Health
FDA Approves Meningitis Vaccine After Big Pharma Conducts Human Experiments
Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given GlaxoSmithKilne (GSK) their approval of the MenHibrix vaccine(MHV), which is meant for infants between the ages of 6 weeks to 18 months. This vaccine is a dangerous mixture of the meningococcal disease and Hib disease.
MHV will be manufactured in Rixensart, a Belgium-based arm of GSK Biologicals.
In 2010 and 2011, the FDA rejected MHV. GSK claims that they have “resolved” the FDA’s concerns about the necessity, potency and efficiency of MHV. This simply accepted GSK’s word that they have taken care of the vaccine’s issues. The FDA does not require more proof than that.
In fact, the FDA’s standard practice is to regulate drugs after they have been approved, rather than just making sure they are safe before releasing them out to the public.
In 2008, the FDA admitted that there is no regulatory checking of safety of trials. The FDA relied solely on the data provided them from the drug makers themselves.
Furthermore, the FDA does not check or regulate cosmetics prior to their release to the markets for the public to purchase. They leave the safety responsibility to the cosmetic corporations to essentially regulate themselves.
An apple a day may help fight obesity
Denis And Yulia Pogostins
A compound found in apple peels may help fight obesity.
MyHealthNewsDaily Staff
A compound found in apple peels called ursolic acid may protect against obesity, a new study in mice suggests.
In the study, mice that ate a high-fat diet over several weeks that included ursolic acid developed more muscle mass, and more calorie-burning brown fat, than mice eating the same diet without the chemical.
“Since muscle is very good at burning calories, the increased muscle in ursolic acid-treated mice may be sufficient to explain how ursolic acid reduces obesity,” said study researcher Dr. Christopher Adams, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa.
However, the increase in brown fat — an unexpected finding — may also help protect against obesity, Adams said, noting that researchers don’t know how the compound might exert this effect on brown fat.
Previous studies by these researchers showed that ursolic acid increased muscle mass and strength in healthy mice. In the new study, they tested the compound in mice likely to develop obesity and metabolic syndrome. In people, having metabolic syndrome means having at least three major risk factors for heart disease, such as too much abdominal fat, high triglycerides and high blood pressure.
FDA questions what’s creeping into your food, sunscreen
Mary Godleski / AP
By Emily Main
Rodale.com
Chemicals, minerals, and other materials 40,000 times smaller than a human hair are being added to an astonishingly high number of consumer products, from peanut butter to socks to sunscreen. And in an unusual departure from its usual innocent-until-proven-guilty approach in regulating consumer goods, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a new statement saying that such tiny technology needs more safety testing before it’s used in consumer goods.
At issue here is nanotechnology, the science of constructing materials so small they’re invisible to most microscopes. In addition to making things like iPhones and solar panels possible, nanotechnology has been used in sunscreens, where nano-size particles of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide prevent white residues, and in food packaging, in which materials like nanoparticles of silver prevent food spoilage.
Although the technology has been in widespread use for the past decade, scientists still have very little to go on with regard to whether products that contain nanoparticles are safe. Some studies have shown that nanoparticles in cosmetics or personal care products can be absorbed by the skin and make it into your brain, causing oxidative stress (essentially, rotting of your brain cells) while others have found that ingested nanoparticles can damage the colon. Because it damages aquatic organisms and can build up in fish and other species, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates nano-silver, used in a large number of products claiming to be antibacterial, as a pesticide. The nonprofit Friends of the Earth has also warned that overuse of nanosilver can lead to antibacterial resistance and the rise of superbugs, such as MRSA.
A big unknown for Americans if health care law struck down
By Mary Agnes Carey
The prospect of the Supreme Court striking down the entire health law or some of its key elements has many people in Washington abuzz about what happens next. What about the federal grants that have been awarded as part of the law’s implementation? Does the shrinking “doughnut hole” in seniors’ drug coverage grow again? Would consumers lose their protection against out-of-pocket costs for preventive services?
Consumers, states and the federal government have much to win – or lose – depending on how the court rules. Proponents say the subsidies for eligible lower income people, health insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion, among other provisions, are examples of how the law will save consumers money and improve access to care. But critics want to reduce the billions of dollars in federal spending in the law as the nation wrestles with a massive deficit. If the court strikes the law — or even a portion of it — experts say it is not clear how these economic issues will play out.
There are few roadmaps or precedents to help guide policy makers and politicians.
“This case more directly affects the national economy and touches more Americans in their day to day lives than anything the Supreme Court has done in almost a century,” said Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer and publisher of SCOTUSblog, which follows the Supreme Court. “This is right at the root of very basic questions of economic power and health care
in the country. There aren’t other similar disputes that have reached the justices since the New Deal.”
Since there is little common ground between the Democrats and Republicans on the law, if it were struck down or altered significantly by the court, it would likely be extremely difficult to build a bipartisan consensus on legislation to tidy up the confusion or remedy the pocketbook issues.
“It’s just too contentious,” says Joseph Antos, a health care expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “Even next year, it’s really hard to imagine you’d get corrective legislation because the enmity between the two sides will be just as strong as it ever was.”
There would likely be differences of opinions about how the federal and state governments would proceed in closing their books on the law. If the Supreme Court and Congress give states no marching orders, it might again fall to the courts to settle bills and loose ends. The Supreme Court could kick some decisions — perhaps on the fate of grants already issued to states and others — to lower courts to decide.
Goldstein doubts that the justices will weigh in on issues like what happens to federal grants that have already been distributed or the law’s payment cuts
to hospitals and other Medicare providers. “That’s too in the weeds,” he said.
“It will be a partly political, partly legal question. I’m sure that if the entire law gets struck or at least the parts of the law that relate to the grants, the government’s going to want back the unspent portion of the funds,” Goldstein said. “A lot of details will depend on how the grants were written and those sorts of things.”
The Department of Health and Human Services might try to fix some problems through rule making, he added.
Here’s a look at a few of the major economic questions that could quickly arise if the court strikes all or parts of the law:
Samsonite luggage handles found to contain cancer chemical; company voluntarily recalls inventory
By J. D. Heyes,
(NaturalNews) Does it seem like everything causes cancer these days? Well, researchers have found another unlikely source for the disease – the handles on some Samsonite luggage. The world’s largest luggage maker said recently it planned to replace handles on its American Tourister brand’s Tokyo Chic inventory after claims some of the products contained excessive levels of potentially carcinogenic chemicals. The Samsonite brand, which aims for the mid to upper-level marketplace, said the recall…
MMR causes autism, proven in Italian court case
By D Holt,
(NaturalNews) For many years the stories from devastated parents have been eerily similar. A young, bright child vaccinated with MMR, has minor side effects such as high temperature and being off food, and then develops the debilitating disability of autism. Whilst the mainstream medical profession deny the link between autism and the triple shot of measles, mumps and rubella, there have been many who have argued to the contrary. Statistics show the increases in autism correlate alarmingly with…
High intake of cholesterol shown to actually repair damaged brains
(NaturalNews) Including high-cholesterol foods as part of a healthy diet may not be the poor dietary choice we have all been told it is, suggests a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine. It turns out that cholesterol actually helps increase production of an important component of the nervous system that facilitates proper nerve cell communication, and prevents the onset of brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. The study focused specifically on patients with a…
Tumour op in womb saves foetus
BBC News
The “bubble” at the top of the picture is a tumour growing on Leyna’s mouthSurgeons have removed a tumour from the mouth of a foetus, in what has been described as a “world first” procedure.
After a scan at 17 weeks, mother Tammy Gonzalez said she “could see a bubble” coming out of her baby’s mouth.
Doctors said it was a very rare tumour called an oral teratoma and there was little chance her daughter would survive.
After the pioneering operation, baby Leyna was born five months later.
Doctors at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida, said this type of tumour was so rare it had been seen only once in 20 years at the hospital.
‘Saviours’In the procedure, Mrs Gonzalez was put under a local anaesthetic as a needle was pushed through the protective amniotic sac around the foetus.
Leyna is now a healthy 20-month-old child
A laser was then used to cut the tumour from Leyna’s lips. The operation lasted just over an hour.
Tammy told a press conference in Miami: “When they finally severed the whole thing off and I could see it floating down, it was like this huge weight had been lifted off me and I could finally see her face.”
She described the surgeons as “saviours”.
The doctors said: “To our knowledge, this is the first successful treatment of a foetal oral teratoma in utero.”
Leyna Mykaella Gonzalez was born in October 2010 weighing 8lb 1oz. She is now a healthy 20-month-old child.
The only sign of her life-saving surgery is a tiny scar on her mouth.
The details have only just emerged after the operation was reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
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Holistic Health
Sun exposure reduces pancreatic cancer risk by nearly 50 percent
By Ethan A. Huff,
(NaturalNews) The health benefits of vitamin D are almost becoming too numerous to count, with yet another new study presented at the recent American Association for Cancer Research Pancreatic Cancer Conference in Lake Tahoe, Nev., shedding light on the hormone’s specific anti-cancer benefits. According to the groundbreaking research, individuals exposed to natural sunlight, which is the most abundant source of natural vitamin D, are nearly 50 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than…
Natural health industry flexes its own immune system against crooks, scammers and con artists
By Mike Adams,
(NaturalNews) A recent event of mass deception has rocked the natural health world, yet in its wake, the power of high-integrity individuals willing to tell the truth has emerged stronger than ever. As many of our readers now know, a couple of individuals running a devious scam recently infiltrated the natural health movement, pretended to be one of us, and pretended to run a non-profit that did not exist, for the purpose of putting on a fancy show that was never really going to happen. The entire…
Learn the art of fermented foods for gut health
By PF Louis,
(NaturalNews) The importance of probiotic supplements and foods cannot be exaggerated. Antibiotics have a way of getting into us through commercial foods even if we don’t take pharmaceutical antibiotics. Of course, any rounds of pharmaceutical antibiotics demand an even stronger course of probiotics. Stress, GMOs, and other toxins that abound and surround also disturb the delicate balance of probiotic intestinal flora. Probiotic “friendly bacteria” are vital to more than digestion. They also…
Top seven vegan sources of protein
By Willow Tohi,
(NaturalNews) Like most people who have a higher health conscious, most vegans and vegetarians have a story about how they came to the decision to live their particular lifestyle. No matter your reasons, one of the challenges for non-meat eaters is making sure they get enough protein every day. But its not as big a deal as many think. Like most of the nutrients from quality food, a little goes a long way. Back in the hunter/gatherer days, primitive man ate a lot less meat – usually around 20% of…
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Pet Health
Do You Know What Food is Best for Your Senior Pet?
By Dr. Becker
- Estimates are that in the U.S., 50 percent of dogs are over 6 years of age, and over 40 percent of cats are older than 7.
- Based on these statistics, pet food manufacturers are very interested in figuring out how to develop and market formulas for senior pets. The industry has decided senior pet foods should address such common old age maladies as weight gain, declining immune function, declining cognitive function, and osteoarthritis.
- Unfortunately, the end result in most cases will be yet more processed pet food with high fiber content and added supplements cleverly marketed to appeal to pet owners with aging dogs and cats.
- The best nutrition for your older pet and pets at any age is fresh, moisture rich, species-appropriate food. Highly processed pet foods, no matter what special modifications are made to them, will never match the nutritional value of a balanced, species-appropriate diet.
Safe Household Cleaners for Homes with Allergic Pets
By Dr. Becker
- Allergies in family pets are rampant these days, and pet owners are trying everything to relieve the suffering of their dogs and cats.
- If your pet is allergic, it’s important to limit his exposure to all environmental pollutants, especially the ones in the home he shares with you. This means substituting harsh chemical household cleaners for simple, non-toxic, ‘greener’ alternatives.
- There are safe alternatives to chemicals for cleaning just about everything around your house, including floors, windows and mirrors, and kitchen and bathroom surfaces.
- When you’re dealing with an allergic pet, it can feel overwhelming as you work to discover what’s triggering your dog’s or cat’s allergic response. So it’s a good idea to approach changing out your household cleaners by taking baby steps. Don’t try to make huge changes all at once.
Why Don’t More Retirement Communities Welcome Residents with Pets?
By Dr. Becker
- A retirement community in Columbia, MO and the University of Missouri have collaborated to promote a pet-friendly environment for seniors and the elderly. TigerPlace, a 32-apartment retirement facility in Columbia welcomes residents with pets and also arranges weekly visits from a variety of animals.
- Pet ownership is physically and emotionally beneficial for older people. Pets provide companionship, reduce stress, give their owners a reason to get up in the morning and take regular walks. They also provide an outside focus which can help older folks avoid the trap of self-absorption or living in the past.
- TigerPlace residents live in single floor apartments with screened-in porches that lead to an outdoor walking path for pet owners. Students from the MU College of Veterinary Medicine visit three times a week to walk dogs and clean litter boxes, and they also assist with monthly wellness checkups by a retired member of the veterinary college faculty.
Cockatiel Sings to Mustard jar – Phillip Phillips watch out!!.
Uploaded by Megtunes on Apr 21, 2011
home site: http://musictherapytunes.com – – Here, Peaches jams out to the Adam’s Family theme like you’ve never heard! And she tweets it to a mustard bottle! She loves mustard! More Peach vids on the megtunes channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Megtunes and scroll down the videos. Enjoy!
Cute Cat Smells Dinner
Uploaded by thaimagic90 on Feb 23, 2011
Credit : http://video.th.msn.com/
This kitty shows off his balancing skills as he waits for dinner at the table! Someone feed the little guy already.
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Wildlife
Scotts Miracle-Gro sold bird seed contaminated with toxic poisons, class-action lawsuit seeks damages
By Jonathan Benson,
(NaturalNews) Scotts Miracle-Gro, a popular household name in gardening and lawn care products, is the subject of a new class-action lawsuit that is seeking damages for the company’s willful distribution and sale of bird seed products contaminated with toxic, unapproved insecticides. Courthouse News Service (CNS) reports that plaintiffs from Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New Mexico have jointly filed the new suit, which follows an earlier suit in which Scotts Miracle-Gro…
The Raven: One Very Smart Creature
By Dr. Becker
- Ravens are large-bodied members of the crow family. The ones most common in North America are all black in color with large beaks. Ravens, despite their incredible intelligence, are often maligned in stories and fables.
- Ravens remember friends and perceived enemies for years after meeting them. Like humans, they possess the ability to memorize and categorize their relationships with other animals.
- Ravens also use logic to problem-solve – an ability that is lacking or only present to a limited extent in other animals.
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Positivity Mind and Body
What Good Is Positivity?
For years I’ve investigated the value of positive emotions – those pleasing yet fleeting moments of joy, serenity, gratitude, amusement, and the like. In controlled laboratory experiments, I’ve measured the effects of these states on people’s thinking styles. In field studies, I’ve cataloged their effects on people’s skills, traits, and well-being. What I’ve learned is that positive emotions carry far more benefits than most of us suspected.
I’ve encapsulate two classes of these benefits into my broaden-and-build theory. First, when we experience a positive emotion, our vision literally expands, allowing us to make creative connections, see our oneness with others, and face our problems with clear eyes (a.k.a. the broaden effect). Second, as we make a habit of seeking out these pleasing states, we change and grow, becoming better versions of ourselves, developing the tools we need to make the most out of life (the build effect). And strikingly, these twin benefits of positive emotions obey a tipping point: When positive emotions outnumber negative emotions by at least 3 to 1, these benefits accrue, yet below this same ratio, they don’t.
Daily Positive Affirmations
I restore the beauty in my environment, realizing that
all is perfect just as it was created.
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Articles of Interest
Breast cancer survivor can now swim topless in Seattle’s public pools
Kelly O./The Stranger
Jodi Jaecks is a breast cancer survivor who had a double mastectomy in 2011. She made headlines this week after going public with her desire to swim topless in Seattle’s public pools.
Jodi Jaecks, the 47-year-old breast cancer survivor who made local headlines this week for wanting to swim topless at a Seattle-area pool, had tried many things to soothe the nerve pain she suffered following a double mastectomy and chemotherapy last year.
Drugs, physical therapy and specific pain treatments all failed to ease the burning caused by chest-wall nerves that are over-stimulated by the trauma of surgery. So when the facilitator of a breast cancer support group suggested she try swimming, Jaecks jumped on the idea.
“Water sounded soothing,” she says. (Full disclosure: Writer Diane Mapes is a breast cancer survivor in Seattle who met Jaecks in a support group.)
Video: Are fitness gadgets on TV fit to use?
Pennsylvania residents beg to be poisoned with fluoride
By Jonathan Benson,
(NaturalNews) A small Pennsylvania town that was in the process of ending its water fluoridation program appears to be reversing course, all because of a few local, and very vocal, residents that literally begged township supervisors to keep poisoning their water with toxic fluoride. According to the York Daily Record, a 4-1 vote by West Manheim Township supervisors to end water fluoridation has now been reversed, which means West Manheim Township could remain the only municipality in York Water…
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[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News 