Merck's Vioxx scandal widens: Drug maker knew Vioxx was deadly for years before risk was made public (opinion)
http://www.naturalnews.com/027582_Merck_Vioxx.html
The Vioxx scandal widened this week as new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that Vioxx maker Merck held data for three years that proved Vioxx caused an alarming increase in the risk of heart attacks and strokes. And yet Merck chose not to release that data. In fact, it took three more years of patients dying from heart attacks before Vioxx was pulled off the market, and even then, Merck insisted the drug was not dangerous.
This new study was based on a meta-analysis of several unpublished studies that Merck obviously didn't want to see published in medical journals. Drug companies routinely engage in this subterfuge: They cherry-pick which studies they want published while burying the rest. They also choose which studies to forward to the FDA, all while claiming the whole charade is based on "evidence-based medicine."
It is, sort of. If you add the word "selective" in front of the phrase, making it: "Selective evidence-based medicine."
So how were the authors of this new study able to find these unpublished studies that Merck would much prefer remained hidden? They were disclosed in court proceedings against Merck. So many people were harmed by Vioxx, you see, that some of them decided to sue. And in that legal process, many "secret" studies were revealed. Some smart-minded researchers decided to analyze the data in those studies and that's what reveals Merck knew Vioxx raised the risk of heart-related side effects by 35 percent and yet did nothing to warn the public about those risks.
In essence, these documents prove that Merck knowingly and maliciously allowed a deadly drug to continue to be sold to patients for years. It's a clear case of profits before patients from a drug company mired in one scandal after another. (Merck is also the maker of Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine.)
In its defense, Merck says its own scientists couldn't find any link between Vioxx and heart attack deaths. Understandably, it's difficult to find anything when your profits depend on not finding it.
The Merck conspiracy
Now that this data is public, it reveals that Merck's executives and / or employees were engaged in a conspiracy to withhold important drug safety data from the public and the FDA. The aim of this conspiracy was simple: To maximize profits through the sale of a product they knew was killing people.
Of course, only the naive are surprised to hear this. Informed NaturalNews readers already know this is the default behavior of drug companies. They'll do anything to make a buck, including fabricating clinical trial data, withholding important evidence, misrepresenting their drugs in television ads and lobbying lawmakers to make their drugs mandatory. The idea that they would knowingly sell a deadly drug to the general public -- while sitting on data for years that proved the drug was dangerous -- isn't really surprising. Not once you know how the pharmaceutical industry really works, anyway.
Many people (and many states) are fed up with the criminal behavior of drug companies. Nearly 10,000 individuals filed personal injury lawsuits against Merck over the Vioxx scandal. Most were settled for $4.85 billion in 2007, but many lawsuits remain. Eleven states' Attorneys General have also filed lawsuits against Merck, alleging the company committed fraud in its marketing of the drug to state Medicaid programs. Those lawsuits have yet to be resolved.
More legal action against Merck is no doubt on the way, as the company has engaged in questionable marketing practices spanning many different drugs (not just Vioxx). Drug companies like Merck have operated in the shadows for years, hiding data they knew would be damaging to their profits. These actions no doubt resulted in the needless deaths of tens of thousands of health consumers who would likely be alive today if this hidden data had been made public in 2001 when it was first known by Merck.
Merck's actions fit the legal definition of "negligent homicide." By withholding this important information, Merck indirectly caused the deaths of thousands of people. And yet somehow Merck's executives and employees are literally "getting away with murder" as there are no efforts under way to prosecute these people for their crimes.
I have to ask the obvious question: Why aren't Merck's executives being arrested and hauled off to prison for prosecution? If this were a Wall Street scandal, you'd see the head honchos in handcuffs, paraded on videos blasted across the evening news. But when it comes to pharmaceuticals, it's just business as usual. No one is held accountable. All those dead Americans essentially have their graves spit on by the failed justice system in this country that allows murderous corporations to continue killing more people with their deadly products.
The reason for all this is simple: America values money more than it values lives. When peoples' investments are destroyed, that's a crime. But when peoples' lives are destroyed by a dangerous pharmaceutical product, that's nobody's fault. Accountability is non-existent.
It sure puts America's priorities into perspective, doesn't it? Public safety has been all but abandoned by the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry -- an industry ruled by nothing other than the almighty dollar. And yet, here's something that puts it all into yet more perspective: According to Congressional testimony about Vioxx from drug safety experts, Vioxx alone killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War.
Is that something worth investigating for potential prosecution? If you value human life, then yes, absolutely. So why do Merck's executives all seem to be immune to the law? Why is the Department of Justice too timid to go after one of the most dangerous organizations in the country that has killed many times more Americans than all terrorists combined?
Why isn't Merck on the FBI's "America's Most Wanted" list?
And why do the American people tolerate such corporate behavior on their own soil? Is killing people with chemicals any less serious than killing people with bullets? Imagine the public outcry if a car company sold a defective vehicle that resulted in the deaths of more than 60,000 people... that would be shocking headline news. But when it comes to pharmaceutical deaths, the people remain strangely silent.
And the reason? There's no video footage of people dying. Pharmaceutical deaths are silent, whimpering deaths. No fiery crashes. No flying body parts. No explosions to splash across the evening news. Just millions of people being individually and chemically snuffed out, all around the world, after taking patented prescription drugs sold by companies that lied to them about their safety.
Sources for this story include:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574554071807123380.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5AM4MV20091123
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Merck's Vioxx scandal widens: Drug maker knew Vioxx was deadly for years before risk was made public (opinion)
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Stay Away From Chemotherapy and Radiation.
Stay Away From Chemotherapy and Radiation By Dr. James Howenstine, M.D.
November 21, 2009 - NewsWithViews.com
For many years it has been known to well informed individuals within the medical community that chemotherapy and radiation were quite toxic and essentially worthless in the management of malignancies. This information is carefully covered up by our controlled media so that these two methods of therapy are regarded by lay persons as the proven therapy for malignancies. Like lemmings going over a cliff the general public lines up for these therapies and nearly all treated persons proceed to die.
To the person who inquires how can an essentially worthless therapy continue to be used the answer is simple. It is all about money. Chemotherapy drugs bring in more than a trillion dollars annually to the pharmaceutical industry. Oncologists frequently make $1000 from every injection administered to a patient. There are 40 National Cancer Institute Centers scattered across the USA. Each of these employs thousands of employees. Curing cancer would be devastating for the economy and must not be allowed to occur. Research programs whose alleged purpose is to cure cancer see their funds steered into harmless areas where no cancer cures will ever result. Less than 1% of research funds are spent finding methods to prevent the spread of cancer. which is the cause of fatal cancer cachexia which kills 90% of cancer victims..
Preventing unfavorable chemotherapy results from being seen by the public in TV, radio, and newspaper reporting is combined with malicious quackery charges and actual death threats to practitioners who have legitimate cancer cures. I am aware of at least a dozen cancer cures since 1900 that have been ignored or suppressed. Several persons with bonafide cancer cures have been so vilified they died alcoholics or committed suicide. Prominent physician Dr Milbrook Johnson was poisoned the night before he was scheduled to speak on a national radio network in the 1940s about the ability of Dr. Royal Rife’s electronic equipment to cure cancer and infections.
Both chemotherapy and radiation have such toxic effects on the human body they must be stopped before they kill the patient. In the early days of chemotherapy drugs it was noted that skeptical patients who refused to take chemotherapy usually lived longer than patients treated with chemotherapy.
Radiation therapy directed toward a bone containing cancer might initially seem innocuous but actually has effects throughout the body. Circulation of blood through areas of ionizing radiation being delivered to bone is able to transport this radiated blood to distant sites where it can injure bone marrow production of killer lymphocytes, red blood cells, macrophages and platelets. Loss of appetite and nausea can be seen. Conventional radiation to the abdomen and other areas may be followed by permanent injury to the small intestine(diarrhea, pain) and arteriosclerosis of arteries in any field of radiation.
A suspected cancer patient had xray films showing numerous lucent identical sized masses overlying brain and spinal cord tissue. The films were misread as metastasis from a prior malignant melanoma instead of echinoccocal cysts spread from the family dogs. Massive radiation of brain and spinal cord tissue caused complete loss of appetite with no food intake and death in 8 days in a previously well 26 year old woman.
What are results of chemotherapy drugs? Associate Professor Graeme Morgan of Australia was the lead researcher on an article titled “The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5 year survival n adult malignancies.” This research showed that chemotherapy improved 5 year survival by less than 3% in adults with cancer. In 1987 Dr. Lana Levi of the University of California wrote “most cancer patients in this country die of chemotherapy. It does not eliminate breast, colon, or lung cancer. This fact has been known for over a decade. Women with breast cancer are likely to die faster with chemotherapy than without it.”
Dr. Ralph Moss Ph.D relates that “Conventional Cancer therapy is so toxic and dehumanizing that I fear it more than I fear death from cancer. Yet most alternative therapies regardless of potential or proven benefit, are outlawed, which forces patients to submit to the failures that we know don’t work because there is no other choice. Dr. Moss was employed as a science writer for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Chemotherapy drugs are cellular poisons so they are quite toxic. They are also quite expensive. In his book The Cancer Industry he documents how the close links between the pharmaceutical industry and the cancer establishment enables an inadequate therapy like chemotherapy to become promoted and established as standard care”.
In a 1995 interview Dr. Moss related that chemotherapy was effective in only 2 to 4 % of all malignancies(Hodgkin’s Disease, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, childhood leukemia, testicular cancer and Choriocarcinoma.)
The package inserts for chemotherapy drugs admit that taking a course of chemotherapy drugs can increase your risk of subsequently developing a new cancer by about 10%. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) warns that the powerful drugs used in chemotherapy can cause cancer in employees who handle them(nurses, pharmacists, cleaning personnel). If continued too long these drugs are fatal. The damage to white blood cell , killer lymphocyte and red blood cell production makes the patient vulnerable to overwhelming infection which is the cause of death in many patients on chemotherapy and radiation. It never made sense to me why administering toxic substances that cause major side effects could possibly heal a serious illness like a malignancy.
Dr. William Campbell Douglass II, MD “To understand the utter hypocrisy of chemotherapy, consider the following: The McGill Cancer Center in Canada, one of the largest and most prestigious cancer treatment centers in the world, did a study of oncologists to determine how they would respond to a diagnosis of cancer. On the confidential questionnaire, 58 out of 64 doctors said that all chemotherapy programs were unacceptable to them and their family.
In 33 years of conventional medical practice I referred all patients with malignancies to oncologists. The only survivor was a Chinese man with a low grade lung cancer. He responded every five years or so to a few doses of radiation.
In my opinion one of the most important verses in the Bible is Proverbs 14:12 There is way that seems right unto man but its end is the way of death. Drug company owners and executives, politicians, world leaders and media executives have unbelievable wealth and power in this world. However, they face a tortured eternity following death. This seems to be a very unwise tradeoff.
Anyone reading this article has my permission to copy or publish this information. Hopefully, some individuals will be made aware that there are safe effective alternatives to chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of malignancies.
© 2009 Dr. James Howenstine - All Rights Reserved
Here's another doctors opinion:
“When people tried to treat infectious disease 150 years ago, they had no clue what the cause was – namely that there were these nasty micro organisms that caused the disease. They were just shooting in the dark. That’s what we still do. Doctors of the future will look on our medicine with ”bemusement and horror”.......they’ll sit around saying ‘Can you believe they gave poisons to people to kill their cancers?’ And that is the reward we’ll get – we will be considered medieval.”
-- Eric Lander in 2005, founder of the Whitehead Institute / MIT Center for Genome Research, a Rhodes scholar and one of the country's leading molecular geneticists researching in cancer.
................................................................................
Want to read my updated free Chapter 41 on How to Cure Disease? Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/41_How_to_cure_disease.pdf
There is also more free healing and Detox information in Chapter 40 - Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf
Want to learn how to safely control pest problems for free? Please see:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
November 21, 2009 - NewsWithViews.com
For many years it has been known to well informed individuals within the medical community that chemotherapy and radiation were quite toxic and essentially worthless in the management of malignancies. This information is carefully covered up by our controlled media so that these two methods of therapy are regarded by lay persons as the proven therapy for malignancies. Like lemmings going over a cliff the general public lines up for these therapies and nearly all treated persons proceed to die.
To the person who inquires how can an essentially worthless therapy continue to be used the answer is simple. It is all about money. Chemotherapy drugs bring in more than a trillion dollars annually to the pharmaceutical industry. Oncologists frequently make $1000 from every injection administered to a patient. There are 40 National Cancer Institute Centers scattered across the USA. Each of these employs thousands of employees. Curing cancer would be devastating for the economy and must not be allowed to occur. Research programs whose alleged purpose is to cure cancer see their funds steered into harmless areas where no cancer cures will ever result. Less than 1% of research funds are spent finding methods to prevent the spread of cancer. which is the cause of fatal cancer cachexia which kills 90% of cancer victims..
Preventing unfavorable chemotherapy results from being seen by the public in TV, radio, and newspaper reporting is combined with malicious quackery charges and actual death threats to practitioners who have legitimate cancer cures. I am aware of at least a dozen cancer cures since 1900 that have been ignored or suppressed. Several persons with bonafide cancer cures have been so vilified they died alcoholics or committed suicide. Prominent physician Dr Milbrook Johnson was poisoned the night before he was scheduled to speak on a national radio network in the 1940s about the ability of Dr. Royal Rife’s electronic equipment to cure cancer and infections.
Both chemotherapy and radiation have such toxic effects on the human body they must be stopped before they kill the patient. In the early days of chemotherapy drugs it was noted that skeptical patients who refused to take chemotherapy usually lived longer than patients treated with chemotherapy.
Radiation therapy directed toward a bone containing cancer might initially seem innocuous but actually has effects throughout the body. Circulation of blood through areas of ionizing radiation being delivered to bone is able to transport this radiated blood to distant sites where it can injure bone marrow production of killer lymphocytes, red blood cells, macrophages and platelets. Loss of appetite and nausea can be seen. Conventional radiation to the abdomen and other areas may be followed by permanent injury to the small intestine(diarrhea, pain) and arteriosclerosis of arteries in any field of radiation.
A suspected cancer patient had xray films showing numerous lucent identical sized masses overlying brain and spinal cord tissue. The films were misread as metastasis from a prior malignant melanoma instead of echinoccocal cysts spread from the family dogs. Massive radiation of brain and spinal cord tissue caused complete loss of appetite with no food intake and death in 8 days in a previously well 26 year old woman.
What are results of chemotherapy drugs? Associate Professor Graeme Morgan of Australia was the lead researcher on an article titled “The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5 year survival n adult malignancies.” This research showed that chemotherapy improved 5 year survival by less than 3% in adults with cancer. In 1987 Dr. Lana Levi of the University of California wrote “most cancer patients in this country die of chemotherapy. It does not eliminate breast, colon, or lung cancer. This fact has been known for over a decade. Women with breast cancer are likely to die faster with chemotherapy than without it.”
Dr. Ralph Moss Ph.D relates that “Conventional Cancer therapy is so toxic and dehumanizing that I fear it more than I fear death from cancer. Yet most alternative therapies regardless of potential or proven benefit, are outlawed, which forces patients to submit to the failures that we know don’t work because there is no other choice. Dr. Moss was employed as a science writer for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Chemotherapy drugs are cellular poisons so they are quite toxic. They are also quite expensive. In his book The Cancer Industry he documents how the close links between the pharmaceutical industry and the cancer establishment enables an inadequate therapy like chemotherapy to become promoted and established as standard care”.
In a 1995 interview Dr. Moss related that chemotherapy was effective in only 2 to 4 % of all malignancies(Hodgkin’s Disease, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, childhood leukemia, testicular cancer and Choriocarcinoma.)
The package inserts for chemotherapy drugs admit that taking a course of chemotherapy drugs can increase your risk of subsequently developing a new cancer by about 10%. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) warns that the powerful drugs used in chemotherapy can cause cancer in employees who handle them(nurses, pharmacists, cleaning personnel). If continued too long these drugs are fatal. The damage to white blood cell , killer lymphocyte and red blood cell production makes the patient vulnerable to overwhelming infection which is the cause of death in many patients on chemotherapy and radiation. It never made sense to me why administering toxic substances that cause major side effects could possibly heal a serious illness like a malignancy.
Dr. William Campbell Douglass II, MD “To understand the utter hypocrisy of chemotherapy, consider the following: The McGill Cancer Center in Canada, one of the largest and most prestigious cancer treatment centers in the world, did a study of oncologists to determine how they would respond to a diagnosis of cancer. On the confidential questionnaire, 58 out of 64 doctors said that all chemotherapy programs were unacceptable to them and their family.
In 33 years of conventional medical practice I referred all patients with malignancies to oncologists. The only survivor was a Chinese man with a low grade lung cancer. He responded every five years or so to a few doses of radiation.
In my opinion one of the most important verses in the Bible is Proverbs 14:12 There is way that seems right unto man but its end is the way of death. Drug company owners and executives, politicians, world leaders and media executives have unbelievable wealth and power in this world. However, they face a tortured eternity following death. This seems to be a very unwise tradeoff.
Anyone reading this article has my permission to copy or publish this information. Hopefully, some individuals will be made aware that there are safe effective alternatives to chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of malignancies.
© 2009 Dr. James Howenstine - All Rights Reserved
Here's another doctors opinion:
“When people tried to treat infectious disease 150 years ago, they had no clue what the cause was – namely that there were these nasty micro organisms that caused the disease. They were just shooting in the dark. That’s what we still do. Doctors of the future will look on our medicine with ”bemusement and horror”.......they’ll sit around saying ‘Can you believe they gave poisons to people to kill their cancers?’ And that is the reward we’ll get – we will be considered medieval.”
-- Eric Lander in 2005, founder of the Whitehead Institute / MIT Center for Genome Research, a Rhodes scholar and one of the country's leading molecular geneticists researching in cancer.
................................................................................
Want to read my updated free Chapter 41 on How to Cure Disease? Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/41_How_to_cure_disease.pdf
There is also more free healing and Detox information in Chapter 40 - Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf
Want to learn how to safely control pest problems for free? Please see:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
Saturday, November 21, 2009
France Finds Monsanto Guilty of Lying.
France Finds Monsanto Guilty of Lying
France's highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as "biodegradable" and claimed it "left the soil clean." Roundup is the world's best-selling herbicide.
French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" by the European Union.
In the latest ruling, France's Supreme Court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto by the Lyon criminal court in 2007, and the Lyon court of appeal in 2008, the AFP news agency reports.
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics, including ruthless legal battles against small farmers, is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Monsanto is a very dark cloud hanging over the future of health and food safety in the United States. This powerful entity has already managed so many reprehensible acts it boggles the mind, including:
Leading the world into a new age of potentially hazardous genetic modification of seeds.
Patenting not only their own GMO seeds, but also a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time -- without a vote of the people or Congress.
Not allowing farmers to save their seeds to replant the next year -- a practice that has been done for generations. Instead, they aggressively seek out and sue farmers they suspect of doing so.
Suing farmers who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of Monsanto’s GE pollen or seed onto their land for patent infringement!
Producing two of the most toxic substances ever known -- polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin (Agent Orange).
Now France's highest court has confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto falsely advertised its Roundup herbicide as "biodegradable" and said it "left the soil clean" -- claims that could not be further from the truth.
The Reality about Roundup
Monsanto long used the slogans, “It's Safer than Mowing," "Biodegradable," and “Environmentally Friendly" to describe Roundup -- until the real effects of this toxic herbicide were revealed and they were forced to discontinue their deceptive advertising.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance workers in California. Additionally:
The surfactant ingredient in Roundup is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.
Glyphosate is suspected of causing genetic damage.
Glyphosate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance.
Laboratory studies have identified adverse effects of glyphosate-containing products in all standard categories of toxicological testing.
In one animal study, rats given 1,000 mg/kg of glyphosate resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate, and skeletal alterations were observed in over 57 percent of fetuses!
This is very concerning because millions of pounds of Roundup are used every year on U.S. gardens, lawns and farms, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Roundup resistant. Roundup works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which is necessary for plants to grow. Without it, plants are unable to produce essential proteins so they slowly yellow and die.
Monsanto developed a cash cow when they created not only Roundup, but also their genetically modified “Roundup Ready” crops.
Roundup Ready soybean, cotton and corn crops are the world’s largest group of genetically modified crops. In fact, the GM Roundup Ready gene is part of more than 75 percent of soybeans, 65 percent of cotton and 10 percent of corn grown in the United States.
This particular variety of GM crops became so popular because it allows farmers to spray Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide directly onto their fields without harming the crops. Ordinarily, if you were to spray Roundup, or any other glyphosate-based herbicide, onto a plant, it would die.
Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, however, produce an enzyme that has the same function as EPSP synthase, but is not affected by Roundup.
As you might imagine, the use of Roundup herbicide has increased dramatically since the GM Roundup Ready crops were introduced, and serious problems have been reported ever since.
Roundup Residues are Toxic
It’s widely known that GM Roundup Ready crops, which are very common in the United States, contain Roundup residues. A study published earlier this year even showed, for the first time, just how toxic these residues may be to your health.
The study found that residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and death, even at very low levels. The authors of the study said their research "... points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny."
Even when researchers tested formulations of Roundup that were highly diluted (up to 100,000 times or more) on human cells, the cells died within 24 hours.
They also found damage to cell membranes and DNA, along with an inhibition of cell respiration.
Further, the researchers discovered that the mixture of components used as Roundup adjuvants actually amplified the action of the glyphosate, making at least one of its metabolites even more toxic. The researchers wrote:
“This work clearly confirms that the adjuvants in Roundup formulations are not inert. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especially in food and feed derived from Roundup formulation-treated crops.”
With findings like these, you can see just how outrageous Monsanto’s claims really were. Roundup is not “biodegradable,” safe or in any way good for people or the environment.
Not by a long shot.
Monsanto’s Sordid Past
It does not come as a surprise that Monsanto lied about Roundup, given their extremely under-handed track record. There is easily enough “dirt” on Monsanto to fill an entire book.
Perhaps their biggest assault to your food supply is what’s known as terminator technology. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to “self-destruct.” In other words, the seeds (and the forthcoming crops) are sterile, which means farmers must buy them again each year.
The implications that terminator seeds could have on the world’s food supply are disastrous: the traits from genetically engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops, making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile.
If allowed to continue, every farmer in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply!
Monsanto -- the convicted liar’s club -- has also worked its way into varying high-level positions in the U.S. government, ironically in positions that are meant to protect your food safety!
The New Senior Advisor for the FDA is a Former Monsanto VP!
Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is the new senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Who is Michael Taylor? He is the person who “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods. Smith continues:
“If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist.”
The FDA policy being referred to is the 1992 GMO policy, which stated:
"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods [genetic engineering] differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."
In reality, there was major concern among FDA scientists that GM foods were in fact different than natural foods, and that their creation could prompt unknown and unpredictable health problems.
Along with being a key player in the initial pushing of GM foods onto Americans’ plates (without any required safety studies), Taylor also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST).
This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA. Smith writes:
“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”
Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free.
Unfortunately, the connections do not end there. You can find out more about all of Monsanto’s key players who are now part of the Obama administration here.
You Can Fight Back Against Monsanto
By boycotting all GM foods and instead supporting organic (and local) farmers who do not use Monsanto’s GM seeds, you are using your wallet to make your opinions known. This means abstaining from virtually all processed food products (most are loaded with GM ingredients) and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic foodstuffs instead.
Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233 million in October 2009, largely due to a drop in sales of its Roundup brand -- so I am confident that many are wising up to the underhanded dealings of this evil company.
If you want to help keep Monsanto from expanding their stronghold on the world’s food supply, please also continue to stay informed.
Monsanto is the poster child for manipulation and corporate greed, so please, forward this article on to your circle of influence, and make the choice to boycott any product that this unethical company is associated with.
http://articles.mercola.com:80/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/21/France-Finds-Monsanto-Guilty-of-Lying.aspx
France's highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as "biodegradable" and claimed it "left the soil clean." Roundup is the world's best-selling herbicide.
French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" by the European Union.
In the latest ruling, France's Supreme Court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto by the Lyon criminal court in 2007, and the Lyon court of appeal in 2008, the AFP news agency reports.
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics, including ruthless legal battles against small farmers, is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Monsanto is a very dark cloud hanging over the future of health and food safety in the United States. This powerful entity has already managed so many reprehensible acts it boggles the mind, including:
Leading the world into a new age of potentially hazardous genetic modification of seeds.
Patenting not only their own GMO seeds, but also a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time -- without a vote of the people or Congress.
Not allowing farmers to save their seeds to replant the next year -- a practice that has been done for generations. Instead, they aggressively seek out and sue farmers they suspect of doing so.
Suing farmers who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of Monsanto’s GE pollen or seed onto their land for patent infringement!
Producing two of the most toxic substances ever known -- polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin (Agent Orange).
Now France's highest court has confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto falsely advertised its Roundup herbicide as "biodegradable" and said it "left the soil clean" -- claims that could not be further from the truth.
The Reality about Roundup
Monsanto long used the slogans, “It's Safer than Mowing," "Biodegradable," and “Environmentally Friendly" to describe Roundup -- until the real effects of this toxic herbicide were revealed and they were forced to discontinue their deceptive advertising.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance workers in California. Additionally:
The surfactant ingredient in Roundup is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.
Glyphosate is suspected of causing genetic damage.
Glyphosate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance.
Laboratory studies have identified adverse effects of glyphosate-containing products in all standard categories of toxicological testing.
In one animal study, rats given 1,000 mg/kg of glyphosate resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate, and skeletal alterations were observed in over 57 percent of fetuses!
This is very concerning because millions of pounds of Roundup are used every year on U.S. gardens, lawns and farms, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Roundup resistant. Roundup works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which is necessary for plants to grow. Without it, plants are unable to produce essential proteins so they slowly yellow and die.
Monsanto developed a cash cow when they created not only Roundup, but also their genetically modified “Roundup Ready” crops.
Roundup Ready soybean, cotton and corn crops are the world’s largest group of genetically modified crops. In fact, the GM Roundup Ready gene is part of more than 75 percent of soybeans, 65 percent of cotton and 10 percent of corn grown in the United States.
This particular variety of GM crops became so popular because it allows farmers to spray Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide directly onto their fields without harming the crops. Ordinarily, if you were to spray Roundup, or any other glyphosate-based herbicide, onto a plant, it would die.
Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, however, produce an enzyme that has the same function as EPSP synthase, but is not affected by Roundup.
As you might imagine, the use of Roundup herbicide has increased dramatically since the GM Roundup Ready crops were introduced, and serious problems have been reported ever since.
Roundup Residues are Toxic
It’s widely known that GM Roundup Ready crops, which are very common in the United States, contain Roundup residues. A study published earlier this year even showed, for the first time, just how toxic these residues may be to your health.
The study found that residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and death, even at very low levels. The authors of the study said their research "... points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny."
Even when researchers tested formulations of Roundup that were highly diluted (up to 100,000 times or more) on human cells, the cells died within 24 hours.
They also found damage to cell membranes and DNA, along with an inhibition of cell respiration.
Further, the researchers discovered that the mixture of components used as Roundup adjuvants actually amplified the action of the glyphosate, making at least one of its metabolites even more toxic. The researchers wrote:
“This work clearly confirms that the adjuvants in Roundup formulations are not inert. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especially in food and feed derived from Roundup formulation-treated crops.”
With findings like these, you can see just how outrageous Monsanto’s claims really were. Roundup is not “biodegradable,” safe or in any way good for people or the environment.
Not by a long shot.
Monsanto’s Sordid Past
It does not come as a surprise that Monsanto lied about Roundup, given their extremely under-handed track record. There is easily enough “dirt” on Monsanto to fill an entire book.
Perhaps their biggest assault to your food supply is what’s known as terminator technology. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to “self-destruct.” In other words, the seeds (and the forthcoming crops) are sterile, which means farmers must buy them again each year.
The implications that terminator seeds could have on the world’s food supply are disastrous: the traits from genetically engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops, making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile.
If allowed to continue, every farmer in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply!
Monsanto -- the convicted liar’s club -- has also worked its way into varying high-level positions in the U.S. government, ironically in positions that are meant to protect your food safety!
The New Senior Advisor for the FDA is a Former Monsanto VP!
Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is the new senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Who is Michael Taylor? He is the person who “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods. Smith continues:
“If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto's attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto's vice president and chief lobbyist.”
The FDA policy being referred to is the 1992 GMO policy, which stated:
"The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods [genetic engineering] differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way."
In reality, there was major concern among FDA scientists that GM foods were in fact different than natural foods, and that their creation could prompt unknown and unpredictable health problems.
Along with being a key player in the initial pushing of GM foods onto Americans’ plates (without any required safety studies), Taylor also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST).
This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA. Smith writes:
“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”
Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free.
Unfortunately, the connections do not end there. You can find out more about all of Monsanto’s key players who are now part of the Obama administration here.
You Can Fight Back Against Monsanto
By boycotting all GM foods and instead supporting organic (and local) farmers who do not use Monsanto’s GM seeds, you are using your wallet to make your opinions known. This means abstaining from virtually all processed food products (most are loaded with GM ingredients) and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic foodstuffs instead.
Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233 million in October 2009, largely due to a drop in sales of its Roundup brand -- so I am confident that many are wising up to the underhanded dealings of this evil company.
If you want to help keep Monsanto from expanding their stronghold on the world’s food supply, please also continue to stay informed.
Monsanto is the poster child for manipulation and corporate greed, so please, forward this article on to your circle of influence, and make the choice to boycott any product that this unethical company is associated with.
http://articles.mercola.com:80/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/21/France-Finds-Monsanto-Guilty-of-Lying.aspx
Aspirin kills 400% more people than H1N1 swine flu
Aspirin kills 400% more people than H1N1 swine flu
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The CDC now reports that nearly 4,000 Americans have been killed by H1N1 swine flu. This number is supposed to sound big and scary, motivating millions of people to go out and pay good money to be injected with untested, unproven H1N1 vaccines. But let's put the number in perspective: Did you know that more than four times as many people are killed each year by common NSAID painkillers like aspirin?
The July 1998 issue of The American Journal of Medicine explains it as follows:
"Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone." (Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Recent Considerations in Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Gastropathy”, The American Journal of Medicine, July 27, 1998, p. 31S)
So for every person the CDC claims was killed by H1N1 swine flu this year, common painkillers like aspirin have killed four! Yet you don't see the CDC, FDA, WHO or mainstream media running around screaming about the extreme dangers of aspirin, do you? All those deaths apparently don't matter. Only swine flu deaths lead to hysteria.
Understanding risk
According to death statistics tables available on the 'net, you are ten times more likely to die in a car accident this year than be killed by swine flu.
Nearly 100,000 Americans die every year from adverse reactions to FDA-approved prescription drugs. That's twenty-five times the number of people killed by H1N1 swine flu (even if you believe the CDC's numbers). So where's the big warning about the dangers of prescription drugs? Why isn't the CDC warning Americans about an "epidemic of dangerous drugs" that poses a far greater threat to your health?
The answer, of course, is that health authorities want to push people to buy vaccines that are about to become worthless (they're only good before swine flu fizzles out). And the only way to sell more vaccines to people who don't need them is to hype up a bunch of scare stories by citing bold statistics that make H1N1 swine flu seem really, really dangerous.
But the flu is no more dangerous than aspirin. In fact, H1N1 swine flu may be safer than aspirin.
Here's another quote from the New England Journal of Medicine:
"It has been estimated conservatively that 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur among patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis every year in the United States. This figure is similar to the number of deaths from the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and considerably greater than the number of deaths from multiple myeloma, asthma, cervical cancer, or Hodgkin’s disease. If deaths from gastrointestinal toxic effects from NSAIDs were tabulated separately in the National Vital Statistics reports, these effects would constitute the 15th most common cause of death in the United States. Yet these toxic effects remain mainly a “silent epidemic,” with many physicians and most patients unaware of the magnitude of the problem. Furthermore the mortality statistics do not include deaths ascribed to the use of over-the-counter NSAIDS." (Wolfe M. MD, Lichtenstein D. MD, and Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Gastrointestinal Toxicity of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs”, The New England Journal of Medicine, June 17, 1999, Vol. 340, No. 24, pp. 1888-1889.)
Did you catch that? The 16,500 figure for deaths each year doesn't even include over-the-counter painkiller drugs! If you add in those numbers, you're probably looking at something closer to 40,000 Americans kills each year by these drugs. And that makes these drugs 1000% more deadly than swine flu (because 40,000 is ten times greater than 4,000).
Swine flu vs. seasonal flu
Also according to CDC statistics, swine flu is only approximately one-tenth as dangerous as regular seasonal flu. That's because the CDC maintains that seasonal flu kills 36,000 Americans each year (a figure that I've already pointed out is highly suspect, but that's what they claim).
But even seasonal flu is nothing to get all worked up over. Unless you're in a state of terrible health with a compromised immune system, obesity and asthma, beating seasonal flu is a no-brainer: Just nourish your body with vitamin D, zinc, superfoods and natural health supplements and let your built-in immune technology do its job. Your immune system has already saved your life countless times. It knows how to do it if you give it the right nutrition.
There are lots of things that are far more dangerous than swine flu and yet are openly sold to consumers. Over 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking and yet you can buy cigarettes at Walgreens, Wal-Mart and CVS pharmacies. That means statistically, these pharmacies knowingly sell a product that kills 400 times as many people as swine flu has this year. Where's the alarm about the epidemic of tobacco-related deaths? Nowhere. Not a word from the CDC or WHO.
Also, if pharmacies really cared about your health, why do they openly sell a product that causes cancer and heart disease? Think about it...
They're just trying to sell you something that will harm you
The fact is, pharmacies will sell anything that makes money: Tobacco, processed junk food, and of course H1N1 vaccines. If they could make money selling influenza, they'd sell that, too. To the pharmaceutical retailers, it doesn't matter how many people die from the products they sell. They're just in business to sell anything that turns a profit, regardless of the consequences to public health.
And the vaccine industry is similarly motivated to sell you false ideas that make money. By selling you on the concept that swine flu is extremely dangerous, they can manipulate you into buying yet more harmful stuff they're hawking at pharmacies... like H1N1 vaccines. And they're counting on the fact that the American people won't do the math (or can't).
Most people have a very poor understanding of risk, and the vaccine industry is counting on precisely that risk assessment ineptitude to push its dangerous vaccines. If people knew that they are 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to have their life saved by a swine flu vaccine, very few would line up to be injected with one. But they don't grasp the difference between numbers that are very far apart such as 10^2 versus 10^5. To many people, those factors are "about the same" and it's worth getting injected with a vaccine "just in case."
That's why I've always stated a simple truth that still holds true today: People who seek out vaccine shots are the same kind of people who regularly play the lotto. Both decisions demonstrate a complete lack of understanding risk vs. reward. In fact, if you get a swine flu vaccine injection on the same day you buy a lotto ticket, you have a greater chance of buying a winning lotto ticket than being saved by the swine flu vaccine.
Playing the lotto is actually smarter than getting a swine flu vaccine shot. Plus, the lotto ticket won't potentially cause neurological damage that puts you in a coma or causes the spontaneous abortion of your baby -- both of which have been happening to people after receiving H1N1 vaccine shots.
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The CDC now reports that nearly 4,000 Americans have been killed by H1N1 swine flu. This number is supposed to sound big and scary, motivating millions of people to go out and pay good money to be injected with untested, unproven H1N1 vaccines. But let's put the number in perspective: Did you know that more than four times as many people are killed each year by common NSAID painkillers like aspirin?
The July 1998 issue of The American Journal of Medicine explains it as follows:
"Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone." (Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Recent Considerations in Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Gastropathy”, The American Journal of Medicine, July 27, 1998, p. 31S)
So for every person the CDC claims was killed by H1N1 swine flu this year, common painkillers like aspirin have killed four! Yet you don't see the CDC, FDA, WHO or mainstream media running around screaming about the extreme dangers of aspirin, do you? All those deaths apparently don't matter. Only swine flu deaths lead to hysteria.
Understanding risk
According to death statistics tables available on the 'net, you are ten times more likely to die in a car accident this year than be killed by swine flu.
Nearly 100,000 Americans die every year from adverse reactions to FDA-approved prescription drugs. That's twenty-five times the number of people killed by H1N1 swine flu (even if you believe the CDC's numbers). So where's the big warning about the dangers of prescription drugs? Why isn't the CDC warning Americans about an "epidemic of dangerous drugs" that poses a far greater threat to your health?
The answer, of course, is that health authorities want to push people to buy vaccines that are about to become worthless (they're only good before swine flu fizzles out). And the only way to sell more vaccines to people who don't need them is to hype up a bunch of scare stories by citing bold statistics that make H1N1 swine flu seem really, really dangerous.
But the flu is no more dangerous than aspirin. In fact, H1N1 swine flu may be safer than aspirin.
Here's another quote from the New England Journal of Medicine:
"It has been estimated conservatively that 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur among patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis every year in the United States. This figure is similar to the number of deaths from the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and considerably greater than the number of deaths from multiple myeloma, asthma, cervical cancer, or Hodgkin’s disease. If deaths from gastrointestinal toxic effects from NSAIDs were tabulated separately in the National Vital Statistics reports, these effects would constitute the 15th most common cause of death in the United States. Yet these toxic effects remain mainly a “silent epidemic,” with many physicians and most patients unaware of the magnitude of the problem. Furthermore the mortality statistics do not include deaths ascribed to the use of over-the-counter NSAIDS." (Wolfe M. MD, Lichtenstein D. MD, and Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Gastrointestinal Toxicity of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs”, The New England Journal of Medicine, June 17, 1999, Vol. 340, No. 24, pp. 1888-1889.)
Did you catch that? The 16,500 figure for deaths each year doesn't even include over-the-counter painkiller drugs! If you add in those numbers, you're probably looking at something closer to 40,000 Americans kills each year by these drugs. And that makes these drugs 1000% more deadly than swine flu (because 40,000 is ten times greater than 4,000).
Swine flu vs. seasonal flu
Also according to CDC statistics, swine flu is only approximately one-tenth as dangerous as regular seasonal flu. That's because the CDC maintains that seasonal flu kills 36,000 Americans each year (a figure that I've already pointed out is highly suspect, but that's what they claim).
But even seasonal flu is nothing to get all worked up over. Unless you're in a state of terrible health with a compromised immune system, obesity and asthma, beating seasonal flu is a no-brainer: Just nourish your body with vitamin D, zinc, superfoods and natural health supplements and let your built-in immune technology do its job. Your immune system has already saved your life countless times. It knows how to do it if you give it the right nutrition.
There are lots of things that are far more dangerous than swine flu and yet are openly sold to consumers. Over 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking and yet you can buy cigarettes at Walgreens, Wal-Mart and CVS pharmacies. That means statistically, these pharmacies knowingly sell a product that kills 400 times as many people as swine flu has this year. Where's the alarm about the epidemic of tobacco-related deaths? Nowhere. Not a word from the CDC or WHO.
Also, if pharmacies really cared about your health, why do they openly sell a product that causes cancer and heart disease? Think about it...
They're just trying to sell you something that will harm you
The fact is, pharmacies will sell anything that makes money: Tobacco, processed junk food, and of course H1N1 vaccines. If they could make money selling influenza, they'd sell that, too. To the pharmaceutical retailers, it doesn't matter how many people die from the products they sell. They're just in business to sell anything that turns a profit, regardless of the consequences to public health.
And the vaccine industry is similarly motivated to sell you false ideas that make money. By selling you on the concept that swine flu is extremely dangerous, they can manipulate you into buying yet more harmful stuff they're hawking at pharmacies... like H1N1 vaccines. And they're counting on the fact that the American people won't do the math (or can't).
Most people have a very poor understanding of risk, and the vaccine industry is counting on precisely that risk assessment ineptitude to push its dangerous vaccines. If people knew that they are 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to have their life saved by a swine flu vaccine, very few would line up to be injected with one. But they don't grasp the difference between numbers that are very far apart such as 10^2 versus 10^5. To many people, those factors are "about the same" and it's worth getting injected with a vaccine "just in case."
That's why I've always stated a simple truth that still holds true today: People who seek out vaccine shots are the same kind of people who regularly play the lotto. Both decisions demonstrate a complete lack of understanding risk vs. reward. In fact, if you get a swine flu vaccine injection on the same day you buy a lotto ticket, you have a greater chance of buying a winning lotto ticket than being saved by the swine flu vaccine.
Playing the lotto is actually smarter than getting a swine flu vaccine shot. Plus, the lotto ticket won't potentially cause neurological damage that puts you in a coma or causes the spontaneous abortion of your baby -- both of which have been happening to people after receiving H1N1 vaccine shots.
Batch of H1N1 vaccine pulled after bad reactions
Batch of H1N1 vaccine pulled after bad reactions
Earlier this week, the country's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, noted that of the 6.6 million doses of H1N1 vaccine given so far to Canadians, there have been 36 serious adverse reactions reported.
Most involved allergic reactions that began within minutes of vaccination. All were treated promptly by medical people at the vaccination site.
Milder side effects, such as nausea, soreness, headaches and fever, have also been seen, which is not unexpected. Seasonal flu vaccines have been known to cause such reactions every year.
One person is believed to have died from an anaphylactic reaction following vaccination, but Butler-Jones stressed the death hasn't been conclusively linked to the flu shot.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091119/Flu_Reaction_091119/20091120?hub=TopStoriesV2
Earlier this week, the country's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, noted that of the 6.6 million doses of H1N1 vaccine given so far to Canadians, there have been 36 serious adverse reactions reported.
Most involved allergic reactions that began within minutes of vaccination. All were treated promptly by medical people at the vaccination site.
Milder side effects, such as nausea, soreness, headaches and fever, have also been seen, which is not unexpected. Seasonal flu vaccines have been known to cause such reactions every year.
One person is believed to have died from an anaphylactic reaction following vaccination, but Butler-Jones stressed the death hasn't been conclusively linked to the flu shot.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091119/Flu_Reaction_091119/20091120?hub=TopStoriesV2
Friday, November 20, 2009
The health benefits of Milk Thistle seed (Silybum marianum) have been known for more than 2,000 years.
The health benefits of Milk Thistle seed (Silybum marianum) have been known for more than 2,000 years. Milk Thistle is a herbaceous plant with a dense-prickly flower head and reddish-purple tubular flowers. It is native to the Mediterranean area and is now grown in Central Europe, North and South America, and Southern Australia. Milk Thistle a/k/a Marian Thistle, Mary Thistle, and Lady's Thistle, is a member of the Asteacea family. Historically, milk thistle was used for relieving congestion of the liver, kidneys and spleen and by lactating women to stimulate the production of milk. Currently, standardized milk thistle seed extract is used to maintain and regain liver health, especially those who consume excessive amounts of alcohol. This use was validated by studies using between 200 mg and 420 mg of silymarin per day (usually in three separate doses). Milk Thistle has an extensive history of use as an edible plant. In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder reported its use for supporting liver health. Theophrastus (IV century BC) and Dioscorides (1st century AD) also wrote of its value. The English herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper (1650) claimed it was effective for supporting the normal functioning of the liver.
Research suggests that this herb is beneficial in protecting, detoxifying and strengthening the liver. Certain diseases that occur in the liver may also benefit from milk thistle seed. Those suffering from hepatitis and liver cirrhosis may benefit from this herb. It also shows promise in improving overall liver function. Many clinical studies have demonstrated that this herb supports healthy liver function and provides powerful antioxidant protection, particularly from free radicals and other toxins that normally enter into the liver and cause damage. A primary constituent of silymarin called silibinin also helps to support healthy liver function, encouraging healthy cholesterol synthesis by the liver. In addition to its well-recognized role in promoting liver health, key constituents in milk thistle also help to maintain normal kidney function and promote optimal immune function. Limited research suggests that this herb may also support healthy prostate function, and encourage a vital gastrointestinal tract by protecting it from free radical damage.
Those who suffer from acne may benefit from milk thistle seed. The high level of antioxidants in this herb are good for the entire cardiovascular system. However, research suggests that milk thistle seed may help to control cholesterol issues. It may help to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. Resarch suggests that this herb may help to control a person's diabetes. It shows the most promise in those who are not insulin dependent. This herb is said to possess the most benefits for diabetes when combined with a healthy diet and exercise.
Milk Thistle seed is said to possess many benefits for digestive system. It is said to help soothe some of the symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease. It may also be beneficial in treating and preventing gallstones. Milk thistle seed is also said to be a power anti-inflammatory so it is said to be quite beneficial to those suffering from intestinal inflammations. Milk thistle is also said to be beneficial to those suffering from certain types of cancer. It is also said to help the liver function "normally" when it is stressed out from medical treatments such as powerful drugs, chemotherapy and radiation. Milk thistle seed is an important natural treatment for COPD, or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It counteracts much of the stress that’s placed on the liver as a result of the disorder, and is generally considered safe when used properly.
How to use:
Grind whole milk thistle seeds in a coffee grinder or spice mill. Add the freshly ground seeds to hot cereal, muffins, rice, or other grains. This is an easy way to consume milk thistle seed and can be supplemented with other milk thistle seed formulations.
Caution:
If you are considering adding this herb to your diet, you should consult a physician first. Some herbs will interact with certain medications and medical conditions and this could be dangerous. Milk thistle may occasionally cause a mild, transient laxative effect, which normally passes within 3 days of use.
............................................................................
Want to read my updated free Chapter 41 on How to Cure Disease? Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/41_How_to_cure_disease.pdf
There is also more healing and Detox information in Chapter 40 - Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf
Want to learn how to safely control pest problems for free? Please see:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
Research suggests that this herb is beneficial in protecting, detoxifying and strengthening the liver. Certain diseases that occur in the liver may also benefit from milk thistle seed. Those suffering from hepatitis and liver cirrhosis may benefit from this herb. It also shows promise in improving overall liver function. Many clinical studies have demonstrated that this herb supports healthy liver function and provides powerful antioxidant protection, particularly from free radicals and other toxins that normally enter into the liver and cause damage. A primary constituent of silymarin called silibinin also helps to support healthy liver function, encouraging healthy cholesterol synthesis by the liver. In addition to its well-recognized role in promoting liver health, key constituents in milk thistle also help to maintain normal kidney function and promote optimal immune function. Limited research suggests that this herb may also support healthy prostate function, and encourage a vital gastrointestinal tract by protecting it from free radical damage.
Those who suffer from acne may benefit from milk thistle seed. The high level of antioxidants in this herb are good for the entire cardiovascular system. However, research suggests that milk thistle seed may help to control cholesterol issues. It may help to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol. Resarch suggests that this herb may help to control a person's diabetes. It shows the most promise in those who are not insulin dependent. This herb is said to possess the most benefits for diabetes when combined with a healthy diet and exercise.
Milk Thistle seed is said to possess many benefits for digestive system. It is said to help soothe some of the symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease. It may also be beneficial in treating and preventing gallstones. Milk thistle seed is also said to be a power anti-inflammatory so it is said to be quite beneficial to those suffering from intestinal inflammations. Milk thistle is also said to be beneficial to those suffering from certain types of cancer. It is also said to help the liver function "normally" when it is stressed out from medical treatments such as powerful drugs, chemotherapy and radiation. Milk thistle seed is an important natural treatment for COPD, or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It counteracts much of the stress that’s placed on the liver as a result of the disorder, and is generally considered safe when used properly.
How to use:
Grind whole milk thistle seeds in a coffee grinder or spice mill. Add the freshly ground seeds to hot cereal, muffins, rice, or other grains. This is an easy way to consume milk thistle seed and can be supplemented with other milk thistle seed formulations.
Caution:
If you are considering adding this herb to your diet, you should consult a physician first. Some herbs will interact with certain medications and medical conditions and this could be dangerous. Milk thistle may occasionally cause a mild, transient laxative effect, which normally passes within 3 days of use.
............................................................................
Want to read my updated free Chapter 41 on How to Cure Disease? Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/41_How_to_cure_disease.pdf
There is also more healing and Detox information in Chapter 40 - Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf
Want to learn how to safely control pest problems for free? Please see:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
San Francisco Giving Away Toxic Sewage Sludge.
Organic Consumers Association: Outrage of the Week: San Francisco Giving Away Toxic Sewage Sludge to Backyard Gardeners and Schools and Calling it "Organic Fertilizer".
With toxic municipal sewage sludge being spread over tens of thousands of non-organic farms and ranches across the U.S., and sold in garden supply stores, often falsely labeled as "organic" fertilizer, OCA is about to launch a major campaign against the sewage sludge industry. But before we launch this campaign we need to respond to the current outrage in the so-called "Green City" of San Francisco, where the city is giving away toxic sewage sludge to backyard gardeners, farmers, and schools, under the guise of it being "organic fertilizer."
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19601.cfm
Please click on this Action Alert and tell San Francisco to stop endangering schoolchildren and backyard gardeners and dragging organic integrity through the toxic sludge.
Take action: http://ga3.org/campaign/SF_sludge
Then please call and/or fax and email the SF Public Utilities Commission and Mayor Gavin Newsom's office and give them a piece of your mind:
SFPUC: (415) 554-3155 Mayor Gavin Newsom City Hall, Room 200 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415) 554-6141 Fax: (415) 554-6160 Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org
................................................................................
Want to read my updated free Chapter 41 on How to Cure Disease? Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/41_How_to_cure_disease.pdf
There is also more healing and Detox information in Chapter 40 - Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf
Want to learn how to safely control pest problems for free? Please see:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
With toxic municipal sewage sludge being spread over tens of thousands of non-organic farms and ranches across the U.S., and sold in garden supply stores, often falsely labeled as "organic" fertilizer, OCA is about to launch a major campaign against the sewage sludge industry. But before we launch this campaign we need to respond to the current outrage in the so-called "Green City" of San Francisco, where the city is giving away toxic sewage sludge to backyard gardeners, farmers, and schools, under the guise of it being "organic fertilizer."
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19601.cfm
Please click on this Action Alert and tell San Francisco to stop endangering schoolchildren and backyard gardeners and dragging organic integrity through the toxic sludge.
Take action: http://ga3.org/campaign/SF_sludge
Then please call and/or fax and email the SF Public Utilities Commission and Mayor Gavin Newsom's office and give them a piece of your mind:
SFPUC: (415) 554-3155 Mayor Gavin Newsom City Hall, Room 200 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415) 554-6141 Fax: (415) 554-6160 Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org
................................................................................
Want to read my updated free Chapter 41 on How to Cure Disease? Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/41_How_to_cure_disease.pdf
There is also more healing and Detox information in Chapter 40 - Please see:
http://www.stephentvedten.com/40_Detoxification.pdf
Want to learn how to safely control pest problems for free? Please see:
http://www.thebestcontrol2.com
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