Mike Barrett - Lobby Group Formed to Remove Alternative Medicine, Chiropractic Courses from Universities

Who needs alternative or natural treatments when there is already a fantastic medical system put in place aiming to ‘better’ the world? At least that’s what more than 400 doctors, medical researchers, and scientists who want to shut down all alternative medicine degrees seem to believe.

The mainstream medical practitioners in Australia seem to think that alternative medicine has no place, and chose to form a powerful lobby group to pressure universities to get rid of any alternative medicine degrees. The group, comically calling themselves ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’, have even openly denounced alternative medicine as ‘quackery’. They specifically stated that universities offering these alternative degrees are ruining their reputation by giving “undeserved credibility to what in many cases would be better described as quackery” and by “failing to champion evidence-based science and medicine.”

Nearly one in three Australian universities offer some kind of alternative therapy or complementary medicine, whether it be chiropractics, homeopathy, naturopathy, aromatherapy, or Chinese herbal medicine. But a co-founder of Friends of Science in Medicine, who is also a government adviser on consumer health fraud, says that universities like these are offering “degrees in pseudo science”.

Read More:

http://naturalsociety.com/lobby-group-formed-to-remove-alternative-medicine-chiropractic-courses-from-universities/

Anthony Gucciardi - Lawsuit Slams “All Natural” Snack Makers for Containing Harmful GMO Ingredients

Does the term ‘all natural’ really mean anything when it comes to food labeling? Increasingly, the evidence says absolutely not. A new lawsuit launched from New York highlights the real lack of meaning behind the ‘all natural’ marketing stunt, stating that Frito-Lay’s popular ‘all natural’ snack foods like Tostitos and SunChips are actually made with genetically modified ingredients.

Chris Sakes leads the suit against the mega snack corporation, filing a class-action lawsuit that sheds light on the ‘all natural’ labeling scam. Shake said that Frito-Lay products are not natural at all, as they contain corn oils and genetically modified plants. What is this phony ‘all natural’ claims worth? About 10 cents more than competing brands that do not claim to be all natural, which contain virtually the same ingredients. The lawsuit reported that independent testing actually confirmed the presence of corn and vegetables oils as well as GMOs within the popular snack brands.

In response, a Frito-Lay spokesman stated that the ‘all natural’ statement on its packaging “complies with all regulatory requirements.”

Of course genetically modified ingredients are quite far from natural. The suit states:

Read More:

http://naturalsociety.com/lawsuit-slams-all-natural-snack-makers-for-containing-harmful-gmo-ingredients/

Ronnie Cummins - The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto

In the wake of a 12 year battle to keep Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America's organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it's time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for "coexistence" with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.

In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and "seed purity," gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the "conditional deregulation" of Monsanto's genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa. Beyond the regulatory euphemism of "conditional deregulation," this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S.

Read More:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/01/28/the-organic-elite-surrenders-to-monsanto/

Are Dormant Viruses Killing You: Even While They Are Asleep?

The Center for the Biology of Chronic Disease is a not-for-profit organization specializing in researching the biology of chronic disease (the original disruption that causes the disease and the sequence of events that lead from the disruption to the clinical symptoms.) CBCD believes it is crucial to understand the biology of the disease in order to effectively develop drugs that will cure chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or arthritis. 

CBCD’s work is based on the research of Dr. Hanan Polansky, author of ‘The Purple Book’ - Microcompetition with Foreign DNA and the Origin of Chronic Disease. This highly technical well-researched book has been lauded for its biological theories on the origin of chronic disease by medical experts around the world including distinguished researchers from the National Institute of Health.^1.

Read More:

http://sanevax.org/are-dormant-viruses-killing-you-even-while-they-are-asleep/

Music Training Has Biological Impact On Aging Process

Age-related delays in neural timing are not inevitable and can be avoided or offset with musical training, according to a new study from Northwestern University. The study is the first to provide biological evidence that lifelong musical experience has an impact on the aging process. Measuring the automatic brain responses of younger and older musicians and non-musicians to speech sounds, researchers in the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory discovered that older musicians had a distinct neural timing advantage.

"The older musicians not only outperformed their older non-musician counterparts, they encoded the sound stimuli as quickly and accurately as the younger non-musicians," said Northwestern neuroscientist Nina Kraus. "This reinforces the idea that how we actively experience sound over the course of our lives has a profound effect on how our nervous system functions." Kraus, professor of communication sciences in the School of Communication and professor of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is co-author of "Musical experience offsets age-related delays in neural timing" published online in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130172402.htm

How the Unconscious Mind Boosts Creative Output

Truly creative ideas are both highly prized and, for most of us, maddeningly elusive. If our best efforts produce nothing brilliant, we’re often advised to put aside the issue at hand and give our unconscious minds a chance to work.

Newly published research suggests that is indeed a good idea — but not for the reason you might think.

A study from the Netherlands finds allowing ideas to incubate in the back of the mind is, in a narrow sense, overrated. People who let their unconscious minds take a crack at a problem were no more adept at coming up with innovative solutions than those who consciously deliberated over the dilemma. But they did perform better on the vital second step of this process: determining which of their ideas was the most creative. That realization provides essential information; without it, how do you decide which solution you should actually try to implement?

Read More:

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/how-the-unconscious-mind-boosts-creative-output-38841/?utm_source=Newsletter198&utm_medium=email&utm_content=0131&utm_campaign=newsletters

Martha Rosenberg - The Scary Danger of Meat (Even For Those Who Don't Eat It)

So far, 2012 is bringing bad news for people who don't want "free antibiotics" in their food.

Antibiotics are routinely given to livestock on factory farms to make them gain weight with less feed and keep them from getting sick in confinement conditions. But the daily dosing, at the same time it lowers feed needs, lowers drug effectiveness and produces antibiotic resistant bacteria or super bugs that can be deadly to people.

This month, researchers found 230 out of 395 pork cuts bought in US stores were contaminated with a super bug called MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Worse--there were "no statistically significant differences" between "conventionally raised swine and swine raised without antibiotics," reported the researchers.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153908/the_scary_danger_of_meat_%28even_for_those_who_don%27t_eat_it%29

Kathleen Sharp - Patients May Die When Doctors Moonlight as Big Pharma's "Key Opinion Leaders"

As the crimson sun slipped into the gray Pacific Ocean, a multibillion-dollar drug deal took shape. A group of board-certified doctors greeted each other in a private room at a luxury hotel in California. The oncologists were big buyers of an anti-anemia drug called Procrit, sold by Ortho Biotech [5], a Johnson & Johnson (J&J)  division. That Friday evening, the company toasted its top clients and their wives with bottles of Beaujolais, porterhouse steaks and free weekend accommodations.

The event could have been just another "grin and grip" affair, but there was a catch: J&J wanted to pump the sales of its biotech drug to beat its rival Amgen and its anti-anemia drugs. "The idea," as J&J drug rep Dean McClellan later explained, "was to get the docs to increase their Procrit dosage to 40,000 units [6]."

There was just one problem. Regulators had approved a weekly drug dose of 30,000 units, and J&J was prohibited by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDAC) from marketing its drugs in unapproved ways [7]. But the doctors could prescribe in any "off-label" manner they wanted. So, McClellan, a star rep and medical consigliere, led a "discussion" about high-dose experiments. Taking his cue, one physician explained how he routinely injected patients with 40,000 units of Procrit. Another oncologist pumped his people with 10,000 units for ten consecutive days - triple the approved amount. "That seems a little extreme," said McClellan, frowning.

Read More:

http://www.truth-out.org/patients-may-die-when-doctors-moonlight-big-pharmas-key-opinion-leaders/1327091467

Food Fried in Olive or Sunflower Oil Is Not Linked to Heart Disease, Spanish Study Finds

Eating food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, finds a paper published in the British Medical Journal online (bmj.com).

The authors stress, however, that their study took place in Spain, a Mediterranean country where olive or sunflower oil is used for frying and their results would probably not be the same in another country where solid and re-used oils were used for frying.

In Western countries, frying is one of the most common methods of cooking. When food is fried it becomes more calorific because the food absorbs the fat of the oils.

While eating lots of fried food can increase some heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity, a link between fried food and heart disease has not been fully investigated.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120124184159.htm

GMW: Pushing back against Gates propaganda

*The Center for Food Safety Pushes Back Against Gates Foundation "Feed the World" Propaganda

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) pushed back today against longtime biotech crop supporter, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, over its announcement that it has invested nearly $2 billion in a campaign to fund the development of genetically engineered (GE) crops in an attempt to address global hunger.  The Gates Foundation has been widely criticized by food security and public interest groups for promoting GE crops in developing countries rather than investing in organic and sustainable local models of agriculture.

"The biotech industry has exploited the image of the world's poor and hungry to advance a form of agriculture that is expensive, input-intensive, and of little or no relevance to developing country farmers," said Andrew Kimbrell Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety.  "It's long past time that the Gates Foundation redirect its investments in biotech companies like Monsanto, and its funding of dead-end GE crop projects, to promote agroecological techniques with a proven record of increasing food production in developing countries."

Read More:

http://truefoodnow.org/2012/01/25/genetically-engineered-crops-will-not-feed-the-world/

Do women feel more pain than men?

According to a new study published in the appropriately titled Journal of Pain, women, on average, experience higher levels of pain than their male counterparts — and by a large margin. What's the evidence? Here, a guide:

How was this study conducted?
Researchers analyzed the electronic medical records of 11,000 men and women who were patients at the Stanford Hospital and Clinics. They specifically looked at how each person rated their pain on a 0 ("no pain") to 11 ("worst pain imaginable") scale — sifting through a total of more than 161,000 pain scores. The study included patients suffering from 47 different disorders and 250 different diagnoses, ranging from cancer to back conditions to infectious diseases.

Read More:

http://theweek.com/article/index/223668/do-women-feel-more-pain-than-men

Frédérique Baudouin - Genetically engineered maize: New indication of health risks - January 2012

Bt protein toxic to human cells 

Caen/ München: Insecticidal Bt toxins such as those produced in genetically engineered plants can be detrimental to human cells. This is a result of recent research led by researchers at the University of Caen (France). Their experiments showed that toxins produced in, for example, the genetically engineered maize MON810, can significantly impact the viability of human cells. The effects were observed with relatively high concentrations of the toxins, nevertheless there is cause for concern. According to companies like Monsanto, which produces genetically engineered maize with these toxins, the toxins are supposed to be active only against particular insects and should have no effect on mammals and humans at all. For the first time, experiments have now shown that they can have an effect on human cells. These kinds of investigations are not a requirement for risk assessment in Europe or in any other region. 

Another finding of the researchers concerns a herbicide formulation sold under the brand name Roundup. Massive amounts of this herbicide are sprayed on genetically engineered soybean crops and its residues can be found in food and feed. According to the new publication, even extremely low dosages of Roundup (glyphosate formulations) can damage human cells. These findings are in accordance with several other investigations highlighting unexpected health risks associated with glyphosate preparations.

“We were very much surprised by our findings. Until now, it has been thought almost impossible for Bt proteins to be toxic to human cells. Now further investigations have to be conducted to find out how these toxins impact the cells and if combinatorial effects with other compounds in the food and feed chain have to be taken into account,” says Gilles-Eric Séralini from the University of Caen, who supervised the experiments. “In conclusion, these experiments show that the risks of Bt toxins and of Roundup have been underestimated.”

Click to read more ...

Grape seed extract kills head and neck cancer cells, leaves healthy cells unharmed

Nearly 12,000 people will die of head and neck cancer in the United States this year and worldwide cases will exceed half a million.

A study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesisshows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

“It’s a rather dramatic effect,” says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Centerand professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

It depends in large part, says Agarwal, on a healthy cell’s ability to wait out damage.

Read More:

http://www.coloradocancerblogs.org/news/grape-seed-extract-kills-head-and-neck-cancer-cells-leaves-healthy-cells-unharmed

Making Memories Last: Prion-Like Protein Plays Key Role in Storing Long-Term Memories

Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses." But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory. 

The finding supports a surprising new theory about memory, and may have a profound impact on explaining other oligomer-linked functions and diseases in the brain, including Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases.

"Self-sustaining populations of oligomers located at synapses may be the key to the long-term synaptic changes that underlie memory; in fact, our finding hints that oligomers play a wider role in the brain than has been thought," says Kausik Si, Ph.D., an associate investigator at the Stowers Institute, and senior author of the new study, which is published in the January 27, 2012 online issue of the journal Cell.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127162409.htm

Mind Over Matter: Patients' Perceptions of Illness Make a Difference

 Whenever we fall ill, there are many different factors that come together to influence the course of our illness. Additional medical conditions, stress levels, and social support all have an impact on our health and well-being, especially when we are ill. But a new report suggests that what you think about your illness matters just as much, if not more, in determining your health outcomes. 

In the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Keith Petrie, of the University of Auckland, and John Weinman, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, review the existing literature on patients' perceptions of illness. The authors find that people's illness perceptions bear a direct relationship to several important health outcomes, including their level of functioning and ability, utilization of health care, adherence to treatment plans laid out by health care professionals, and even overall mortality.

In fact, some research suggests that how a person views his illness may play a bigger role in determining his health outcomes than the actual severity of his disease.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127162753.htm

High Animal Fat Diet Increases Gestational Diabetes Risk, Study Finds

Women who consumed a diet high in animal fat and cholesterol before pregnancy were at higher risk for gestational diabetes than women whose diets were lower in animal fat and cholesterol, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Harvard University. 

Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes seen during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes increases the risk for certain pregnancy complications and health problems in the newborn.

Women whose diets were high in total fat or other kinds of fats -- but not in animal fat or cholesterol -- did not have an increased risk.

Moreover, the increased risk for gestational diabetes seen with animal fat and cholesterol appeared to be independent of other, dietary and non-dietary, risk factors for gestational diabetes. For example, exercise is known to reduce the risk of gestational diabetes. Among women who exercised, however, those who consumed higher amounts of animal fat and cholesterol had a higher risk than those whose diets were lower in these types of fat.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120125163406.htm

Nutritionists Are Experts - They Shouldn't Need A Dietitian's License to Practice

New bills have been introduced in a number of states that threaten the rights of nutritionists to practice. In fact, they could allow the American Dietetic Association (ADA) to control the practice of nutritional therapy!

These bills paint dietitians and nutritionists into a licensing scheme with the same brush, making completion of a dietitian program a prerequisite for practicing nutritional therapy.According to these bills, a Masters or a PhD in nutrition means nothing -  a nutritionist would still be required to register through the ADA in order to keep practicing. 

While there is some overlap in the work characterizing nutritionists and dietitians, there are some important differences. In general, nutritionists use their thorough knowledge of the impact of nutrition on the whole body and primarily counsel individuals. The nutritionist is an integrative practitioner who focuses on maintaining health and prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Dietitians largely employ outdated approaches, with training focusing on institutional diets and food service management—developing diets for hospital patients, school food service programs, and nursing homes. 

Read More:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/750/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9314

Too much television can give you diabetes

"The message is simple. Cutting back on TV watching can significantly reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and premature mortality," said senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at HSPH. 

"We should not only promote increasing physical activity levels but also reduce sedentary behaviour, especially prolonged TV watching," he added. 

Hu and first author Anders Grontved, a doctoral student and visiting researcher in the HSPH Department of Nutrition, conducted a meta-analysis, a systematic assessment of all published studies from 1970 to 2011 that linked TV viewing with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. 

Eight large prospective cohort studies from the United States, Europe, and Australia met the researchers'' criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. 

Read More:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health/Too-much-television-can-give-you-diabetes/articleshow/8861830.cms

Anthony Gucciardi - Monsanto Investor Bill Gates Says GMO Crops Needed to Fight Starvation

Bill Gates, the heavy Monsanto investor who purchased 500,000 shares of the biotech giant in 2010, has been touting Monsanto’s genetically modified creations as a tool that is necessary to prevent starvation in poor nations. The same poor nations where thousands of farmers routinely commit suicide after being completely bankrupt by Monsanto’s overpriced and ineffective GM seeds.

The same company that we recently exposed to be running ‘slave-like’ working conditions, forcing poor workers to operate the corn fields for 14 hours per day while withholding pay.

According to Gates, this is the company whose GMO crops are going to save the world from starvation. Of course, along with ‘saving the world from starvation’, GMO crops also bring along a large number of unwanted health and environmental effects.

A prominent review of 19 studies examining the safety of these crops found that consumption of GMO corn or soybeans can lead to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice – particularly in the liver and kidneys.

Read More:

http://www.infowars.com/monsanto-investor-bill-gates-says-gmo-crops-needed-to-fight-starvation/

Mike Barrett - Monsanto.com Targeted by Internet Hackers Known as Anonymous

In December the hackers infiltrated the PR firm, known as The Biving Group, due to “15+ years of running marketing campaigns and helping some of the most corrupt corporations on the planet, as well as several governmental agencies, cover up their dirt.”  The hackers claimed to have succeeded in bringing down The Bivings Group on December 5th. Going by information released by Anonymous, Bivings Group shut down all of their servers and liquidated their assets after the infiltration.

The group stands by the free-thinking citizens of the world, and reserves the right to go against Monsanto, who is causing so much environmental and human destruction that they have previously been declared the Worst Company of 2011. Anonymous is voicing their support for people like you and me, and every farmer or food organization denouncing the practices of Monsanto.

The group itself demands Monsanto to stop:

Read More:

http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-com-targeted-by-internet-hackers-known-as-anonymous/