water you drink… and practically untouched by human hands." In 1948, JAMA argued "more can be said in behalf of smoking as a form of escape from tension than against it… there does not seem to be any preponderance of evidence that would indicate the abolition of the use of tobacco as a substance contrary to the public health."(109) Today, scientists continue to use the excuse that more studies are needed before they will support restricting the inordinate use of drugs.

ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS

The Lazarou study(1) analyzed records for prescribed medications for 33 million US hospital admissions in 1994. It discovered 2.2 million serious injuries due to prescribed drugs; 2.1% of inpatients experienced a serious adverse drug reaction, 4.7% of all hospital admissions were due to a serious adverse drug reaction, and fatal adverse drug reactions occurred in 0.19% of inpatients and 0.13% of admissions. The authors estimated that 106,000 deaths occur annually due to adverse drug reactions.
Using a cost analysis from a 2000 study in which the increase in hospitalization costs per patient suffering an adverse drug reaction was $5,483, costs for the Lazarou study's 2.2 million patients with serious drug reactions amounted to $12 billion.(1,49)
Serious adverse drug reactions commonly emerge after FDA approval of the drugs involved. The safety of new agents cannot be known with certainty until a drug has been on the market for many years.(110)

BEDSORES

Over one million people develop bedsores in U.S. hospitals every year. It's a tremendous burden to patients and family, and a $55 billion dollar healthcare burden. (7) Bedsores are preventable with proper nursing care. It is true that 50% of those affected are in a vulnerable age group of over 70. In the elderly bedsores carry a fourfold increase in the rate of death. The mortality rate in hospitals for patients with bedsores is between 23% and 37%. (8) Even if we just take the 50% of people over 70 with bedsores and the lowest mortality at 23%, that gives us a death rate due to bedsores of 115,000. Critics will say that it was the disease or advanced age that killed the patient, not the bedsore, but our argument is that an early death, by denying proper care, deserves to be counted. It is only after counting these unnecessary deaths that we can then turn our attention to fixing the problem.

MALNUTRITION IN NURSING HOMES

The General Accounting Office (GAO), a special investigative branch of Congress, cited 20% of the nation's 17,000 nursing homes for violations between July 2000 and January 2002. Many violations involved serious physical injury and death.(111)
A report from the Coalition for Nursing Home Reform states that at least one-third of the nation's 1.6 million nursing home residents may suffer from malnutrition and dehydration, which hastens their death. The report calls for adequate nursing staff to help feed patients who are not able to manage a food tray by themselves.(11) It is difficult to place a mortality rate on malnutrition and dehydration. The Coalition report states that malnourished residents, compared with well-nourished hospitalized nursing home residents, have a fivefold increase in mortality when they are admitted to a hospital. Multiplying the one-third of 1.6 million nursing home residents who are malnourished by a mortality rate of 20%(8,14) results in 108,800 premature deaths due to malnutrition in nursing homes.

Nosocomial Infections

The rate of nosocomial infections per 1,000 patient days rose from 7.2 in 1975 to 9.8 in 1995, a 36% jump in 20 years. Reports from more than 270 US hospitals showed that the nosocomial infection rate itself had remained stable over the previous 20 years, with approximately five to six hospital-acquired infections occurring per 100 admissions, a rate of 5-6%. Due to progressively shorter inpatient stays and the increasing number of admissions, however, the number of infections increased. It is estimated that in 1995, nosocomial infections cost $4.5 billion and contributed to more than 88,000 deaths, or one death every 6 minutes.(9) The 2003 incidence of nosocomial mortality is quite probably higher than in 1995 because of the tremendous increase in antibiotic-resistant organisms. Morbidity and Mortality Report found that nosocomial infections cost $5 billion annually in 1999,(10) representing a $0.5 billion increase in just four years. At this rate of increase, the current cost of nosocomial infections would be around $5.5 billion.

Outpatient Iatrogenesis

In a 2000 JAMA article, Dr. Barbara Starfield presents well-documented facts that are both shocking and unassailable.(12) The U.S. ranks 12th of 13 industrialized countries when judged by 16 health status indicators. Japan, Sweden, and Canada were first, second, and third, respectively. More than 40 million people in the US have no health insurance, and 20-30% of patients receive contraindicated care.
Starfield warns that one cause of medical mistakes is overuse of technology, which may create a "cascade effect" leading to still more treatment. She urges the use of ICD (International Classification of Diseases) codes that have designations such as "Drugs, Medicinal, and Biological Substances Causing Adverse Effects in Therapeutic Use" and "Complications of Surgical and Medical Care" to help doctors quantify and recognize the magnitude of the medical error problem. Starfield notes that many deaths attributable to medical error today are likely to be coded to indicate some other cause of death. She concludes that against the backdrop of our poor health report card compared to other Westernized countries, we should recognize that the harmful effects of health care interventions account for a substantial proportion of our excess deaths.
Starfield cites Weingart's 2000 article, “Epidemiology of Medical Error,” as well as other authors to suggest that between 4% and 18% of consecutive patients in outpatient settings suffer an iatrogenic event leading to:

116 million extra physician visits
77 million extra prescriptions filled
17 million emergency department visits
8 million hospitalizations
3 million long-term admissions
199,000 additional deaths
$77 billion in extra costs(112)

Unnecessary Surgeries

While some 12,000 deaths occur each year from unnecessary surgeries, results from the few studies that have measured unnecessary surgery directly indicate that for some highly controversial operations, the proportion of unwarranted surgeries could be as high as 30%.(74)

MEDICAL ERRORS: A GLOBAL ISSUE

A five-country survey published in the Journal of Health Affairs found that 18-28% of people who were recently ill had suffered from a medical or drug error in the previous two years. The study surveyed 750 recently ill adults. The breakdown by country showed the percentages of those suffering a medical or drug error were 18% in Britain, 23% in Australia and in New Zealand, 25% in Canada, and 28% in the US.(113)

HEALTH INSURANCE

The Institute of Medicine recently found that the 41 million Americans with no health insurance have consistently worse clinical outcomes than those who are insured, and are at increased risk for dying prematurely (114).
When doctors bill for services they do not render, advise unnecessary tests, or screen everyone for a rare condition, they are committing insurance fraud. The US GAO estimated that $12 billion dollars was lost to fraudulent or unnecessary claims in 1998, and reclaimed $480 million in judgments in that year. In 2001, the federal government won or negotiated more than $1.7 billion in judgments, settlements, and administrative impositions in health care fraud cases and proceedings.(115)

WAREHOUSING OUR ELDERS

One way to measure the moral and ethical fiber of a society is by how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members. In some cultures, elderly people lives out their lives in extended family settings that enable them to continue participating in family and community affairs. American nursing homes, where millions of our elders go to live out their final days, represent the pinnacle of social isolation and medical abuse.

In America, approximately 1.6 million elderly are confined to nursing homes. By 2050, that number could be 6.6 million.(11,116)
Twenty percent of all deaths from all causes occur in nursing homes.(117)
Hip fractures are the single greatest reason for nursing home admissions.(118)
Nursing homes represent a reservoir for drug-resistant organisms due to overuse of antibiotics.(119)

Presenting a report he sponsored entitled "Abuse of Residents is a Major Problem in U.S. Nursing Homes" on July 30, 2001, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) noted that “as a society we will be judged by how we treat the elderly." The report found one-third of the nation's approximately 17,000 nursing homes were cited for an abuse violation in a two-year period from January 1999 to January 2001.(116) According to Waxman, “the people who cared for us deserve better." The report suggests that this known abuse represents only the “tip of the iceberg” and that much more abuse occurs that we aware of or ignore.(116a) The report found:

Over 30% of US nursing homes were cited for abuses, totaling more than 9,000 violations.
10% of nursing homes had violations that caused actual physical harm to residents or worse.
Over 40% (3,800) of the abuse violations followed the filing of a formal complaint, usually by concerned family members.
Many verbal abuse violations were found.
Occasions of sexual abuse.
Incidents of physical abuse causing numerous injuries such as fractured femur, hip, elbow, wrist, and other injuries.

Dangerously understaffed nursing homes lead to neglect, abuse, overuse of medications, and physical restraints. In 1990, Congress mandated an exhaustive study of nurse-to-patient ratios in nursing homes. The study was finally begun in 1998 and took four years to complete.(120) A spokesperson for The National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform commented on the study: “They compiled two reports of three volumes each thoroughly documenting the number of hours of care residents must receive from nurses and nursing assistants to avoid painful, even dangerous, conditions such as bedsores and infections. Yet it took the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Tommy Thompson only four months to dismiss the report as ‘insufficient.'”(121) Although preventable with proper nursing care, bedsores occur three times more commonly in nursing homes than in acute care or veterans hospitals.(122).
Because many nursing home patients suffer from chronic debilitating conditions, their assumed cause of death often is unquestioned by physicians. Some studies show that as many as 50% of deaths due to restraints, falls, suicide, homicide, and choking in nursing homes may be covered up.(123,124) It is possible that many nursing home deaths are instead attributed to heart disease. In fact, researchers have found that heart disease may be over-represented in the general population as a cause of death on death certificates by 8-24%. In the elderly, the overreporting of heart disease as a cause of death is as much as twofold.(125)
That very few statistics exist concerning malnutrition in acute-care hospitals and nursing homes demonstrates the lack of concern in this area. While a survey of the literature turns up few US studies, one revealing US study evaluated the nutritional status of 837 patients in a 100-bed subacute-care hospital over a 14-month period. The study found only 8% of the patients were well nourished, while 29% were malnourished and 63% were at risk of malnutrition. As a result, 25% of the malnourished patients required readmission to an acute-care hospital, compared to 11% of the well-nourished patients. The authors concluded that malnutrition reached epidemic proportions in patients admitted to this subacute-care facility.(126)
Many studies conclude that physical restraints are an underreported and preventable cause of death. Studies show that compared to no restraints, the use of restraints carries a higher mortality rate and economic burden.(127-129) Studies have found that physical restraints, including bedrails, are the cause of at least 1 in every 1,000 nursing-home deaths.(130-132)
Deaths caused by malnutrition, dehydration, and physical restraints, however, are rarely recorded on death certificates. Several studies reveal that nearly half of the listed causes of death on death certificates for elderly people with chronic or multi-system disease are inaccurate.(133) Even though 1 in 5 people die in nursing homes, an autopsy is performed in less than 1% of these deaths.(134).

Overmedicating Seniors

Dr. Robert Epstein, chief medical officer of Medco Health Solutions Inc. (a unit of Merck & Co.), conducted a study in 2003 of drug trends among the elderly.(135) He found that seniors are going to multiple physicians, getting multiple prescriptions, and using multiple pharmacies. Medco oversees drug-benefit plans for more than 60 million Americans, including 6.3 million seniors who received more than 160 million prescriptions. According to the study, the average senior receives 25 prescriptions each year. Among those 6.3 million seniors, a total of 7.9 million medication alerts were triggered: less than one-half that number, 3.4 million, were detected in 1999. About 2.2 million of those alerts indicated excessive dosages unsuitable for seniors, and about 2.4 million alerts indicated clinically inappropriate drugs for the elderly. Reuters interviewed Kasey Thompson, director of the Center on Patient Safety at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, who noted: “There are serious and systemic problems with poor continuity of care in the United States .” He says this study represents only “the tip of the iceberg” of a national problem.
According to Drug Benefit Trends , the average number of prescriptions dispensed per non-Medicare HMO member per year rose 5.6% from 1999 to 2000, - from 7.1 to 7.5 prescriptions. The average number dispensed for Medicare members increased 5.5%, from 18.1 to 19.1 prescriptions.(136) The total number of prescriptions written in the US in 2000 was 2.98 billion, or 10.4 prescriptions for every man, woman, and child.(137)
In a study of 818 residents of residential care facilities for the elderly, 94% were receiving at least one medication at the time of the interview. The average intake of medications was five per resident; the authors noted that many of these drugs were given without a documented diagnosis justifying their use.(138)
Seniors and groups like the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) are demanding that prescription drug coverage be a basic right.(139) They have accepted allopathic medicine's overriding assumption that aging and dying in America must be accompanied by drugs in nursing homes and eventual hospitalization. Seniors are given the choice of either high-cost patented drugs or low-cost generic drugs. Drug companies attempt to keep the most expensive drugs on the shelves and suppress access to generic drugs, despite facing stiff fines of hundreds of millions of dollars levied by the federal government.(140,141) In 2001, some of the world's largest drug companies were fined a record $871 million for conspiring to increase the price of vitamins.(142)
Current AARP recommendations for diet and nutrition assume that seniors are getting all the nutrition they need in an average diet. At most, AARP suggests adding extra calcium and a multivitamin and mineral supplement.(143)
Ironically, studies also indicate underuse of proper pain medication for patients who need it. One study evaluated pain management in a group of 13,625 cancer patients, aged 65 and over, living in nursing homes. While almost 30% of the patients reported pain, more than 25% received no pain relief medication, 16% received a mild analgesic drug, 32% received a moderate analgesic drug, and 26% received adequate pain-relieving morphine. The authors concluded that older patients and minority patients were more likely to have their pain untreated.(144)

WHAT REMAINS TO BE UNCOVERED

Our ongoing research will continue to quantify the morbidity, mortality, and financial loss due to:

X-ray exposures (mammography, fluoroscopy, CT scans).
Overuse of antibiotics for all conditions.
Carcinogenic drugs (hormone replacement therapy,* immunosuppressive and prescription drugs).
Cancer chemotherapy(70)
Surgery and unnecessary surgery (cesarean section, radical mastectomy, preventive mastectomy, radical hysterectomy, prostatectomy, cholecystectomies, cosmetic surgery, arthroscopy, etc.).
Discredited medical procedures and therapies.
Unproven medical therapies.
Outpatient surgery.
Doctors themselves.

* Part of our ongoing research will be to quantify the mortality and morbidity caused by hormone replacement therapy (HRT) since the 1940s. In December 2000, a government scientific advisory panel recommended that synthetic estrogen be added to the nation's list of cancer-causing agents. HRT, either synthetic estrogen alone or combined with synthetic progesterone, is used by an estimated 13.5 to 16 million women in the US.(145) The aborted Women's Health Initiative Study (WHI) of 2002 showed that women taking synthetic estrogen combined with synthetic progesterone have a higher incidence of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease, with little evidence of osteoporosis reduction or dementia prevention. WHI researchers, who usually never make recommendations except to suggest more studies, advised doctors to be very cautious about prescribing HRT to their patients.(100,146-150)
Results of the “Million Women Study” on HRT and breast cancer in the UK were published in medical journal The Lancet in August 2003. According to lead author Prof. Valerie Beral, director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit: "We estimate that over the past decade, use of HRT by UK women aged 50-64 has resulted in an extra 20,000 breast cancers, estrogen-progestagen (combination) therapy accounting for 15,000 of these.”(151) We were unable to find statistics on breast cancer, stroke, uterine cancer, or heart disease caused by HRT used by American women. Because the US population is roughly six times that of the UK, it is possible that 120,000 cases of breast cancer have been caused by HRT in the past decade.

OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT (OTA)

Health Care Technology and Its Assessment in Eight Countries, 1995.

General Facts

In 1990, US life expectancy was 71.8 years for men and 78.8 years for women, among the lowest rates in the developed countries.
The 1990 US infant mortality rate in the US was 9.2 per 1,000 live births, in the bottom half of the distribution among all developed countries.
Health status is correlated with socioeconomic status.
Health care is not universal.
Health care is based on the free market system with no fixed budget or limitations on expansion.
Health care accounts for 14% of the US GNP ($800 billion in 1993).
The federal government does no central planning, though it is the major purchaser of health care for older people and some poor people.
Americans are less satisfied with their health care system than people in other developed countries.
US medicine specializes in expensive medical technology; some large US cities have more magnetic resonance image (MRI) scanners than most countries.
Huge public and private investments in medical research and pharmaceutical development drive this “technological arms race.”
Any efforts to restrain technological developments in health care are opposed by policymakers concerned about negative impacts on medical-technology industries.

Hospitals

In 1990, the US had 5,480 acute-care hospitals, 880 specialty (psychiatric, long-term care, and rehabilitation) hospitals, and 340 federal (military, veterans, and Native American) hospitals, or 2.7 hospitals per 100,000 population.
In 1990, the average length of stay for 33 million admissions was 9.2 days. The bed occupancy rate was 66%. Lengths of stay were shorter and admission rates lower than other countries.
In 1990, the US had 615,000 physicians, or 2.4 per 1,000 population; 33% were primary care (family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics) and 67% were specialists.
In 1991, government-run health care spending totaled $81 billion.
Total US health care spending rose to $752 billion in 1991 from $70 billion in 1950. Spending grew five-fold per capita.
Reasons for increased healthcare spending include:
1. The high cost of defensive medicine, with an escalation in services solely to avoid malpractice litigation.
2. US health care based on defensive medicine costs nearly $45 billion per year, or about 5% of total health care spending, according to one source.
3. The availability and use of new medical technologies have contributed the most to increased health care spending, argue many analysts. These costs are impossible to quantify.
The reasons government attempts to control health care costs have failed include:
1. Market incentive and profit-motive involvement in the financing and organization of health care, including private insurers, hospital systems, physicians, and the drug and medical-device industries.
2. Expansion is the goal of free enterprise.

Health-Related Research and Development

The US spends more than any other country on health-related R&D.
In 1989, the federal government spent $9.2 billion on R&D, while private industry spent an additional $9.4 billion.
Total US R&D expenditures rose 50% from 1983 to 1992.
NIH receives about half of US government R&D funding.
NIH spent more on basic research ($4.1 billion in 1989) than for clinical trials of medical treatments on humans ($519 million in 1989).
Most of the clinical trials evaluate new treatment protocols for cancer and complications of AIDS, and do not study existing treatments, even though their effectiveness is in many cases unknown and questionable.
In 1990, the NIH had just begun to do meta-analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Pharmaceutical and Medical-Device Industries

About two-thirds of the industry's $9.4 billion budget went to drug research; device manufacturers spent the remaining one-third.
In addition to R&D, the medical industry spent 24% of total sales on promoting their products and 15% of total sales on development.
Total marketing expenses in 1990 were over $5 billion.
Many products provide no benefit over existing products.
Public and private health care consumers buy these products.
If health care spending is perceived as a problem, a highly profitable drug industry exacerbates the problem.

Controlling Health Care Technology

The FDA ensures the safety and efficacy of drugs, biologics, and medical devices.
The FDA does not consider costs of therapy.
The FDA does not consider the effectiveness of a therapy.
The FDA does not compare a product to currently marketed products
The FDA does not consider nondrug alternatives for a given clinical problem.
It costs $200 million in development costs to bring a new drug to market. AIDS-drug interest groups forced new regulations that speed up the approval process.
Such drugs should be subject to greater post-marketing surveillance requirements. As of 1995, these provisions had not yet come into play.
Many argue that reductions in the pre-approval testing of drugs open the possibility of significant undiscovered toxicities.

Health Care Technology Assessment

Failure to evaluate technology was a focus of a 1978 report from OTA with examples of many common medical practices supported by limited published data (10-20%).
In 1978, Congress created the National Center for Health Care Technology (NCHCT) to advise Medicare and Medicaid.
With an annual budget of $4 million, NCHCT published three broad assessments of high-priority technologies and made about 75 coverage recommendations to Medicare.
Congress disbanded NCHCT in 1981. The medical profession opposed it from the beginning. The AMA testified before Congress in 1981 that “clinical policy analysis and judgments are better made—and are being responsibly made—within the medical profession. Assessing risks and costs, as well as benefits, has been central to the exercise of good medical judgment for decades.”
The medical device lobby also opposed government oversight by NCHCT.

Examples of Lack of Proper Management of HealthCare

Treatments for Coronary Artery Disease

Since the early 1970s, the number of coronary artery bypass surgeries (CABGS) has risen rapidly without government regulation or clinical trials.
Angioplasty for single vessel disease was introduced in 1978. The first published trial of angioplasty versus medical treatment was done in 1992.
Angioplasty did not reduce the number of CABGS, as was promoted.
Both procedures increase in number every year as the patient population grows older and sicker.
Rates of use are higher in white patients and private insurance patients, and vary greatly by geographic region, suggesting that use of these procedures is based on non-clinical factors.
As of 1995, the NIH consensus program had not assessed CABGS since 1980 and had never assessed angioplasty.
RAND researchers evaluated CABGS in New York in 1990. They reviewed 1,300 procedures and found 2% were inappropriate, 90% were appropriate, and 7% were uncertain. For 1,300 angioplasties, 4% were inappropriate and 38% uncertain. Using RAND methodologies, a panel of British physicians rated twice as many procedures “inappropriate” as did a US panel rating the same clinical cases. The New York numbers are in question because New York State limits the number of surgery centers, and the per-capita supply of cardiac surgeons in New York is about one-half of the national average.
The estimated five-year cost is $33,000 for angioplasty and $40,000 for CABGS. Angioplasty did not lower costs, due to its high failure rates.

Computed Tomography (CT)

The first CT scanner in the US was installed at the Mayo Clinic in 1973. By 1992, the number of operational CT scanners in the US had grown to 6,060. By comparison, in 1993 there were 216 CT units in Canada .
There is little information available on how CT scans improve or affect patient outcomes
In some institutions, up to 90% of scans performed were negative.
Approval by the FDA was not required for CT scanners, nor was any evidence of safety or efficacy.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

MRIs were introduced in Great Britain in 1978 and in the US in 1980. By 1988, there were 1,230 units and by 1992 between 2,800 and 3,000.
A definitive review published in 1994 found less than 30 studies of 5,000 that were prospective comparisons of diagnostic accuracy or therapeutic choice.
The American College of Physicians assessed MRI studies and rated 13 of 17 trials as “weak,” i.e., lacking data concerning therapeutic impact or patient outcomes.
The OTA concluded: “It is evident that hospitals, physician-entrepreneurs, and medical device manufacturers have approached MRI and CT as commodities with high-profit potential, and decision-making on the acquisition and use of these procedures has been highly influenced by this approach. Clinical evaluation, appropriate patient selection, and matching supply to legitimate demand might be viewed as secondary forces.”

Laparoscopic Surgery

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was introduced at a professional surgical society meeting in late 1989. By 1992, 85% of all cholecystectomies were performed laparoscopically.
There was an associated increase of 30% in the number of cholecystectomies performed.
Because of the increased volume of gall bladder operations, their total cost increased 11.4% between 1988 and 1992, despite a 25.1% drop in the average cost per surgery.
The mortality rate for gall bladder surgeries did not decline as a result of the lower risk because so many more were performed.
When studies were finally done on completed cases, the results showed that laparoscopic cholecystectomy was associated with reduced inpatient duration, decreased pain, and a shorter period of restricted activity. But rates of bile duct and major vessel injury increased and it was suggested that these rates were worse for people with acute cholecystitis. No clinical trials had been done to clarify this issue.
Patient demand, fueled by substantial media attention, was a major force in promoting rapid adoption of these procedures.
The major manufacturer of laparoscopic equipment produced the video that introduced the procedure in 1989.
Doctors were given two-day training seminars before performing the surgery on patients.

Infant Mortality

In 1990, the US ranked 24th in infant mortality of 38 developed countries with a rate of 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.
US black infant mortality is 18.6 per 1,000 live births, compared to 8.8 for whites.

Screening for Breast Cancer

Mammography screening in women under 50 has always been a subject of debate.
In 1992, the Canadian National Breast Cancer Study of 50,000 women showed that mammography had no effect on mortality for women aged 40-50.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) refused to change its recommendations on mammography.
The American Cancer Society decided to wait for more studies on mammography.
In December 1993, NCI announced that women over 50 should have routine screenings every one to two years but that younger women would derive no benefit from mammography.

Summary

The OTA concluded: “There are no mechanisms in place to limit dissemination of technologies regardless of their clinical value.”
Shortly after the release of this report, the OTA was disbanded.

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Williams BR, Nichol MB, Lowe B, Yoon PS, McCombs JS, Margolies J. Medication use in residential care facilities for the elderly. Ann Pharmacother . 1999 Feb;33(2):149-55.
AARP. Medicare and prescription drugs. Available at: http://www.aarp.org/prescriptiondrugs. Accessed December 16, 2003 .
California reaches $100 million multi-state settlement with drug giant Mylan over alleged price-fixing scheme [press release]. Sacramento , CA : Office of the Attorney General, Department of Justice, State of California ; July 12, 2000 .
Attorney general reaches settlement with drug giant. WRAL News. March 7, 2003 . Available at: . http://www.wral.com/money/2026364/detail.html . Accessed December 16, 2003 .
Blowing the final whistle. The Observer. November 25, 2001 . Available at: http://education.guardian.co.uk/businessofresearch/comment/0,9976,606260,00.html. Accessed December 16, 2003 .
AARP. Are food supplements for me. Available at: http://www.aarp.org/Articles/a2003-03-07-supplements.html. Accessed December 16,2003 .
Bernabei R, Gambassi G, Lapane K, et al. Management of pain in elderly patients with cancer. SAGE study group. Systematic assessment of geriatric drug use via epidemiology. JAMA . 1998 Jun 17;279(23):1877-82.
Associated Press. Panel names estrogen as carcinogen. The Washington Post . December 16, 2000 :A05.
Estrogen hikes ovarian cancer risk. MSNBC staff and wire reports. July 16, 2002 . Grady D. Study recommends NOT using hormone therapy for bone loss. New York Times . October 1, 2003 .
Anderson GL, Judd HL, Kaunitz AM, et al. Effects of estrogen plus progestin on gynecologic cancers and associated diagnostic procedures: the Women's Health Initiative randomized trial. JAMA . 2003 Oct 1;290(13):1739-48.
Chlebowski RT, Hendrix SL, Langer RD , et al. Influence of estrogen plus progestin on breast cancer and mammography in healthy postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative randomized trial. JAMA . 2003 Jun 25;289(24):3243-53.
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Did You Know Diet Soda Will Make You Fat?

2010-10-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Check out the information on the link above to see evidence of why diet sodas make you fat.
If you don't do the legwork and stay in touch with recent findings on marketing ploys and misinformation, you could end up with type 2 diabetes and not even know it.

Hidden Poison in Food Supply- What We Don't Know IS Killing US & Making Us Fatter Than Ever

2010-10-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

From the time we're kids we've already developed a preference for the sweet taste of candy, sugary cereals, ice cream, cookies and soda. If given the choice, like that famous experiment with lab rats who were able to either choose to push a button to deliver food or an injection of cocaine, the lab rat hit the cocaine button until it died, we are choosing daily to set ourselves up for long term disease, health problems, and obesity from as early as a toddler. Heck, they've discovered heavy added sugar in infant formula, so many of us were set up from birth for the preference. The adulteration of our palettes and taste buds.

Sugar is being added to infant and toddler formula and foods setting a newborn up for a lifetime preference for the sweet poison we've paid little attention to because we're addicted to sweet.

High Sugar Content in Packaged Toddler and Baby Food Products

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2010) — Fifty three percent of food products specifically targeted to babies and toddlers in Canadian grocery stores have an excessive proportion -- more than 20 per cent -- of calories coming from sugar, according to a new study by University of Calgary professor Charlene Elliott.

We're being played again, sleight of hand tricks by the food industry promoting low fat and fat free on their products when they've increased the sugar content in a variety of forms to make the product palette pleasing because removing fat is to remove flavor.

What we personally add to coffee, tea or cereal is nothing however compared to the hidden addition of sugar in nearly every food product you eat. Sodas and sports drinks being the biggest problems for their ability to enter the blood stream rapidly. When we sip a Coke all day long we're making ourselves efficient fat storers, yet even diet drinks play into this because the artificial sweetners, not without their own health risks I won't go into here, are so ultra sweet, they desensitize our palate to want higher levels of sugar or sweetness in other foods. Because we've been indoctrinated into the sugar=love mentality, we equate the flavor with comfort and wholesomeness, like Mom's Apple Pie or the good ol Ice Cream Truck on your street on a hot summer day. We grow up on watching Saturday morning cartoons filled with ads about breakfast cereals, all honey coated, sugar coated, chocolate flavored with some character you can probably see in your head right now. Count Chocula, Tucan Sam, The Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids... Diggum Frog , Sugar Bear... this is no mistake, these are multimillion dollar campaigns that work! We begged our moms for sugar pops, sugar smacks, cap'n crunch and all the rest. Now is it any wonder American's are uniquely the fattest humans on the planet and the top causes of death in the US are the only ones in the world that can be directly related to sugar?

Because we are starting to become aware of this issue, sugar being more deadly than smoking in its far reaching disease causing ability the marketing minds are figuring out how to work acceptance back into our heads to stop the trend of sugar awareness by changing names of offending additives like high fructose corn syrup. Dr. Mercola points this out here.

http://thevreelandclinic.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/see-the-amazing-statistics-on-sugar-consumption-in-the-u-s/

Our Health and Freedom to Choose are Under Attack by Big Industry-

2010-09-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

I Just got a response from Senator Barbara Boxer reporting on the successful removal of an amendment that was the latest US attack on personal health freedom to choose your own supplements on the free market, at competitive prices, at will, vs regulation by governmental agencies who are in bed with the pharmaceutical industry who aren't satisfied with the revenue they create by pushing drugs on us for everything under the sun, regardless of their long term side effects or unknown dangers, as we've seen in so many class action lawsuits over FDA approved drugs.

Dear Ms. Hale:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to a proposal to broaden the federal government's regulatory authority over dietary supplements. I appreciate hearing from you.

You will be pleased to hear that an amendment to give the Federal Trade Commission more regulatory authority over dietary supplements was removed from the final version of the new Wall Street reform bill (H.R.4173) before it was signed into law on July 21, 2010.

Be assured that I will keep your views in mind should the Senate consider legislation regarding dietary supplements in the future.

Again, thank you for writing to me. Please feel free to contact me again about this or other issues of concern to you.

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

These sneaky last minute amendments are tacked on to avoid notice, they come off as concern for our health because we aren't smart enough to decide for ourselves, when the real issue is that natural and alternative health solutions have become widely available via the internet along with tons of great research and medical opinion, right at our fingertips and the jury is in, they have since time immemorial been used to help keep people healthy, improve core issues, illnesses, ailments and boost immune function which helps keep people out of the disease loop of chemicals that treat symptoms vs heal the root cause. Bottom line is the drug companies and medical industry isn't happy with the competition and want to control it for themselves, to divert our buying practices to their pockets at the cost of our freedom.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't good and valid uses for medications and some vaccines that have stamped out real epidemics and plagues but we've been used as guinea pigs for their revenues as they've created diseases and disorders to give us the public a reason for buying their drugs. They urge us to tell our doctors which drugs we want to try, what they should prescribe. They now actually pitch us on media day in and day out. They have a vested interest in keeping us engaged with their marketing and tied to their drugs. If we aren't allowed into the process of decisions on our health care and what we choose to put into our bodies, what have we become? It's too frightening to believe actually. It's as if we are cattle or some commodity that is being fought over for control for the revenue.

Check out the Life Extension Foundation Watch Page for Specifics and Info on How to Take Action HERE

Alliance for Natural Health Article

Drug Companies Win Big and Eliminate Medical Herbs from Europe

In less than a year, virtually all medicinal herbs will be illegal in the European Union.
In their take-no-prisoners strategy to wipe out every penny of competition and gain complete control of the health of the people, Big Pharma and Agribusiness have scored a major win in Europe. Similar, potentially devastating battles are also underway in the U.S.
How can this be happening? The secret weapon used by drug companies is trade law. According to Gaia Health:

“Rather than treating food and traditional medicines as human rights issues, they have been treated as trade issues. That makes the desires of large corporations the focus of food and herbal law, rather than the needs and desires of people. It's this twisting that has resulted in the FDA's making outrageously absurd statements, such as claiming that Cheerios and walnuts quite literally become drugs simply because of health claims made for them.”

Sources:

Gaia Health September 12, 2010

If you follow any of these links you'll find a way to use a prewritten letter you can add to or modify and sign off to send to your representative - get involved, share the info, let's stop this and warn others we aren't the passive dummies they think we are,

Shame on the politicians, earlier it was John McCain and this amendment was Henry Waxman's wording , he's been at this for decades actually, bought out by this unscrupulous agenda, their campaign contributors to get reelected, the paybacks for the cash infusions that keep them in office, where they have the top level medical benefits, the huge incomes, and availability to the best options. Either these politicos who try these sneaky tactics are completely baffled by the bullshit of these lobbyists and contributing industry agendas, claiming they provide jobs when those jobs are just more of their agents pushing the latest drug samples to overworked doctors who haven't time to listen to their patients fully, sit and figure out what's really wrong but rather hand out band-aids in the form of samples and hope it suffices. There's not enough time to allow them to really analyze the core problem and its complexities, and when nutrition is not part of the scenario you're missing the key component of health.

After all, our bodies become deficient of necessary nutrients for optimal function, not deficient of drugs or medications, those are ingested to change, alter, stop or increase something internally and come with side effects because it's not a natural process. It seems to me the drug companies want you to be on lifetime medications, many have withdrawal symptoms that are a danger to your health if you stop taking them suddenly. Nobody's saying to abolish the drug industry so why is it the opposite is being legislated out from under us? Pharmaceutical related deaths from over use of acetaminophen, brand name Tylenol, are huge as it has liver toxicity risk. N Acetyl Cysteine will help protect you from that toxicity. There's a prime example of how supplements can help and be used in tandem when you must take a chemical compound for a problem.

Doctors are not required to have more than 50 hours at most, my doctor told me it was far less when he was in school, of nutritional training to become degreed and licensed to practice medicine. There's the key, practice medicine. Western medicine is patch and repair, it treats the symptom, not the core problem. Cancer gets blasted with poison they gauge hoping to give enough to kill the cancer but not the patient. Have you ever seen how someone on chemo looks? If ever I was diagnosed with Cancer I'd definitely take a holistic approach and go off the grid to try alternatives before ever considering chemo but that's me after seeing what it did to a few people. No thanks.

I'd start with nutritional upgrade to radical degree, like macrobiotics and meditation to name a couple of changes. There are more successes being reported with alternative therapies than ever before. These are two separate fields, medicine and nutrition. Neither should attempt to control the other without properly being trained and none of earth's solutions should be controlled and rationed out to us like children.
I value the medical and scientific field, and I'd like to rephrase my statement in light of confusing anyone. I have a trusted physician and rely upon his knowledge and tests to diagnose things based on blood work and his decades of hands on experience with patients, illness and treatments. I would not do anything because of my own suspicion or guesswork if I thought I had cancer symptoms, I'd go to my doctor and have him check it out. I trust him and know he'd be straight with me. I also know he'd be open to my preferred method of treatment if I declined chemo. He would likely warn me, give me statistics and in the end based on taking it all in, if I were to go against his advice, he'd support my decision but be ready to help me if I changed my mind. He would also be open to trying a combination of treatments, even if it weren't in his repertoire, even, I believe, conferring with a naturopath should I ask him to. He's a communicator and not a dictator. He's seen miracles in his practice and doesn't force his ego into the equation. His goal is the health and wellbeing of his patient. That's the doctor I trust and work with. They're worth their weight in gold. Or is it platinum? :)

Now some doctors are better than others and are extremely caring, incredibly knowledgeable and even intuitive, but the better they are the less time they can give you in a visit because of their high patient load. I've been lucky to have had 2 of those doctors in my life, and in my kids life. Boy is that pediatrician busy, 5 mins, that's all you get, you have to fight to get your stuff in and remind him as he's flying off to the next patient. He got my boys through asthma which was a terrifying disease. Never cured it, always treated symptoms.

I've personally worked with a doctor who while not being current on nutrition and supplements, leery of them in fact, he was open to discussion and never imposed his opinion on me. We tested things and he has seen first hand how the supplements I use have assisted in getting me back into a healthy optimal state and protected me from side effects of medication.
I couldn't have asked for a better doctor, but he's an anomaly in that he'll give me whatever time I need, an hour even, but this is due to his taking part in a new type of program where the patient has to pay annually on top of regular premiums or office visits to be a patient. This is what doctors who care and dont want to settle for less quality have had to resort to to have a manageable patient load. That's another topic for another time.

The best doctors are those who work with you, discuss their decisions, are open to your questions, will consider you part of your own health team rather than the old school God Complex you didn't dare question. I don't believe the physicians are in cahoots with the agenda of the pharmaceutical industry and now it seems the agribusiness industry is involved in the herbal battle. It's money, always money and we are in the middle as pawns. The two industries are in product development mode, looking for another hot product, modified grains and additives that are top secret and the oddest correlation of it all is that our US population has never had higher rates of overweight, obesity, surgical intervention for obesity, diabetes, heart disease and more. With all this food modification and drug production all in the name of health, why is we are in epidemic proportion of these food related diseases and kids are now in the fray too? Is it just a coincidence? Why only the US?

I think the food and drug industries have entirely too much control over supply and availability .. if we want to use supplements we shouldn't be controlled and certainly not by these two entities, and government to boot. We've been sedated by anti-depressants and thrown into financial crisis that keeps us so busy we've got no energy or time to fight, which may be part of their agenda, but we can make time for important things when all it takes is a signature and stamp or email. It says NO, back off, don't mess with my rights! These amendments are snuck in on the back of a larger bill without much notice but thankfully there are watchdogs who alert those of us who use .... this time we stopped the U.S. action of the Pharma industry.. Read here on and click the headline and links to read more info to understand that this isn't a cause to ignore regardless of your current use or non use of supplements. Don't wait till they're pulled from shelves and only dosed out by physicians or limited to the baseline level vitamins that keep you from scurvy and rickets, nothing more. One this is gone, what will they want next??

The Medium is The Message- Getting Past The GateKeeper

2010-09-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Blogging is interesting, as I was looking for a quote that came to mind relating to my topic, I found this information on Wikipedia linked above on Marshall McLuhan, Who is credited with coining the term 'Global Village' and 'The Medium is the Message', in relation to technology changing our world. My intention was to talk about the media and the subterfuge in ads when I started thinking about the old film classic, Network where some anchor loses it and screams the memorable phrase, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!". So then then I start thinking, What was that saying, The media is the message?.. Googled and found the correct phrase and the subject it was used to head up. I never heard of Marshall McLuhan but he deserves credit and the info on his take about media is one very relevant to consider today. I don't think this was a fluke, it's very spot on when you consider how the internet and television are used to express messages intended to get us to do something.

I really thought the following was a great explanation of what we're seeing today;

"in Understanding Media, McLuhan describes the "content" of a medium as a juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.^[6] This means that people tend to focus on the obvious, which is the content, to provide us valuable information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly, or over long periods of time.^[5] As the society's values, norms and ways of doing things change because of the technology, it is then we realize the social implications of the medium. These range from cultural or religious issues and historical precedents, through interplay with existing conditions, to the secondary or tertiary effects in a cascade of interactions^[5] that we are not aware of."

This punctuates what I've noticed more and more often and the irritation felt as I see how effective the medium is at sneaking the message past the guard dog of our critical thinking, to deliver it's payload while we're busy feeling emotion or caught up in the delivery or the personality delivering the message.
We have trust barriers that are on guard, we value one channel higher than another sometimes based on nothing but popular opinion or how wealthy the spokesperson is, or some language jargon that makes us feel comfy, but if you remember that classic old movie A Face in the Crowd, which was brilliant and before its time with good ol Sheriff Taylor,Andy of Mayberry, Andy Griffith, in the lead role, of a bumpkin who becomes the spokesperson for the Average Joe, the plain talking darling of the advertising world, a celebrity if you will, until he becomes a monster, as a power drunken figurehead of the cult of personality Lonesome Rhodes.

Someone needs to remake that 1957 film, it would be stupendous today, you could choose any genre of music you wanted to play Lonesome, of course country would fit great. I digress, but if you've seen it you'll remember the end and the moral of the story which was a fitting comeuppance and a hard slam from grace when he inadvertently slams his public while his mic is hot, done deliberately to prevent his dangerous charm from infiltrating the political area, his new aspiration. If you've never seen it, go rent it, it's worth it.

I was watching AM News Television on Fox last week and was put off by the light touch given to a serious story as if turning the page which I'm sure it was to the talking head on camera at 6am. It's not out of the ordinary but this time it really struck me as inappropriate. It has been growing inside me, this feeling of insult while being hammered with ads that have become more crafty, subtle, or subliminal in their message or otherwise the outright shyster type ads that used to be screened out on major networks now allowed with a brief disclaimer which may as well say, We know this is crap but hey, the money is green so don't hold us accountable for the hype this guy is selling.

A major crisis has hit the American public in massive job losses and the media and it's talking head's are all business as usual, bantering, consumerism, ads and marketing slickness trying to work into our subconscious to try and convince you it's all as it always was. Only now the marketing psychology is heavier than ever as you watch a show and see a brand name product placement in the hand of a well liked character, trying to use the pseudo relationship you have with them to get you to buy that product. Suddenly it's so overwhelmingly obvious you can't miss it. Even actors want to ride the popularity train as a cameo to boost marketability. You watch a fictional show and you're aware you're being pitched. Now even creative products are tainted with the selling out for another revenue stream from their product. Artists used to have standards. Commercialism rules.

But there's a heavier reason we have to question authority,
scrutinize the masthead who delivers the message and the message you're being told, when on one hand you're seeing FDA approved drugs being pushed on TV through commercials with happy music used to spark emotions, portraying it as the end-all, be-all, answer to whatever disease or disorder you can name. Turns out some of the disorders, it turns out after being snitched off by internal whistle blowers, were manufactured in a product meeting by the pharmaceutical companies to help sell their newest finding on a drug. PMDD for instance, that was a manufactured disorder for which one drug company had a symptom reliever monthly and wanted to create a reason for using it. PMS wasn't good enough, they needed a super-PMS, one that over the counter remedies wouldn't compete for market share on. Besides the cost would be out there so it had to warrant a good disorder to pry the dough out of the tight pockets of women. So you have the FDA 'protecting' us approving products and then you have a recall for death and complications when one of those drugs goes off the chart for collateral damages. Why does that happen?

Doctors think little to nothing about handing a prescription for Adderall for Attention Deficit Disorder, which is as close to methamphetamine as you get, to treat a teenager who's having trouble paying attention in school. Wow, what a shock, a teenager who's bored in class. Give em speed, that's the ticket.They focus on work like a meth-head focuses on cleaning the grout in their shower with a toothbrush. Have you ever met a teen on adderall? It's just like watching a speed freak on the street. Neurotic, sleep deprived, introspective, hyper, emotional, unhappy.. and this while giving the Just Say No advice on street drugs. Then there's the flip side, what goes up must come down, they use alcohol or Xanax to take the edge off. Kids trade and sell this stuff in the areas where parent can afford to pay for it. In the low income areas you don't see the Rx drug use, the doctors aren't hammered by the reps as they are in wealthy areas. Why is it that nobody is concerned that a drug like that is setting the kid up to be an addict all their lives? Once you stimulate the brain chemistry the way that drug does a person will never work normally again. The tolerance to the euphoria builds up and the kid needs more and finds a way to manipulate mom into dosing them upward otherwise the mood-swings are so out of control it's frightening. Ever see the Bravo show called PrettyWild?
That's a bizarre example of a household of wild teen girls in Hollywood all on ADD meds who's behavior would scare anyone yet oddly glorified in a reality tv show.

A panicky mom will do anything to stop the insanity, to make it go away at that moment, she's got to get to work and the kid to school to keep the surface level facade going. I can't help but wonder if the real war on drugs is more about where the revenue goes rather than the damage to the population and society. It's like a turf war between the drug companies and FDA using prisons to keep their competition out of their revenue shares. That's just one of hundreds of drugs we're pitched on, which if you were to Google search them and their side effects you'd be at least getting a second opinion before putting into your body. It seems to me we're just revenue streams for recurring income. Sell the doctor, they sell the patient, the patient is convinced it's good for them and pays over and over again. Until one day you see a class action lawsuit on some product like VIOXX for arthritis which gave people heart attacks. The company figures into it's pricing the expense of collateral damage of the side effects and weighs it out to charge enough for the product not only to cover any potential litigation in the future but to make sure there's a heft profit to boot. It's a no lose proposition and the FDA is in cahoots. There's been more research techs come out whistle blowing recently, seems their conscience cannot be silenced and there's a need to get it off their chest. It's not without a big cost to their livelihood from there on out, however.

We hang on every word from daytime talk-show superhosts like Oprah and Dr. Oz, as they seem so logical, temperate and caring. We listen to their opinions, we hang on their thumbs up/thumbs down on everything it seems. So much so that Costco will place a product mentioned one week on Dr.Oz and watch it go through the roof. An example is Blue Agave sweetener, which was said to be low glycemic, which means the sugar in a serving enters the blood stream much slower than sugar per se, thereby not causing a huge spike in insulin. Very important for diabetics and people who want to lose or maintain their fat content. I fell for it, it tasted great, not unlike syrup with no icky aftertaste. It ran about $4 per bottle which was a great deal at Costco as it was more exotic and rare in supermarkets which charged upwards of $6 or more per bottle. What a great substitute for sugar!

Then came the reveal, after buying tons of it to sweeten my daily tea habit, a report hit the internet that Agave nectar is only low glycemic when produced a certain way using a specific part of the plant, the agave cactus which when the bulb or root is processed is no less glycemic than corn syrup. Very high on the bad list of sugars. There was no standardization process being performed as most of it comes from Mexico and has become a great revenue market for them. I stopped and had to find something else but wow, that was a costly mistake, I'd gained weight using it and didn't know why. Thanks Doctor Oz! I wonder if he bought shares in Agave like it was learned he'd had in the H1N1 Flu vaccine that was so controversial yet had few deaths associated with it after the fear campaign was launched by the CDC last year. Epidemic , no Pandemic expected was what they said. Parent concerned with side effects from such a vaccine as had been rumored with some suspicions of connection to autism had been reported caused Oz to do a show about it, saying he'd take the vaccine but refused to allow his wife or child to take it, playing it down as he was more at risk of exposure. Then came the report of the shareholders of the stock in the company that manufactured showing Dr. Oz as a shareholder and I think it also showed him on a board of directors. Isn't that some kind of conflict of interest? Certainly it wasn't transparent that he was an affiliate of the drug manufacturer.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is we need to do more critical thinking, research, tuning out the popular voices, the loudest ones, the gurus and not be so quick to believe they're all so benevolent or neutral in their message. Some people see an outbreak as an opportunity, others see a fear campaign as a method of marketing, somehow people who've sold out to the corporate machine are able to justify and live with themselves, chalking off a reaction or death to some strange aberration, not directly linked with their expert advice being taken as the directive of a deity that knows best. We have to stop being like sheep, following the strongest, most prevalent or loudest voice. We have to start putting the brain to work, real work, analysis, questioning, and stop being led around by fear mongers. For a nation we consider to be so overwhelmingly spiritual,why is it we can't trust our own judgment or stand up for our beliefs when it comes to something as important as our health and that of our children? We are more than a commodity, we are not lab rats and we can't afford to be used like this.

We are more capable than we believe, we are smarter than we think, we have more resources for information than ever before if we'd learn to evaluate the sources of the opinions, follow the money, their agendas and make the ultimate decision based on the best most neutral and logical information. Maybe its time we learned to tap into the inner voice that ultimately will give you a feeling of peace even when you've made a decision that isn't popular. It's when we turn our brains over to others we deem more capable and intelligent than we are that we put ourselves at risk. See the mortgage meltdown, banking bailouts, and Bernie Madoff for example. Look at us now. If we don't learn from these lessons we're doomed to repeat them as history bears out.

The next time you turn on the tube and see some ad for tennis shoes that have the primary purpose or selling point of making your butt and legs look like those on the screen, remember to listen to the last line on the ad which says, our shoes help workout your legs and butt better than any other tennis shoe. Well, that's not saying much because the purpose for tennis shoes is to protect your feet and grip the ground to prevent slips, not shape your butt and legs. Anyone can make lame claims like that, you're just so focused on those perfect butts you don't hear what they're really saying. Once you're aware it's impossible not to look at things without the X-Ray Specs. We can't afford to be disengaged any more. How much more can we afford to slide in under the radar?

Here's a Story You Won't See on OC Housewives

2010-09-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a shocking cautionary tale from the Orange County Register posted last week illustrating how things can spiral out of control and why it's important to take measures now to shore up whatever income you've got going. A solid home based business can be worked to generate a nice residual income even in a part time effort if you have the right business, product and support.

Work: the ‘Orange County Dream’ to homeless
August 24th, 2010, 6:01 pm posted by Peggy Lowe

SAN CLEMENTE – Allen Pederson pulls into a parking slot at San Clemente State Beach, hoping he gets a meter with a little time left. Renting by the hour with a few coins is all he can do now. This 1998 white Ford van is Pederson’s real estate reality, 25 square feet he calls “our little apartment.”
Beside Allen is his wife of 21 years, Regina. This was her vehicle, the one she used to drive the couple’s three kids to church, the one with the “Best Mom” license plate frame intact.

It’s sunset on a recent Thursday, and the couple sits down on a park bench on the bluff overlooking the ocean, and Allen jokes that this is his living room. Dinner is from Taco Bell, a tostada, burrito and Diet Coke eating up most of the last $5 Allen had in his wallet.

This is all the Pedersons have left of what Allen called “the Orange County Dream.” They have lost everything since Allen lost his job in 2005, an event that triggered a domino effect of decline for the family, down to being homeless and what Allen admits is now day-to-day survival.

“It’s just kinda like, where did it go? It was just there. It happened so fast! You think, ‘It will never happen to me.’ I think back, how did it happen?” Allen says. “How did this happen?”
The trigger to what the family now simply calls “The Trauma” happened in January 2005, when Allen lost his six-figure job at Time Warner Cable in a downsizing move.

Allen, a transplant from Pontiac, Michigan, started at the company in an entry-level job in 1986. Over the course of 20 years, he worked his way up to Director of Purchasing and Operations. He was a company man and planned to retire there, believing he was safe from any cutbacks. Regina home-schooled the couple’s three children in their Lake Forest home.

“I was living the good life. I had no worries, you know? Buy anything I wanted, just about. Of course, it would be on credit,” he said. “Always had food in the refrigerator. Kids wanted to go to the movies, we’d go to the movies. Kids wanted to go to Disneyland, we’d go to Disneyland.”

After Allen was let go from Time Warner, he took a manager job at an Inglewood Costco, but with the long commute and the low pay, he couldn’t make ends meet. He also wasn’t moving up as quickly as the bosses had promised him, so he quit. It was March 2008, and with his good credentials, he thought he’d find something else quickly.

But the Great Recession had started its stranglehold, with Southern California’s mortgage industry already in meltdown mode, financial markets looking shaky and unemployment beginning to rise.

Allen tried another job, but it didn’t work out, so he spent his days looking for work. By this time, he’d gone through his Time Warner severance, sold the company car he’d been given, and tapped out all other financial avenues. The family lost their home and moved to Temecula to a rental, only to be kicked out of that house when the owner lost it to foreclosure. With the two youngest children along – the oldest had married and moved out — the family settled into a cheap motel in Santa Ana.

Life was tough with just his unemployment checks, but the family got help from a church and local food banks. They were grateful to still be together. Then in May, Allen used up the last of his 99 weeks of benefits, and suddenly, there was zero income. The family moved out of the motel and into the van.
“The crisis that hit was trying to hold a family together,” Allen said.

Because they didn’t want to further traumatize the children, Allen, 46, and Regina, 50, found other places for them to live. Their daughter, now 19 and in beauty school, moved into a friend’s apartment. Their youngest son, now 16, is with a family friend.

Allen and Regina hit the road, and their daily routine is an agonizing agenda of searching for food, shelter, money, sleep. Each morning, Allen heads to a Starbucks, so he can use the free Wi-Fi to search online for jobs. He has no phone, so he signed up for a free Google service with a voicemail-only number. He returns calls from pay phones.

The couple hopscotch around to different parking lots, but are often asked to leave by security guards. Wal-Marts are especially good, because they are never questioned about why they are parked there for hours on-end. They sometimes park at the public beaches, but have to watch for the rangers – Allen calls them “ticket monsters” – who may require them to move after a few hours.

Sometimes they will get food from a local food bank, sometimes they get bits of change from friends or from Allen’s father in Michigan. They’ve maxed out the allowance of rent assistance and food offered by Saddleback Church, where they were members for 10 years and where Regina taught Sunday school. They steer clear of the shelters, which they say are filled with “Skid Row types” – the shelters more scary than even staying on the street. They’ve inquired at some rescue missions, but those are mostly for people with drug and alcohol problems, so the Pedersons don’t qualify.

Allen applied at Target and Wal-Mart, but got no response. He’s walked into a few fast food places, like Jack in the Box and Taco Bell, but managers weren’t interested because he doesn’t speak Spanish. He briefly held a low-paying job at Von’s, but didn’t pass probation. He thinks it’s because he asked too many questions about trying to improve operations. The couple’s biggest fear is that their van – their only home – will be impounded because their license plate tags are eight months overdue. Just last week, they got a ticket, and combined with a couple parking citations they’ve already racked up, that could also lead to losing their vehicle. To avoid scrutiny, they always back in to parking slots, so the cops can’t see the expired tags. They also worry that the bald back tires will blow at any time and Regina has tried to repair them with bicycle patches.

They spend evenings at the beach, and particularly like San Clemente State Beach because it offers them a little peace. For a while, they would sneak into some of the state parks after hours to use the coin-operated showers, but the rangers recognize them now. Every day is a search for a shower, and some nights they simply wash up in the public restrooms at the beach. They brush their teeth standing behind their van, using a cup of water from a fountain. “I never dreamed in a million years I’d be here. I always considered myself a hard-working, dedicated individual,” Allen said. “I can look in the mirror right now and not believe it. It’s unreal.”

Allen is nervous, fueled with the anxiety brought on by the struggle for survival and lack of sleep. Regina appears to be another loss – they talk openly of her breakdown. She cries constantly and sometimes rambles incoherently. The woman who once prided herself as the best mom – a home school and Sunday school teacher – believes that she has lost her children. The friends her youngest is staying with shield him from her.

On August 12, the couple lost the last of their possessions. Having failed to pay the rental fees, the storage locker they rented in San Juan Capistrano was auctioned off, everything gone during a five-minute bidding process that went to a stranger for $550. Inside were their wedding photos, the children’s school records, toys, family pictures, and the American flag that was draped on Regina’s father’s casket. Since then, Regina’s mental state has further declined, Allen said. She feels betrayed by her family and the friends she helped for so many years. Society has humiliated them, she says. “I feel like I don’t even exist,” she said. “That’s how people make you feel – like you don’t even exist.”
Allen feels if he can just get one good break – just one — they could make it. “Just an opportunity is all I need – no matter what it is,” he said. “I just want to work. I’m not panhandling. I want a job, I want to go to work.”

The couple ended a recent Thursday night much as they have done during all the others these last few months. As the sun set and darkness swallowed up the beach front, they washed up in the public restrooms, put on their pajamas and watched a movie on Allen’s laptop. Then they drove over to a local megachurch and parked in the huge lot, hoping to be inconspicuous until dawn, when they get up and start another day. But time is running out and Allen fears losing their last, precious possession.
“We had a lot of hope,” Allen said. “We had a lot of hope. But that’s kind of drifting away. As every day of the survival continues, the hope becomes less.”

If you are struggling or see trouble ahead it's time to get into action now. Don't wait until it's too late or you allow denial to take you to a place of critical mass. Those people you see at street corners aren't all fakes. Imagine the embarrassment you'd have to overcome to stand there and what it would take to drive you to it.

We tend to take for granted that there's a safety net like public assistance in dire emergency but those funds are stretched thin. We've restricted them so much over the past decade that now, when families aren't able to get employment quickly and run out of unemployment benefits, there's little to nothing available to help. Medi-Cal and Food Stamps are there but money... you will have to prove indigence, no assets, claim your valuables and have to have sold them, and this is just the beginning.

There are programs for utilities you should immediately sign up for that give you discounted rates for being in a lower income level and once a year a charitable organization will pay one or two of your utility bills if you qualify but don't wait and hope. Go into action. You can decline to use what you don't need but you should immediately look for a form of self employment and get to work.
Necessity is the mother of invention and can bring you a new life's purpose if you're not holding on to old notions of everything going back to the way it was. Times are changing, we have to change with them or be left wondering what the number was of the bus that hit us.

Take a look at my Franchise link to find out about a business that has no risk, low expense and immediate high profitability. We have to work together, give to others as much as possible because the laws of reciprocity are real and universal. What you give out is what you attract.

Likewise if you're aware of a non profit that is doing good things for people in your area please leave the name in the comments. I'll find their online info and publish them.

I'd also like to start a sort of trade off co-op so if you have things that are in good shape but are unused, and are willing to trade for something you need, list them and I'll organize a page for it. You can list what you need even if you haven't got something to trade. You never know. Also check the free listings on craigslist in your area.

We're all in this together and the internet makes the world a whole lot smaller. Send out some positive intention for others during the day as you think of it. Positive energy is powerful magic.

2010-09-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Finding Our Place in the Puzzle of the Future

2010-09-01T02:01:00.000-07:00

I believe there are many professionals who, like myself, have been seeking their niche, a place to fit into this new age where they can thrive and earn a real living, honestly, providing value to the marketplace without risking their reputation, entire savings or life to do it.

This is my contribution to the conversation as both one of the boomers out on that limb willing to risk breaking away from the old beliefs that employers will take care of you and value your loyalty when times are tough, and as a woman who has been online since 95 and has seen the rapid advancement of commerce, marketing tactics and outright scams using emotional buttons and trickery to part us from our money.

I've been on the bad end of the stick when it came to holding my own as a mother with the desire to stay around my kids as they grew up but also to make an income, trying many uncharted options before they were uncovered as scams and finding also great opportunity having kissed a few frogs to get to the good stuff. There's good and bad stuff out there but now we have some real oversight and experience to determine which is which in the opportunity world. While an opportunity may be solid there's always one question mark in the picture and that's people.

I don't think I need to expound on the current state of reality in employment and jobs as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the decline by county on this page;
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewqtr.nr0.htm
Then in another reports increasing despair among the unemployed who believe there are no jobs in their field available after months of seeking work.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm Read on...

What we once believed was a standard in America for success and pursuit of happiness formula, i.e. get an education, choose the field to work in, find entry level position in a formidable corporation, climb the ladder & make your way to the highest position possible to ultimately retire on the pension promised after 30 years trade of life blood is no longer an option or reality. We may have grown up in that dream or on the higher or lower end but middle America believed that the brass ring was that a modest suburban house would be paid off, white picket fence and all, your children grown up, in college paid for by your tuition funds, and golden years traveling to see the grandkids as they took their part of the cycle again.

It began to unravel before our eyes though we may not have understood the big picture at first. We saw in 80's how the telecoms and other industries started offering early retirement packages to offload their senior salaries, then the aerospace industry layoffs and the unprecedented reneging on their pensions plans. Even as a then frivolous twenty- something, uninvolved onlooker I was shocked as I heard these corporations were being allowed to get away with breaking their deal with people who'd dedicated the majority of their lives to the good of the company only to have them pull the rug out from under them when they were counting on the money to live and had kept their part of the bargain. How could it be that companies were allowed to break their commitments to thousands of workers by withdrawing the pensions of those who had already served them well for a lifetime, without penalty? Isn't it a breech of contract? Could you or I get away with that?

The government was expected by these corporations to jump in and save the day with a bail out.. that's you and me by the way, Joe Taxpayer, we shoulder their corporate responsibility.
What about their insurance? Shouldn't these corporations be expected to carry a policy for such cases? Like malpractice when your CEO screws the pooch so badly it can't keep it's bargains. It was the first sign of the oxidation of the American dream, and those souls who'd given everything to the company to find an I.O.U at the end of their lives, no teeth in enforcing that contract, those men and women had to find employment as seniors for humbling pay. My childhood friend's father was an aerospace engineer at North American Rockwell who got laid off and was relegated to spending the remainder of his life as a school janitor to feed his family and support their modest lifestyle, never owning a home himself.

The corporations merged and continue to enjoy their profits but downsized and wiped out their debt to their workers to do so. It's become the standard now instead of having 2 or at most 3 positions on your lifetime resume to having numerous positions and some with no rhyme or reason. I've seen resumes with new positions every 1-2 years in many industries.
Do you still believe that you can depend on pensions, retirement funds and always being valued when profit margins shrink and its time to cut back?

It's time to start thinking of your own life and the bigger picture. We all need a plan B and C, not the MadMen facade of their campaigns in the 60s, 70's telling us what to believe and fall in line or else.

A Story from The OC You Won't See on TV

2010-08-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

“It’s just kinda like, where did it go? It was just there. It happened so fast! You think, ‘It will never happen to me.’ I think back, how did it happen?” Allen says. “How did this happen?”
The trigger to what the family now simply calls “The Trauma” happened in January 2005, when Allen lost his six-figure job at Time Warner Cable in a downsizing move.

Allen, a transplant from Pontiac, Michigan, started at the company in an entry-level job in 1986. Over the course of 20 years, he worked his way up to Director of Purchasing and Operations. He was a company man and planned to retire there, believing he was safe from any cutbacks. Regina home-schooled the couple’s three children in their Lake Forest home.
“I was living the good life. I had no worries, you know? Buy anything I wanted, just about. Of course, it would be on credit,” he said. “Always had food in the refrigerator. Kids wanted to go to the movies, we’d go to the movies. Kids wanted to go to Disneyland, we’d go to Disneyland.”
After Allen was let go from Time Warner, he took a manager job at an Inglewood Costco, but with the long commute and the low pay, he couldn’t make ends meet. He also wasn’t moving up as quickly as the bosses had promised him, so he quit. It was March 2008, and with his good credentials, he thought he’d find something else quickly.
But the Great Recession had started its stranglehold, with Southern California’s mortgage industry already in meltdown mode, financial markets looking shaky and unemployment beginning to rise.

Allen tried another job, but it didn’t work out, so he spent his days looking for work. By this time, he’d gone through his Time Warner severance, sold the company car he’d been given, and tapped out all other financial avenues. The family lost their home and moved to Temecula to a rental, only to be kicked out of that house when the owner lost it to foreclosure. With the two youngest children along – the oldest had married and moved out — the family settled into a cheap motel in Santa Ana.
Life was tough with just his unemployment checks, but the family got help from a church and local food banks. They were grateful to still be together. Then in May, Allen used up the last of his 99 weeks of benefits, and suddenly, there was zero income. The family moved out of the motel and into the van.
“The crisis that hit was trying to hold a family together,” Allen said.

Allen and Regina hit the road, and their daily routine is an agonizing agenda of searching for food, shelter, money, sleep. Each morning, Allen heads to a Starbucks, so he can use the free Wi-Fi to search online for jobs. He has no phone, so he signed up for a free Google service with a voicemail-only number. He returns calls from pay phones.
The couple hopscotch around to different parking lots, but are often asked to leave by security guards. Wal-Marts are especially good, because they are never questioned about why they are parked there for hours on-end. They sometimes park at the public beaches, but have to watch for the rangers – Allen calls them “ticket monsters” – who may require them to move after a few hours.

Allen applied at Target and Wal-Mart, but got no response. He’s walked into a few fast food places, like Jack in the Box and Taco Bell, but managers weren’t interested because he doesn’t speak Spanish. He briefly held a low-paying job at Von’s, but didn’t pass probation. He thinks it’s because he asked too many questions about trying to improve operations.
The couple’s biggest fear is that their van – their only home – will be impounded because their license plate tags are eight months overdue. Just last week, they got a ticket, and combined with a couple parking citations they’ve already racked up, that could also lead to losing their vehicle. To avoid scrutiny, they always back in to parking slots, so the cops can’t see the expired tags. They also worry that the bald back tires will blow at any time and Regina has tried to repair them with bicycle patches.
They spend evenings at the beach, and particularly like San Clemente State Beach because it offers them a little peace. For a while, they would sneak into some of the state parks after hours to use the coin-operated showers, but the rangers recognize them now. Every day is a search for a shower, and some nights they simply wash up in the public restrooms at the beach. They brush their teeth standing behind their van, using a cup of water from a fountain. “I never dreamed in a million years I’d be here. I always considered myself a hard-working, dedicated individual,” Allen said. “I can look in the mirror right now and not believe it. It’s unreal.”