Special thanx to Laura Martin-Vouk, David Tela, and Jim and Kathy Scott for their generous donations. Without your support we can't do what we do.

Here is something (sent to us) to consider if you wish to support our work (deadline July 12th): www.worldcultureopen.org/award 
You can contact us at info@mnwelldir.org. 

We have more pictures in our Online Friends. Our Prayer List is constantly being updated too.

For Sale!

Avery 2" Black Viewbinders (3 Ring) in Boxes of 12
A buck a piece and pay the shipping (fifteen pounds per 12)

Contact Me

Upcoming Articles

Sure, the newsletter is published every three months, but the articles we point to from the newsletter are written during the hiatus. You can come and look for them as we go; they'll be marked in the Table of Contents with this:   New

This summer we plan to create a Recipe Index at our site, pointing to all the recipes we've given you in our newsletters and other articles. And this summer, we will teach you how to make pickles in just 4 days. The pickles in your store will turn your body acidic. These pickles are highly alkalizing. We will also, using this same technique, teach you how to pickle your own cayenne peppers (as well as other peppers) so that you can make your own hot sauces. If you've purchased our book, Bypassing Bypass, then you know the power of cayenne and how it affects the wellness of your cardiovascular system. 

So, stop by our Table of Contents and take a look now and then for new articles. This way you'll be ahead of the game when we publish our newsletter.

Pictorials 

It's spring, and I've been out futzing with the new camera, with whom I am having a love/hate relationship. It has every feature I could ever want in a camera, except that the pictures are grainy and at high ISO settings, the pictures are very grainy. So, what good are features if the final output, the pictures, are not up to your standards? Well, I've written about my experience with Sony for anyone interested in doing business with them in the future. Just click here to learn about the wonderful runaround they gave me: Sony Support - Ha! 

But, still, I've gotten some pretty good pictures (if not up to my standards) and here is one (that I sent out to friends, and a friend played with it and sent this back (click on it to see the 800 X 600 original):

To support our work and research here, we have made arrangements with a professional photographer (a friend of mine) to print these as large as he can on his quarter million dollar printer, and we will sell them for $25.00. That includes the shipping. He is generous to give $15 to our non profit organization. If the picture should arrive damaged, just contact him (his info will be on the package) and he'll send you a new one. 

Please note, all my photos are for sale. Just send me a copy of the photo you want (or describe where it is) and I will get back to you as to the largest size it can be printed. We will try to charge the same thing for all pictures, $25.00 for the picture and shipping. Proceeds go to our non-profit organization to get us out of debt and keep this web site and research going as long as possible.

Next, my rooster of seven years has passed on. He came down with some sort of brain disorder and slowly deteriorated. He was  such a great rooster to me, that I've created a web site dedicated to him. Go take a look at the most beautiful rooster ever to care for my hens. My Rooster.

And since we got new baby chicks, you have to see Bruiser and the Baby Chicks. These are adorable.

Finally, I've been able to capture two birds that I've never had any luck with, and you're going to enjoy these photos, so I put them in a single location: Spring Birds of 2004.

Please Note...many of the links in our Table of Contents below will bring you to the original article located on this site. In the past we've printed entire articles in this newsletter and at some location on our site. However, when we have to update them BOTH, this can be a chore.

1. Master's Miracle Update - You're not gonna like this

2. Letters - And our replies

3. We Answer the Advertisements - Sometimes you just want to scream at that TV

4. Corrections - Boy, did I screw up or what?

4. Coconut Oil - Yup, it's one of the healthiest (plus two reviews)

5. Coconut Recipes - Tasty ways to serve this medicine food

6. (removed temporarily)

7. Update: Super Size Me  - And WebMD Hands Us More Bull About Nutrition

8. Fun Facts 

9. Lollipops to Lose Weight - and one for the kids full of vitamins

10. Mice Lose Weight In Cancer Study

11. How Fat Kills

12. Prostate Health Update

13. New Test for Breast Cancer Approved by FDA

14. Another Famous Jogger Dead at 51

15. Ozone Depletion?  UV Rays Cause Cancer? - Science or Myth?

16. Electrical Pollution: What is it doing to you and yours?

17. Biography: Dr J Marion Sims - Healer or Monster?

18. Biography: Anarcha - The True Mother of Gynocology

19. Biography: Pasteur - A fraud, a plagerist - Plus the Myth of Pasteurization 

20. Biography: Marie Curie - When genius outruns common sense 

21. The Myth of Radiation - Click here to see our contents page on Medical Fraud

22. A Brief History of Human Experiments - And these are the ones we know of

23. Lactofermenting Grains - Shivani’s flat bread

24. Shivani's Soap - A review

25. TF Cardio - A review

26. Tidbits - FDA Outlaws Food, Environment Update, and much, much more

27. Laughter is the Best Medicine - What the world needs now

THIS JUST IN

Vitamins/Supplements Under Attack Again

100 people die each year using Tylenol as directed. 12,000 die each year using Coumadin as directed. How many die from smoking tobacco each year. So? What do they outlaw? Ephedra. 

110 people died over a 10 year period "abusing" Ephedra. Yes, they did not follow the directions. 

And in Europe CODEX is winning their war, outlawing vitamins and supplements from Germany to Great Britain. You need a prescription from a doctor to some good vitamin C--from a doctor that knows nothing about vitamins or supplements, no less.

And now it's come back to Washington DC: your senators and congresspersons are going to try to outlaw them here again. Why? Because the pharmaceutical industry has 685 lobbyists. That's more than one per representative in Washington.

Combined with the HMOs and Doctors, the medical lobbyists are the most powerful group of lobbyists in the world. 

The pharmaceutical industrial complex has its hands in the chemical industry, the food industry, the oil industry, and in the media. Let them win, and health freedom will be dead. 

Make Sure Your Legislators Know the Truth about Dietary Supplements Click Here.

Don't Let Congress Limit Your Access to Dietary Supplements Click Here.

 

 

Want to keep assault rifles off the streets? Go here: http://www2.stopthenra.com/petition.html 

 

________________________

"You cannot tell people the truth about their lives--it drives them crazy." 

Werner Erhard
_________________________

The owners Master's Miracle have left the founder of the original company and are making their own products now.

We are severing our ties with Master's Miracle. It's not that the products are inferior; they might be very good. I'm sure they're trying to keep them as natural and toxin free as can be.

However, we heard way too many stories, from both sides. It was like a dirty cat fight with a lot of claims that can't ever be substantiated made by both sides.

What we do know is this: Before Master's Miracle split from Miracle II, their products were supposed to be the same. They received their supplies from the head company. The only difference between the companies is that Masters Miracle is a Multi-Level Marketing company, and Miracle II sells either retail or wholesale.

So, the two products are supposed to be the same.

We took some Masters Miracle Neutralizer and put it into a small bottle labeled X and we took some Miracle II Neutralizer and put into a small bottle labeled Z and sent them to a chemist friend of ours. They were not the same. Which was better? We don't know. They had different energy levels. They were simply not the same and something was amiss.

So we've broken with Masters Miracle. You can still purchase from our site: www.mnwell.themastersmiracle.com if you want some non-toxic soap, but at the end of the year we will not resume our cooperation with them.

Everything at this site that once said, Master's Miracle now says Miracle II. All the testimonies came from customers of the original product. I'm told of wonderful testimonials for the new Master's Miracle, but they're not coming from "just" customers, but from resellers.

We're going to assume that the original product is still the original product and that's it.

If you need a good soap, and don't want to purchase from us, you can buy Miracle II almost anywhere on line. Just look for a good price. Right now we are reviewing a new soap made with Electrolyzed Water (link temporarily out of commission). The review will be published in our September 04 newsletter.

Letters

My name is David Sapirstein .I was introduced to alternative medicine and self healing two years ago after I was diagnosed with Prostate problem. It profoundly changed my life so effectively that I decided to open a company dedicated to selling appliances to improve the quality of life for people .The company name is www.health-fit.com 

I've checked out David's site (www.health-fit.com) . It's nice, and he's got some good products for a good price. I wrote him back asking for a discount for my readers, so if you wish to order, simply call David at the number provided, tell him you're a reader of the International Wellness Directory and he'll arrange for you a discount. (And no, the directory doesn't get a kick back/donation from this one. We just want to help a good business.)

Who knew? Ask a high school gym coach. Kids are breaking legs while running around the track. Soda pop is so acidic to our system, we give up calcium to buffer the acid.

And supplementing calcium is not going to help you maintain bone mass. That's been demonstrated in study after study. You need calcium and MAGNESIUM.

Editor's note: researchers from India, using figures supplied by the USDA, discovered that, in America, consumption of soda pop per person over the last 54 years jumped from 11 gallons to 50 gallons per year. They also discovered that over the past 25 years, esophageal cancer rates among white males has risen more than 570%. [www.scienceblog.com]

Received in my email: Cholesterol is Today's #1 health Risk. Now you can protect yourself with an All-Natural Solution. No prescription drug side effects and it is Gluten Free

Cholesterol hype is Today's #1 Health Fraud. No study to date has shown that cholesterol CAUSES heart disease, and patients who took the first cholesterol lowering drugs were outlived by people with the same cholesterol levels who did not take the drugs. It wasn't until the statin drugs that people actually started living longer, but statin drugs are also anti-inflammatory. If you get a copy of Bypassing Bypass, you'll see that upwards of 80% of heart attacks are caused by inflammation in the blood stream. There are much better and safer anti-inflammatories than statin drugs. 

Cholesterol drugs, according to market figures, are the number one selling medication in the US today. 

For an entire book on this Cholesterol Fraud, read The Cholesterol Myths (his first edition of this book is online). 

Heart burn is an indication of something terribly wrong with your digestive system. If you simply treat the heart burn by neutralizing the acid, you will not digest your food. If you do not digest your food, you won't have to WAIT that long for a painful degenerative disorder.  

Perhaps you'd like to read our series on Digestion: Section One; Section Two.

_______________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God 
wants them to do because I notice it always coincides 
with their own desires." 

Susan B. Anthony
_______________________

Concerning Graviola: we were among the first journalists to interview the person who first brought forth the information on Graviola. However, the claims that Graviola was 10,000 times stronger than Adriamycin were just a bit exaggerated. Were this the case, it would not only cure every cancer known to humankind, it would wash your car on your way home from work.

We've talked with a few herbalists, and they all agree that Graviola is a fine alternative cancer therapy, but it is not as powerful as initially reported. In our next newsletter we will let you in on the latest herbal therapy for cancers, Paw Paw.

Concerning IP6: In our Breast Cancer article, we pointed out that IP6 was contraindicated because it might help cancer grow if your cancer is estrogen positive. And we attributed this to information from the Gerson Clinic.

Boy, was I wrong. This is what happens when I trust my memory. It was someone from the Hoxsey Clinic who passed this on to us, and the Gerson Clinic does NOT support the claim that IP6 would "feed" estrogen positive breast cancer. In fact, IP6 has been tested (successfully) in breast cancer trials. Here is one trial: Inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) inhibits key events of cancer metastasis: I. In vitro studies of adhesion, migration and invasion of MDA-MB 231 human breast cancer cells. 

We truly apologize for this error. We have corrected this in all our references.

There was a letter we published talking about using ligature of blood vessels in combination with anti-angiogenesis drugs/herbs. When the author of the letter stated, "... at least at inoperable tumors, where there is no other option than just leave them untreated," we wrote [Not sure what this means].

Well, it turns out our writer was not a native English speaker and he responded telling us that it simply meant that surgery was impossible.  

"There can be several reasons, which can make removal of tumor impossible, e.g.: Tumor is not accessible. Tumor has grown through important organs. Patient is too weak to survive severe operation. Patient has too many other tumors."

He goes on to say, "But even at the tumors, which cannot be removed, there can still be a chance to find their veins, which are leading to and from that tumor, and access them easily. So why not close these veins by ligature, and stop thus undesirable supply of these tumors? So much more that it is usually very simple and easy operation, both for surgeon and patient."

Here are the links he's passed onto us:

www.devitalizace.euweb.cz/devitalization.htm His web site.

http://www.iapg.cas.cz/uzfg/gb/12/index.html Czech Academy of Science's web site (in English)

http://www.iapg.cas.cz/uzfg/gb/index.html The research lab located at the Czech Academy of Science.

Please: we have no ego invested in this web site. We are trying to get you the best, most thoroughly researched, honest wellness material possible. If we goof, please contact us and we'll straighten it out. Write to: info@mnwelldir.org. 

______________________
Average number of smoking incidents
per hour in top-grossing US Films:

1950: 10.7
1981: 4.9
2002: 10.9

Source: Harper's Index
______________________

Super Size Me - Update
And WebMD Hands Us More Bull About Nutrition

The movie is making a splash! Everyone seems to be talking about it. Documentaries normally show up in small, independent theaters, but this one is beginning to spread to the large conglomerates. 

One part of the film that we didn't mention in our previous story was that kids from the Miracle in Wisconsin are interviewed. After witnessing the behavioral changes and their grades improve, they all state that they prefer the good nutrition over the junk food they previously opted for. 

You MUST get out to see this movie. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This movie speaks volumes.

Since the release of the movie Super Size Me, the following have happened at McDonalds:

1.  McDonalds has announced that they are ending the Super Sized meals;
2. The Adult Happy Meal contains a pedometer (tracking the steps you take on your walks);
3. They've announced that Ronald McDonald is coming out with an exercise video for kids.

Now who says activism is a waste of time?

And just as the interest in this movie grows, wouldn't you know it that my headlines on AOL one morning were: Busting The Food Myths. 

I clicked on the link to WebMD and read the following:  "The biggest myth of all is that food has any connection to behavior," says Steven Pliszka, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. (And this man teaches Medical School.)

Followed by: Wesley Burks, MD, professor and chief of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, agrees. He says, "There haven't been any good scientific studies that show that there is an adverse effect on a child or adult's behavior chronically with the ingestion of foods."

What a bunch of bull from junkies who make money pushing pills off on our youth. But this shouldn't surprise many of you, for as we've pointed out previously, as late as 1977 the AMA's official stance was that nutrition had nothing to do with health. 

There haven't been any good scientific studies? Oh really? Check out the research we discovered on Depression and Nutrition. There are at least 15 studies referenced there. 

In one way, Dr Burks is right: there haven't been any studies by pharmaceutical interests showing that nutrition is better than drugs. That's for sure. 

The number of studies on omega-3 essential fatty acids and behavior is staggering. DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), one of the essential fatty acids from fish oils, has been studied for years on how it relates to depression. But you won't find any psychiatrist prescribing DHA when Prozac, Zoloft, and Welbutrin are so profitable. 

My favorite example of how studies are manipulated for a specific outcome (and this is a foreshadowing to our next article on Health Fraud) concerns EDTA Chelation Therapy. A group of heart surgeons conducted a study on Chelation Therapy, about the same time, Walter Reed Hospital conducted their study The goal of the heart surgeons was to test which was better, Bypass Surgery or Chelation Therapy; the goal at Walter Reed was to find an inexpensive alternative to Bypass Surgery. 

The surgeons determined that surgery was better than Chelation Therapy.

Walter Reed Hospital determined that Chelation Therapy was superior to surgery.  

This makes perfect sense: If you're a surgeon, you do surgery. Surgery is always the answer. Or, as the saying goes, "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail."

And then there's that recent Echinacea study that was published in JAMA. Sure, if you want to make sure that a study fails, you can arrange it. Use crappy herbs and administer them contrary to their established use. 

Perhaps WebMD hasn't heard of Johanna Budwig, or the Miracle in Wisconsin, or even the Feingold Study (a classic study in which he took kids off of artificial colors and flavors and all sorts of junk, and they became new kids). The Quackpots (Quackbusters) know about Feingold. They all attack his findings, because they, the pharmaceutical interests, know that there is no substitute for proper medication.

As far as the monied pharmaceutical interests (with their hands in the pockets of the food industry) are concerned, there are no scientific studies on nutrition and there NEVER will be any. If there were, the results would destroy the food industry as we know it because 95% of our food is highly processed and processed foods are killing us. And why would the pharmaceutical industry sponsor a study that shows that proper nutrition is better than drugs? Do not expect any studies soon. 

WebMD, as they tell you in their television ads, is a nice place to go to for answers. But the answer is drugs. 

Just say "NO." 

_________________________
"A lie can travel half way around the world 
while the truth is putting on its shoes."

Mark Twain
_________________________

Fun Facts

Maximum number of patients, each year, who leave the hospital with surgical equipment and other foreign objects inside of them: 1,500. [Source: Harper's Index]

Number one ranking drug (in sales) of the top selling drugs worldwide in 2003: Cholesterol Lowering Drugs. [Source: Harper's Index]

Increased chances of a man with a cholesterol level of 260 or greater dying of a heart attack over a man with a cholesterol level of 180 or less, over a six year period: 1.16% [Source: Dr Charles T. McGee, MD]

Increased chances of a person with a positive C Reactive Protein test dying of a heart attack over a person whose C Reactive Protein test is negative: 800%. [Source: Dr Garry Gordon, MD, DO, MD(HOM)]

Overall chances of surviving (five years) cancer with medical intervention prior to the War on Cancer: 33.3%. [Source: American Cancer Society]

Overall chances of surviving (five years) cancer with medical intervention as of 2000: 40%. [Source: American Cancer Society]

Overall chances of surviving (five years) cancer if the patient does nothing: 33.3%. [Source: Irwin Bross, biostatistician for the National Cancer Institute]

Most profitable industry in the world: Pharmaceuticals. [Source: Dr Wm Campbell Douglas, MD] 

Country with the most expensive medical care system: United States of America. [Source: World Health Organization]

Rank of the US in quality of health care: 24th. [Source: World Health Organization]

Biggest suckers in the world: Us. [Source: Me]

I've told you long ago my theories on dieting. I don't like gimmicks. I've been sent tons of diet aids to review, but we've turned them all down. Dieting means hard work and if you can't do that, well, tough. I've seen far too many people mutilated in these stomach stapling surgeries to think that this is a solution. I've heard the reasoning: "It was either the surgery or my life, I'd grown so fat." Yeah, I suppose.

However, and this is a pretty big "however," people on diets usually cheat. My favorite joke about dieting is this:

"Oh you should see this new diet. I can't have any fat, no forms of sugar, no stimulants, like coffee and no soda pop at all; no Nutrasweet or saccharine, no dairy products at all, and I have to eat five servings of vegetables, and lots of dark green vegetables. I can't eat after five o'clock in the afternoon, and only one piece of fruit a day. Oh, I forgot, no fruit juice and I have to drink 64 ounces of water each day."

"My gosh," her friend responds, "How long have you been on it?"

"I start tomorrow."

People cheat. Some people have a sweet tooth and just need a stick of gum daily. Well, now there is something for you. It's a lollipop.

So far, testimonials from diabetics tell us that they have no problem with this lollipop. Additionally, one testimonial came from two sisters. One who had the surgery and the other who used the lollipops. The Lollipop Lady lost more in one month than Sister Surgery.

The company is Fun Unlimited, Inc.

The ingredients are Guarana (an herb that suppresses appetite and boosts metabolism), L-Tyrosine and Super Citrimax (amino acids), Vitamins B6 and B12, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Natural Color, Natural Flavors, and each lollipop (called Power-Pops) has only 28 calories.

Instructions are: drink an 8 oz glass of water before and after the Power-Pop, and take the Power-Pop whenever you get a craving, or half an hour before a meal to suppress your appetite.

Yes, they work. I tried them. However, I had friends try them and some people (we found out) are sensitive to the herb guarana. I wasn't sensitive to guarana, it did suppress my appetite, but I don't have a sweet tooth.

If you have high blood pressure, heart or thyroid disease, or diabetes, you should seek advice from your doctor before using Power-Pops.

To get kids to eat right, well, you have to start when they are weaned. Most aren't. Most families pass on their bad eating habits to their kids. And, sadly, most people don't even think about what they put in (or on) their bodies. I know I didn't. Till I got very, very sick.

Kids need energy, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. They don't need a lot of sugar. They usually get more sugar than they need, though. There are many children's vitamins on the market, but this is the first to come in the form of a lollipop. And this form, just happens to be a great way for kids to get their vitamins. For one thing, licking/sucking on a lollipop delivers the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids through the salivary glands.

If you want to learn more or order Power-Pops or Kidspops, or make money distributing these treats, contact Evelyn Wentworth at evelyn_wentworth@yahoo.com (or call 763.689.9361).

Speaking of fat…

No, they did not develop the wasting syndrome (called cachexia).

Dr Wadih Arap of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston noticed that his mice were losing weight on a new cancer regimen they had been testing, and because obesity is "BIG" in America (it's an epidemic) he pushed his study out of the cancer world and studied how to reverse obesity in mice.

He'd been studying a new anti-angiogenesis drug. Tumors need lots of nutrition (hence blood) to grow and new blood vessels are constantly springing out of tumors (angiogenesis) to supply them with enough blood. Cutting off these blood vessels [as mentioned earlier in this newsletter and in our Alternative Cancer Therapies article] is one way of starving a tumor.

However, Dr Arap noticed that even aging mice (who tend to put on a little weight) were slimming down on his protocol. So, new studies began.

He gave his mice a "cafeteria" diet; one resembling our Standard American Diet (SAD) filled with fats and carbs and sugars, mostly empty calories. The mice doubled in size.

The mice were injected with this new "fat killing molecule" on a daily basis for 30 days, at the end of which, the mice had lost 30% of their body mass, with NO side effects.

Trying to downplay the study, Dr Arap notes that there COULD be serious side effects from this drug since it affects a vital function in every cell in the body. According to an interview conducted by Maggie Fox, of Reuters, Dr Arap stated that "They didn't have any signs of being ill. All measures look improved. If they had a side-effect we couldn't detect it."

Don't look for this soon on the market (especially if it does actually cure cancer), as there will be studies and more studies for the next five to ten years.

[Source: Anti-Cancer Drug Zaps Fat in Mice, Reuters]

And...speaking of fat... 

Research into the biology of fat is turning up some surprising new insights about how obesity kills. The weight of the evidence: It's the toxic mischief of the flesh itself.

Experts have realized for decades that large people die young, and the explanation long seemed obvious. Carrying around all those extra pounds must put a deadly strain on the heart and other organs.

Obvious but wrong, it turns out. While the physical burden contributes to arthritis and sleep apnea, among other things, it is a minor hazard compared with the complex and insidious damage wrought by the oily, yellowish globs of fat that cover human bodies like never before.

A series of recent discoveries suggests that all fat-storage cells churn out a stew of hormones and other chemical messengers that fine-tune the body's energy balance. But when spewed in vast amounts by cells swollen to capacity with fat, they assault many organs in ways that are bad for health.

The exact details are still being worked out, but scientists say there is no doubt this flux of biological cross talk hastens death from heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer, diseases that are especially common among the obese.

"When we look at fat tissue now, we see it's not just a passive depot of fat," says Dr. Rudolph Leibel of Columbia University. "It's an active manufacturer of signals to other parts of the body."

The first real inkling that fat is more than just inert blubber was the discovery 10 years ago of the substance leptin. Scientists were amazed to find that this static-looking flesh helps maintain itself by producing a chemical that regulates appetite.

Roughly 25 different signaling compounds -- with names like resistin and adiponectin -- are now known to be made by fat cells, Leibel estimates, and many more undoubtedly will be found.

"There is an explosion of information about just what it is and what it does," Dr. Allen Spiegel, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, says of fat. "It is a tremendously dynamic organ."

Fat tissue is now recognized to be the body's biggest endocrine organ, and its sheer volume is impressive even in normal-size people. A trim woman is typically 30 percent fat, a man 15 percent. That is enough fuel to keep someone alive without eating for three months.

The fat cell's main job is to store our excess calories as fat. When people grow obese, their fat cells swell with fat and can plump up to three times normal size. As very overweight people get fatter still, they may also layer on many more fat cells.

The problem is the volume of chemicals these oversize cells churn out, says Dr. George Bray of Louisiana State University. "The big cell secretes more of everything that it secreted when it was small. When you get more of these things, they are not good for you."

Many scientists are trying to learn exactly what these excess secretions do that is so harmful. The answers will help explain -- and perhaps offer solutions to -- the real tragedy of the obesity epidemic, its disastrous effect on health.

Obesity is a huge and growing killer, in the United States just slightly behind smoking. Moderately obese people live two to five years less than normal-size folks. For the severely obese, the reduction in life span may be five to 10 years.

By far the biggest single threat of obesity is heart disease. Someone with a body mass index over 30 has triple the usual risk. Scientists can visualize many ways that fat cells' chemical flood contributes to heart attacks, heart failure and cardiac arrest.

For instance, it has long been known that weight increases blood pressure. Once doctors thought this was a matter of physics, the force needed to push blood through the many more yards of blood vessels that nourish the extra flesh.

But now it is clear that fat can trigger high blood pressure by making blood vessels narrow in several chemical ways. For instance, it produces a substance called angiotensinogen that is a powerful constrictor. At the same time, it stimulates the sympathetic nerves to squeeze the circulatory system. And that may just be the beginning.

"It's a very complicated system, and the more we learn about it, the more complicated it becomes," says Dr. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, head of obesity research at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City.

One of the clearest hazards of overfilled fat cells is their influence on the body's production and use of insulin, the hormone that instructs the muscle to burn energy and the fat cells to store it. Oversize fat cells blunt the insulin message, in part by leaking fat into the bloodstream. So the pancreas must compensate by making more insulin and other proteins.

Scientists now understand that increasing insulin levels -- part of a condition called insulin resistance -- are particularly harmful. They can directly damage the walls of arteries and lead to clogging.

That leaking fat may also infiltrate the heart muscle, contributing to congestive heart failure. Misplaced deposits of fat can also ruin the liver and have become the second-leading reason for liver transplants after hepatitis B.

Fat cells churn out a variety of proteins that cause inflammation, too. These may be especially destructive to the gunky buildups in the arteries, causing them to burst and triggering heart attacks and strokes.

These inflammatory proteins and other fat-driven chemicals, such as growth hormones, may also contribute to one of the less-appreciated consequences of obesity -- cancer.

"There is now conclusive evidence that obesity causes some cancers and strong evidence that it contributes to a wide variety of others," says Dr. Michael Thun, epidemiology chief at the American Cancer Society.

The cancer society estimates that staying trim could eliminate 90,000 U.S. cancer deaths a year. Among the varieties most clearly linked to weight are cancer of the breast, uterus, colon, kidney, esophagus, pancreas and gallbladder.

The best evidence of how obesity causes malignancy is in breast cancer in older women. When the ovaries shut down after menopause, fat tissue becomes the primary producer of estrogen, which in turn can fuel the growth of breast tumors.

The heavier women are when diagnosed with breast cancer, the more likely they are to die from the disease, says Dr. Michelle Holmes of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Presumably it's because their cancers are dependent on estrogen, and heavier women have more estrogen."

Still, big-ticket killers like heart disease and cancer only start the long list of obesity's health ills. Among other things, obese people are more prone to depression, gallstones, even dying when in car accidents.

Says Dr. Michael Jensen of the Mayo Clinic, "There are so many ways that obesity can kill you."

[http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,63425,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_9]

We got a letter from a reader who told us that ALA (an ingredient in Flax Oil) makes prostate cancer grow "like crazy" and referenced two newsletters (both of which we here subscribe to).

Yes, I'd heard that, but I did not believe it. Why not? All studies shown so far show that Flax Oil helps to fight cancer. Why would one cancer, prostate cancer, thrive on it. So, I went to one of the experts on Oils, Udo Erasmus (who wrote:
Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill: The Complete Guide to Fats, Oils, Cholesterol and Human Health)  to get his opinion.

Udo is an expert on oils. He and Mary Enig are probably the top two experts on oil and nutrition alive today. Udo points out in the article (linked above) that the ALA used in the study did NOT come from Flax Oil, but from animal fats, and the animals were not raised organically. The ALA used in the study, since the animals were raised conventionally, were probably tainted with every reason I don't eat conventionally raised livestock: pesticides, antibiotics, herbicides, and growth hormones. There are a lot more reasons the study produced those results. If you are interested, the article is great: FLAX OIL (ALA) & PROSTATE CANCER.  

We do know that growth hormones are something that cancer patients MUST avoid. They can only help the cancer's growth accelerate. No matter how good the hype on IGH and a variety of growth hormones, if you have cancer, they are just not something you want to be taking. This is why you should also avoid eating animals that are fed growth hormones. 

Next, we heard from an old friend of a study published last fall in the New England Journal of Medicine (we can't afford our subscription to this one, Lancet, or JAMA any longer, so we rely on readers and our volunteers to send us this information) concerning the PSA test.

Did you know that the PSA test is worthless?

And that doctor's know this but keep on prescribing and reading them?

Amazing, eh?

We have to add this to our series on Medical Fraud (eventually), but for now, here are the facts:

The study showed that PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) tests administered to 6,500 known prostate cancer patients (under the age of 60) resulted in NOT detecting cancer in eight out of ten of them.

Yup, they missed by a whopping 82%.

Perhaps next time you go to your doctor and s/he prescribes for you a PSA test, you can remind her/him of the AMAS test. It is not 100% either, but it doesn't miss by 82%.

For more information on the AMAS test, you can have your physician contact Oncolab Inc. at 617.536.0095 or visit www.amascancertest.com on the web.

______________________
“There will come a point in everyone's life 
where only intuition can make the leap ahead, 
without ever knowing precisely how. One can 
never know why, but one must accept 
intuition as a fact.” 

Albert Einstein
______________________

(Our good friend Dr Mercola has allowed us (because we are a non profit) to reprint his articles here. Thanx, Doc!)

http://www.mercola.com/1999/apr/25/electricity_test_for_breast_cancer.htm

FDA Approves Electricity Test for Breast Cancer

A device that uses electricity to map possible breast lumps may reduce the number of women who get unnecessary biopsies because their mammograms are unclear, the Food and Drug Administration said April 19. American women undergo 30 million mammograms a year. The breast X-ray is the gold standard in detecting breast cancer, particularly early tumors.

Mammograms often clearly show which breast lesions should be biopsied immediately. But they also can be ambiguous, leaving a doctor in doubt as to whether to do a biopsy immediately, or to wait six months and X-ray again.

Some 800,000 biopsies are done every year, from which 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. The rest are benign lumps. So scientists have hunted ways to reduce unnecessary biopsies without missing women who have cancer. Some doctors use ultrasound machines that use sound waves to picture lumps as an addition to the mammogram's X-rays. The T-Scan 2000 is another alternative. It uses electricity to create a map of the breast.

A one-volt shot of electricity is sent into the hand, where it travels through the body into the breast. A handheld probe is moved over the breast, where it measures the electrical conductivity of breast cells. Cancer cells conduct much less electricity than healthy cells — so when the probe flashes its findings onto a computer screen, possible tumors show up as bright white spots.

TransScan's studies suggest that adding the electricity test for women with ambiguous mammograms can improve diagnostic accuracy and lower unnecessary biopsies by about 20 percent.

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

The T-Scan should be used only in women whose doctors cannot decide about ordering a biopsy based on other standard procedures. It seems to be a nifty application of using bioelectricity to enhance diagnostic capabilities. The new scan should add less than $100 to a woman's exam.

I do not know when or where this scan will be available but a quick visit to the Internet search engines on my site should easily locate those details for you.

_________________
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" 

Thomas Jefferson
_________________________

We've said it before and we'll say it again: If you are going to work out and work out hard, you need antioxidants. You need MEGA antioxidants. Olympic class athletes have some of the worst arteries in the world. Their arteries look like those of 70 year old, two-pack-a-day smokers.

Why?

Because strenuous exorcise causes oxidation and oxidation releases free radicals that attack your arteries.

Brian Maxwell, ranked the number 3 marathon runner in the world by Track and Field News, died of a heart attack last march. He and his wife, a nutritionist (no less), co-founded the PowerBar (candy bar with some good stuff in it) company in 1986.

Maxwell apparently came up with the idea after having to drop out of a marathon at the 21-mile mark. This is approximately the point where, according to experts, the body ceases to burn carbohydrates and begins to burn muscle tissue.

Expert or not, I can tell you that at a point much earlier, his antioxidants were used up and his body started rusting from the inside out. If I ever invent a sports bar, you can guarantee it will be filled with 5,000 mgs of Vitamin C, 200 IU of Beta Carotene, and 800 IU of Vitamin E and a touch of selenium for good luck. And I'd wash it down with Electrolyzed Plus Concentrate.

I love to work out. It's a great feeling. Especially when you don't kill yourself.

___________________________
Question of the Month

Rick Ensminger has one heck of an inquiring mind. He's sent me so much research that we could write volumes here (if I weren't so darn lazy!).

There are a few web sites he's found, with lots of scientific backing, that propose that our ozone depletion theories are a bunch of hooey; that UV Rays do not cause cancer, and that somewhere, someone (a lot of someones) wants us to believe the exact opposite of good science.

One original article is: New Scientific Evidence Proves Ozone Depletion Theory False [http://mitosyfraudes.8k.com/INGLES/Crista.html]

Curiously enough, while tens of billions of dollars have been spent on "ozone research" almost no money has been spent on UV readings at the surface.

The most extensive study to date of UV-B radiation at the surface is that conducted by Joseph Scotto and his collaborators at the National Cancer Institute. The study, published in the Feb. 12, 1988, issue of Science,(6) presented evidence that the amount of UV-8 reaching ground level stations across the United States had not increased, but in fact, had decreased between 1974 and 1985. Instead of rejoicing at the results, the promoters of the ozone depletion scare saw to it that the network of observing stations was shut down, by cutting its funding (less than $500,000 out of more than $1.75 billion in research funds to study "climate change").

One of the recent attempts to contradict the Scotto study was an article by J.B. Kerr and C.T. McElroy, published in Science magazine in 1993, claiming an upward trend in UV radiation over Toronto. (7) The results were front-page news intenationally, but when it was soon demonstrated by other scientists that the so-called trend was based on faulty statistical manipulation (8) this reverse got little publicity. The entire "rise" in UV was based on readings taken during the last 3 days of five years of measurements!

A correct statistical analysis showed that the trend in UV was zero that is to say, the amount of UV had neither increased nor decreased over the five-year period).

Another way of taking on the unreliability of the ozone depletion theory is to examine the fudge factor in how the scare story data are presented. Harvard Astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas put the data in perspective in a paper presented at a congressional hearing on ozone, Sept. 20, 1995. (5) Baliunas focused on the unreliability of the estimates of ozone depletion, which have claimed as much as 0.3 percent depletion per year. The natural variability of the ozone layer, she said, is orders of magnitude greater than the alleged man-made "depletion." "Over Washington, D.C.," she noted, "ozone varies annually by 25 percent, some 80 times greater than the stated anthropogenic decline."

Baliunas also examined the statistical fudge methods used by the ozone depletion theorists to embellish their theory. The 1994 World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) report on ozone depletion, for example, estimates the depletion starting from two points, 1970 and 1978-1979. The choice for the second set of data is clear; that's when satellites started measurements. The choice for the first starting point, supposedly arbitrary, is actually designed to skew the ozone record. As Figure 2 shows, the thickness of the ozone layer goes up and down considerably from year to year. The 1957 readings, however, show that the thickness of the ozone layer is about the same as it is today; thus, there has been no long-term depletion of the ozone layer. By ignoring ozone readings before 1970, the WMO begins its analysis with "a year of maximum ozone abundance for the entire 34-year record...." As Baliunas comments:

"Choosing 1970 or 1978-1979 as the starting point creates the maximum possible downward trends in ozone since then. The selections of the starting points, for example, 1976 or 1957, would indicate no significant downward trend since then. The fact that the inferred trend depends entirely on the selection of the endpoints means that the trend has not been reliably determined."

From The Ozone Myth, by Ben Kowalski [http://tko.kenyon.edu/index.php?action=view_article&article=135 ]

http://www.price-pottenger.org/Articles/SeeingTheLight.html

We’ve been brainwashed to avoid the very part of our environment, sunlight, that offers the greatest benefits. From Ultra-Violet: The Untold Story, by Michael Lofton [http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue11/ar11ultraviolet.html ] we get the following:

Dr Mercola tells us: [http://mercola.com/2004/mar/31/cancer_sunlight.htm]

Studies keep confirming the benefits of sunlight. Sunlight produces Vitamin D in our bodies. From the article "Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis" [http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/79/3/362]

From the article: "Sunlight: The Great Healer" [http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_aging/43857]

Dr Gabe Mirkin, MD tells us: [http://www.drmirkin.com/men/9431.html]

Michael Lofton's article "Ultra-Violet: The Untold Story" goes on to say: [http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue11/ar11ultraviolet.html]

Now you'd think that Rick would stop here and let me rest, but no, the next day I got this in my mail.

Transplant rejection averted by simple light exposure in Stanford animal study

STANFORD, Calif. - One of the unfortunate side effects of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation is that the newly implanted cells often stage an internal attack against the patient they're intended to help. Stanford University School of Medicine researchers now have a better grasp of this phenomenon, known as graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD, and have proposed a possible method of prevention: simple ultraviolet light.

In a new animal study, researchers identified the principal culprit in GVHD: an immune cell in the skin known as a Langerhans cell. These cells normally function as flag posts for the immune system, signaling infection-fighting T-cells to come to a particular site to fight off a virus or bacteria. But in transplants, they do patients a great disservice, alerting T- cells to attack the patient's own tissues, researchers found. [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-05/sumc-tra050504.php]

The researchers were able to effectively eliminate the Langerhans cells in transplanted mice by exposing them to ultraviolet light, giving the animals mild sunburn. Transplanted mice that received this treatment experienced no GVHD while those that didn't showed severe signs of the disease, said Edgar Engleman, MD, professor of pathology and medicine and senior author of the study.

From Dr Andrew Weil's web site, Published 08/30/2002, I found: [http://www.drweil.com/app/cda/drw_cda.html-command=TodayQA-questionId=98869]

Contrary to general belief, there is no evidence that reduction in the ozone layer, observed at the poles, has caused any increase in melanomas.3 Even a study of Punta Arenas, the largest South American city close to the Antarctic ozone hole, showed no increase in health problems related to depleted ozone. In fact, UV measures were too small to have any noticeable effect.4 3. British Journal of Cancer research 1992; 65: 916-21 4. American Journal of Public Health 1995;85(4):546-50. [http://www.caduceus.info/articles/best.htm]

…the nearer you live to the equator the less chance you have of developing an internal cancer. This association has been clearly demonstrated in a number of studies such as the one carried out in 1941 in the United States by Dr Frank Apperly. He examined the statistics on cancer deaths across North America and Canada and found that compared with cities between 10 and 30 degrees latitude, cities between 30 and 40 degrees latitude averaged 85 per cent higher overall cancer death rates; cities between 40 and 50 degrees latitude averaged 118 per cent higher cancer death rates, and cities between 50 and 60 degrees latitude averaged 150 per cent higher cancer death rates.

In 1992, Dr Gordon Ainsleigh published a paper in the journal Preventive Medicine in which he reviewed 50 years worth of medical literature on cancer and the sun. He concluded that the benefits of regular sun exposure appear to outweigh by a considerable degree the risks of squamous-basal skin cancer, accelerated aging, and melanoma. He found trends in epidemiological studies suggesting that widespread adoption of regular moderate sunbathing would result in approximately a one-third lowering of breast and colon cancer death rates in the United States. Colon cancer and breast cancer are the second and third leading causes of cancer deaths in North America and Dr Ainsleigh estimated that about 30,000 cancer deaths would be prevented each year if moderate sunbathing on a regular basis became the norm. [http://www.innerself.com/Health/cancer_sun.htm ]

Wow. Thanx, Rick.

Just to add a few things, it was Johanna Budwig who was one of the first to propose that trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils) cause skin cancers. From our article on Skin Cancer:

Dr Johanna Budwig’s research has demonstrated that certain wavelengths of sunlight vibrate at the same frequency as the chemical bonds in unsaturated fatty acids (trans fatty oils are unsaturated). This, she feels, leads to early mutations that can become skin cancers.

And just one more thing. Oftentimes our government gives us the "Big Lie" to distract our attention from what's really happening. Take the subject of Cloning. Congress really honed in on that horrible science, while silently avoiding the real problem of genetic engineering in which our military scientists are trying to create germs for which humans have no resistance and food companies engineering foods our bodies were never designed to absorb.

Focusing on ozone depletion and a 2 percent rise in carbon dioxide has kept us all in the dark about the 3 percent loss of oxygen. Now THIS is a problem. But no one seems to talk about this. Oxygen is life/life is oxygen. Yet, somehow, our government is very silent about this one.

_________________________
According to a study of eight years' worth of medical records 
of over 7000 patients conducted by Britain's Medical Research 
Council (and reported in my favorite medical journal, The Lancet), 
if you pop Ibuprofen for any reason - say, arthritis pain relief - while 
engaged in aspirin therapy for heart disease, you're twice as likely to 
keel over from a heart attack because of the way these two 
powerful drugs interact.

William Campbell Douglass II, MD
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