We have a gift for all our readers. We’ve taken our book, Bypassing Bypass, and put the contents online, absolutely free. We are currently rewriting it, and those who have purchased the previous edition will get the new one free when it comes out. The updated edition will go on sale as soon as we’re finished.

You can find the book, in its chapters, by clicking on Articles from our Home Page. They are right at the top.

To kick off this newsletter, we thought we’d report on some of the latest findings from the American Heart Association that have been in the news recently.

For years, women have not been included in studies on heart disease. One reason is that men have more heart attacks than women. However, once women were included, it was quickly discovered that in spite of that fact, women have a higher death rate than men.

·        Heart disease is the leading killer of women [if you don’t count medicine itself], killing half a million per year.

·        More women die from cardiovascular disease than all forms of cancer.

·        Since women tend to develop heart disease later than men, many women are still excluded from clinical trials on the prevention and treatment of heart disease. [http://www.fda.gov/womens/scienceprogram/heart.html, http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/3/394]

The American Heart Association (AHA), in conjunction with the American College of Cardiology (ACC) have developed guidelines for preventing cardiovascular disease, some of which are quite effective while others are simply bull on a major scale, supporting the theory that medicine is better for us than proper nutrition. Please note that like you, we’ve uncovered versions of this story that don’t seem to mesh at times, so we’ll just present what we’ve found:

·        Women should be encouraged not to smoke and avoid second hand smoke.

·        Women should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day (brisk walking). One report states that women should try to do 60 – 90 minutes a day. Yeah. Like this is going to happen.

·        Women should eat a heart healthy diet that incorporates a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, low fat dairy products, fish (omega-3s), legumes, and sources of protein that are low in saturated fats.

·        Women should keep their cholesterol levels below 200, with one report specifically recommending that women keep their, so-called, bad cholesterol below 70.

·        Women should keep their weight down.

·        Daily low dose aspirin is recommended for women at risk of cardiovascular disease and those over 65 no matter what their risk. [http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/3/394#TBL1] 

·        Supplements such as vitamin E, C, folic acid and beta-carotene do not prevent heart disease and should not be taken to prevent it. [http://health.aol.com/news/story/_a/new-heart-guidelines-for-women-stress/20070220101009990002]

Some of these recommendations are fine, indeed, while some are just plain nonsense.

For example, a diet of grains can, for some, be quite dangerous. We have an inordinate number of individuals in the US who are sensitive to wheat or gluten. In his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston Price traced the migration of cardiovascular disease with the introduction of wheat in Europe. Additionally, most grain foods are dead foods. People with high intake of breads also have higher rates of cancer. [International Journal of Cancer, October 20, 2006; Arch Intern Med, 2006.]

Corn is a grain, but as you read in our article on Chronic Inflammation, it is one of the culprits behind the inflammation, and chronic inflammation is one of the culprits behind cardiovascular disease.

Women are encouraged to eat fish twice a week or take a fish oil supplement. Which fish to eat, they don’t tell you. And no where in the reports was ever mentioned the Scandinavian secret of eating a hand full of nuts after a meal (to get your good fats).

First, let’s take a look at the fish highest in your omega-3s.

Cold water fish rank higher in omega-3s than warm water fish. If you bake or poach the fish, it retains more of the omega-3s than if you fry it in oil. Eating your fish raw, at a sushi bar, is the best way to get your omega-3 fish oils, period.

Fish highest in omega-3s are Salmon, cold water tuna (best to buy a specialty brand that is packed in its own oil), halibut, shrimp, snapper, and scallops. Interestingly enough, shrimp is high in saturated fats (cholesterol). Funny thing, this cholesterol stuff. The benefits of the omega-3s outweigh the hazards of cholesterol, which, in this author’s opinion are blown up way out of proportion.

Finally, there’s the green mussel from New Zealand. The fatty acids in this little guy have been compared to ibuprofen for pain relief from arthritis; according to the experts, it’s 300 times more powerful if taken over a period of time.

For those who do not like fish, there are fish oil capsules; however, you get what you pay for. Pharmaceutical grade fish oils are the best. What you get at Target or Wal-Mart might not be the best. There is cod liver oil in capsules. These caps also contain Vitamin D, which we’ve written about pretty extensively lately. (Please take your fish oils with a meal; they’ll work much better.)

Finally you have Omegasentials. This is a flax product with fish added. This is our favorite product and you won’t see my fridge ever without a bag in there. Flax is another form of omega-3s, and the human body needs both forms.

Two final notes on DHA and EPA, the beneficial fish oils, is that your probiotics (the good bacteria in your gut) poop them. So, keeping a healthy dose of good fauna in your system is also important. Additionally, a healthy liver and the proper nutrients can produce DHA.

Finally, when we talk about beneficial fats, we can’t overlook nuts. Walnuts contain beneficial oils, but the Hazelnut is the hero of the good fat race.

In a recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Sep 2006), participants were put on a low fat, low cholesterol for four weeks. Then, for four weeks, the participants ate 40 grams (about 1.5 ounces) of hazelnuts after each meal. The results were startling. In addition to a 31.8% reduction in triglycerides, overall cholesterol was reduced by 5.2% with HDL cholesterol (the “good” kind) rising 12.6%.

These figures are truly impressive.

Makes you wonder why they were overlooked by the AHA/ACC guidelines.

The pharmaceutical recommendations will not be printed here. Read our Cardiovascular Articles and you will find nutritional therapies that are better, more effective, and saner than any drug protocol.

The recommendations for an aspirin a day seem to have been proposed without mentioning a recent study that showed when you come off of aspirin (say prior to a surgery) your heart attack chances jump through the roof.  This was discovered after doctors who had been telling their patients to stop their aspirin therapy prior to surgeries noticed that a lot of them didn’t live long enough to have the surgery. A cohort study soon proved that coming off your aspirin therapy was much more dangerous than the reasons for going on it in the first place.

The recommendations also don’t tell you that aspirin therapy increases your chances for hemorrhagic stroke by some 40%. (You will find the aspirin myths and the dangers of aspirin in our Cardiovascular Articles).

And finally, along with the last recommendation listed above (concerning vitamins and supplements), another article we read from the Canadian Broadcasting System: http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_050194656.html quoted a physician on the use of vitamins and supplements: “People are wasting their money when they are looking at it from a cardiac standpoint.”

A few articles we found were quick to quote recent studies showing that folic acid doesn’t work as we once thought it did.

We also found many studies and articles that still recommended folic acid.

Again, we must take the stand that until the medical community stops running studies involving vitamins and supplements that are designed to fail, whatever modern medicine has to say about supplements will be suspect.

Folic acid cuts homocysteine levels. Homocysteines cause cardiovascular disease. The research on Vitamin E is plain and simple. Vitamin E helps thin our blood. Read our articles to learn more on Vitamin E and cardiovascular disease. We’re very tired of doctors giving us nutritional advice when they’ve never studied nutrition.

This same physician, quoted above, went on to say that “antioxidants from fruits and vegetables are best.” This is something we happen to agree with, in part.

“Let your food be your medicine....” Hippocrates 

However, if you’re a jogger or you live in Los Angeles County, you probably need at least 6,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily. If you wanted to get this from eating oranges, according to my calculations, you will need to eat from 105 to 120 oranges daily.

Again, we have one more reason not to listen to physicians when they preach on a subject with which they are totally unfamiliar, nutritional wellness. They’ve never studied nutrition, and they shouldn’t study it. They need to stick to medicine.

In our Cardiovascular Articles, we have nutritional guidelines for you that came from unbiased research; guidelines that actually recommend folate and B vitamins, vitamin C and vitamin E. You will find these recommendations already in our cardiovascular wellness articles and they’ve been there since the first day we published them in 2002. As for an aspirin replacement: check out the systemic enzymes and our article on the dangers of aspirin.

All in all, some of the recommendations are good, some are silly. Poor red meat is constantly getting a bad rap, but if you eat grass fed beef that’s not been injected with hormones, or poisoned with pesticides, or overdosed in antibiotics, you’ve got the perfect protein.

The simple fact that chlorinated water was completely overlooked by this study as a cause of heart disease (and boy is it), leaves room for speculation and conspiracy theorists. Chlorinated water should not be allowed in our country let alone our bodies.

If women simply increased their activity a little, tossed out their corn oil and replaced it with coconut oil (for frying), and increased their antioxidants, B vitamins and Essential Fatty Acids, we could cut their heart disease death rates to the lowest in the world.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy heart.

 
Don't forget to plug in our site: International Wellness Directory.

After publishing our last newsletter, in which we discussed this new immune booster EpiCor, I got about four letters in the first week telling me, hey, if this comes from their products, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a fifty pound bag of their fermented yeast product than buy a bottle of pills that lasts a month?

Well, that's exactly what I thought, and I went right out and ordered a fifty pound bag of Diamond V XPC.

Like everything else I get, the first thing I put the XPC into was a smoothie. It's not very good tasting. However, I'm now giving it to my chickens and my dogs. As for me, I'm still using it in my smoothies, but I've started adding it to our super muffin recipes.

The first thing we created after the last newsletter, was a brand new muffin we called: The Most Expensive Muffins in the World. This was because we calculated that the cost of all ingredients added up to about $2.75 cents per muffin. Because of all the ingredients we put into the muffins, we called them Longevity Muffins.

The recipe is located here: Longevity Muffins.

For those of you who want to try the Diamond V XPC but don't want to have to buy a fifty pound bag for $90.00, for a fifteen dollar donation to this web site, I will share with you some from my own personal supply of the Diamond V XPC and mail it to you. Having said this, I make no promises concerning the benefits of XPC and if you're sick, go find a health care professional.

Ahhhhgggg! Boy, did we get mail! Ron wants to thank all those who bought his products over the holiday season, and into the new year. He's been surprising buyers with free lip balm, that he makes only for friends and family.

“It’s time consuming and expensive,” Ron told me. “But for your readers, I'm gonna send them a little gift if they order two or more products.” [Update Nov 07: The free gift offer has ended, and Ron thanks all those who have ordered his amazing products.]

Already people are telling us their experiences. A woman with diabetic sores that responded to nothing, suddenly healed in just under three weeks with HealonPF™. One person sent for a bottle of HealonPF™ for hemorrhoids, got such quick relief, that she quickly ordered two more bottles, one for a friend. Two people reported that the swelling from spider bites (brown recluse) went down within hours from applying the HealonPF™.

Those using the lip balm tell us that it's perfect on their crow's feet.

And the number of people who wrote us that the SugarFoot is the best thing they've ever found for dry, cracking skin. However, to get to the root of dry cracking skin, increase your vitamin E (mixed tocopherols and mixed tocotrienols), your omega-3s, and keep your probiotics in your gut flourishing.

A few people have inquired into selling Ron's products under their own label, and as always, they would really like to know how to make them. Ron has told me that he's more then willing to give out the formulas, but that those who put them together won't get even half the healing power of his products, because of the ingredients.

Not all ingredients are created equally. For example, take a trip over the web searching for Tea Tree oil. You'll find retail prices anywhere from $.68/per ounce to $4.95/ounce. Then you have to ask yourself, how much did the distributor pay for the original Tea Tree oil.

Ron pays his supplier $3.80 per ounce for his own Tea Tree oil that has been distilled according to his strict instructions. Because they have to maintain temperature stability, it has to be made in very small batches. Ron won't sell you his Tea Tree Oil at all. It's his proprietary product. So, knowing how to make Ron's formulas, doesn't do you any good without Ron's proprietary ingredients.

Once again, every first aid kit should have a bottle of HealonPF™. There is no expiration date on the bottle. Bottles that are 7 and 8 years old show no signs of breaking down. And if you need it, then you'd better have it on hand.

We will post before and after pictures when they start coming in. If you have your own, feel free to send them to us. info@mnwelldir.org

For Ron Salley's Miracle Skin products, please visit Simply the Best.

We got a bottle of noni from our good friends at REMOVED BY FDA Naturals and wow, it was potent.

This is the real thing. No fruit juice added, no preservatives added, just pure noni juice from the fruit and leaves. And, it’s organic.

That is ALL we can tell you now, because now that we’ve found a source that is really, really good, we’re going to do some more research.

Here are some highlights of the research we will be publishing at this site: Costa Rican noni has a more vitamin C than noni from Tahiti. Noni not only boosts the immune system, it’s an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory, an antiangiogenic agent (stops the growth of new blood vessels to a tumor), and an analgesic (pain killer).

We also received notice that only this noni was given as therapy to a breast cancer patient, and she is now in remission.

So, for your noni needs, contact REMOVED BY FDA Naturals and you can also check out South Pacific Trading Company who are handling the same exact product.

So, really, not much to more to say, except this is the best noni we’ve found to date. Period.

Editor's note: the FDA is finally addressing the issue of conflicts of interest. Sure, as you'll read below these are pretty half-assed gestures, but they are a start in the right direction after millions have died from pharmaceuticals. 10 of the 30 people who voted to pass Vioxx had taken money from the makers of Vioxx.

Go to Original

In today's New York Times, there appears a story by reporter Gardiner Harris about FDA's new guidance intending to reduce conflicts of interest on agency advisory boards. (Note: The story refers to the proposal as "rules" but it is actually "draft guidance" which, unlike rules/regulations, does not carry the force of law.)

The guidance is a response to an increasing problem at FDA: Scientists determining the public safety of drugs and medical devices often have financial ties to the products or industry on which they are commenting. There are pros and cons to the draft guidance.

The good:

• Most advisors having obvious financial conflicts of interest of more than $50,000 will not be able to serve on committees.

• Most advisors with less significant conflicts of interest will be able to serve but not vote.

• The guidance addresses not just current financial conflicts of interest, but those that have occurred in the past year.

The bad:

• The guidance is loaded with loopholes, including reserving the right of the FDA commissioner to grant waivers.

• The guidance only addresses financial conflicts of interest, not personal or professional. (This is politics! Relationships and egos are important.)

• This is guidance, not a regulation. Therefore, it "does not operate to bind FDA or the public."

The ugly:

• An advisor with a significant financial conflict of interest may still be able to serve (but not vote) if "the need for the individual's services outweigh the potential for a conflict of interest." Doesn't a big pile of cash undermine the objectivity of an "expert?" Shouldn't pharmaceutical expertise funded by a pharmaceutical company be considered ill-gotten gains?

Stay tuned to Reg•Watch for more on this.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The International Wellness Directory has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is the International Wellness Directory endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

Editor's Note: Health Care is political. I have been very active politically for many years. The following letter has been sent to all my congress-people, and to many candidates for office. Feel free to copy it and send it to your people in congress and your favorite candidate.

The last time I checked, the World Health Organization ranked our health care system 37^th in the world. We are ranked 20^th in infant mortality. We are ranked 20^th in longevity. However, our health care system is ranked the 1^st (highest) in cost.

An estimated 200,000 Americans are killed yearly by prescription drugs; 300,000 more die from hospital errors, infections picked up in hospitals, malpractice, and mistakes. Many of these figures have been published in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine, and are, admittedly, low estimates.

With such a poor health care system, I find it astonishing that politicians feel that the main problem with our health care is that too many people still do not have access to it.

This kind of logic is reminiscent of that Woody Allen joke where two women are in a restaurant and one says to the other, “The food in here is awful,” to which her friend responds, “Yes, and such small portions.”

The plain truth about our health care system is that it is a disease care system whose bottom line is the almighty dollar. It is fraught with fraud, redundancy, and just plain bad science. Where our health care system excels is in trauma care and diagnostics. 

Those famous tobacco industry scientists who for years told us tobacco was not detrimental to our health have gone to work for the AMA and now tell us that vitamins and supplements are worthless, and that real health demands drugs. Our health care is founded on the science of the lowest bidder: if we grease enough palms, doctors will say anything.

Medicine is a powerful monopoly. Doctors, drug companies, and the FDA are all in bed together. This is not an empty attack; it is not a conspiracy theory; it’s simply the goal of every monopoly: to crush the competition and gain market share; it’s just business as usual.

If you study the history of medicine, you cannot help but see how medicine has become a powerful monopoly: Health Care for Dummies, or How the Rich Got Richer While the Sick Got Sicker.

Before we can have universal health care, we must first create real health care. We have to rid the system of fraud.

We can cut our health care costs 9 billon dollars overnight by outlawing cholesterol lowering drugs.

I’ve spent years researching cholesterol, and there is not one study that has shown that cholesterol causes heart disease. All cholesterol lowering drugs, until the recent Statin drugs, shortened life spans. Statin drugs have extended life spans because they are also anti-inflammatories; expensive anti-inflammatories that could be replaced by Boswellia, an herb from the rain forest that costs $12 per bottle, or replaced by aspirin; although, it is not my personal choice.

Our elderly are drugged into oblivion. Visit any elderly care site and you’ll not find a single individual on fewer then three drugs with far too many are on five to fifteen drugs. Once you put a person on three or more drugs, all double blind studies go out the window. No one can tell you the overall results of overmedicating. This is quackery.

Recently, all over the media has been the story of a drug from Canada that might just be a cancer cure, but the problem is its patent has run out. [http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19325874.700-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.html]

This is a terrible problem. We might have a cure for cancer but no one can profit from it. That’s a terrible problem, because who will spend the billion dollars required to prove this drug?

The problem is we have a health care industry that profits from our being ill, not from our being healthy. If we are healthy, the industry suffers.

And yet congress keeps funding pharmaceutical companies and their research.

It is time to cut corporate welfare to the pharmaceutical industry and put that money into our universities. Universities can test cheap alternatives objectively; therapies that can profit no one but can save countless lives. We must study and test non patentable therapies, or we’ll have just more of the same: expensive, dangerous medicine that might just kill more people than it cures.

The problem with our health care system is not that people don’t have access to it. The problem is that our health care system has nothing to do with health.

The primary objective of our medical schools is to teach physicians to fix disease. Our medical schools know nothing about health and wellness, and thus our physicians know nothing about health and wellness. Our health care system is diseased from the start; it is a disease care system.  

We are what we eat, breathe, drink, and think. Any physician who does not believe this is not a healer. Any person who does not believe this is deluded. Any politician who does not believe this does not have a health care solution, and universal health care is just corporate welfare and an empty election promise.

Sincerely,

David Bonello

Editor's Note: Meet Dr Al Sears. We have long admired his work and suddenly we are told he's pretty intrigued about our work. So, we are forming a working relationship. In future newsletters and at this site, we'll be posting articles written by the good doctor and promoting his work.

Al Sears, MD
12794 Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 16
Wellington, FL 33414 March 12, 2007 

There is a simple truth about your diet and your health:

We have been deceived into eating way too much carbohydrate.

A new study “proves” this to my satisfaction but will not end the controversy because financial incentives distort this simple truth.

You will hear results from a new study in this week’s JAMA by researchers at Stanford University. It was the largest and best done study ever to compare popular diets. It proved that women on the Atkins diet lost and kept off significantly more weight than women on other diets.

At the end of one year, women on the Atkins diet lost an average of 10 pounds versus just about 3 pounds for followers of The Zone, Standard, or low-fat diets. What’s more, women on the Atkins diet ended the year with higher HDL (good cholesterol) and lower blood pressure.

In spite of the persecution Atkins faced during his life, he had correctly diagnosed the cause of the modern epidemic of obesity. For the first time, he made it clear that Americans were not getting fat because they were consuming too much fat.

They were getting fat from eating too many carbs.

And this Stanford study is not the first to prove Atkins right:

February 2003: A landmark study that compared the American Heart Association’s low-fat diet to the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet caused greater weight loss and lowered cholesterol and triglycerides much more effectively than a low fat diet of equal calories.

May 2003: The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study that found the Atkins approach beat out the American Heart Association’s low fat approach for both weight loss and blood fats improvement.

Nutrition Week 2003: National meetings recently reported preliminary results of a study performed by Heritage Medical Center on patients with Metabolic Syndrome. Participants ate a low-carb diet for 18 months. Their LDL (“bad” cholesterol) reduced by an average of 82%. HDL (“good” cholesterol) scores increased by an average of 30%.

But Atkins didn’t go far enough in providing a solution…

He was right in noting that dietary fat was not the modern change that had made us fat. But there are other issues with modern fat he neglected:

You must eat more “good” fats than “bad” fats.

By implying that the modern over consumption of omega-6 fatty acids and trans fats in processed and artificially created foods is okay, Atkins failed to get the solution right.

An excess of omega-6 fats, which you’ll find in today’s grain-fed meat, causes inflammation. And this internal swelling leads to arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Artificial trans fats clog your arteries and boost your risk of heart attack.

To get the most out of Atkins’ diet and legacy, cut down your carbs as he recommends. But stay away from the bad fats and focus on getting more of the healthy omega-3 fats.

How do you get back your omega 3 fats we used to get from the internal organs of our catch? Cod liver oil is the most effective way I’ve found.

Cod liver oil builds up your HDL (good cholesterol) and lowers triglycerides (blood fats). It also improves memory and relieves depression.

Cod liver oil plays an important role in fat loss. I’ve seen remarkable results in my patients. And that’s one I never heard Atkins elucidate. Cod liver oil helps you to lose fat by improving your response to blood sugar your sensitivity to insulin. That’s why I use it to treat diabetes. (And others have had good results.¹²³)

Controlling your blood sugar and lowering your insulin is the key to losing fat and keeping it off.

I use 5 grams of cod liver oil daily. You can get our own mercury and PCB-free pure Dr. Sears’ Brand Cod Liver Oil, HERE

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

1 Lombardo YB, et al. Dietary fish oil normalize dyslipidemia and glucose intolerance with unchanged insulin levels in rats fed a high sucrose diet. Biochim.Biophys.Acta 1996;1299:175-82.

2 Chicco A, et al. Effect of moderate levels of dietary fish oil on insulin secretion and sensitivity, and pancreas insulin content in normal rats. Ann.Nutr Metab 1996;40:61-70.

3 Shimizu H, et al. Long-term effect of eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl (EPA-E) on albuminuria of non-insulin dependent diabetic patients. Diabetes Res.Clin Pract. 1995;28:35-40.

And while we're on the subject of cod liver oil ...

We would be remiss not to tell you of two new studies recently published on Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention.

If you have breast or colon cancer in your family, you are warned that you are at risk for these two cancers.

As we’ve seen I this newsletter, the only information most doctors have access to is that vitamins will shorten your life.

However, the study published online in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology concluded that those women with the lowest amounts of vitamin D in their blood had the highest rates of breast cancer. The author’s of the study claim that increasing our vitamin D intake to 2000 IU daily could reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 50%.

The colorectal cancer study was published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine. Quite astonishing, they discovered the same thing that the breast cancer study produced, that a daily intake of 2000 IU could cut the risk of colorectal cancer 50%.

Remember: you can get vitamin D in the sun, and in certain foods: salmon, sardines, shrimp, milk, cod, and eggs. You are also free to supplement with cod liver oil and vitamin D tablets.

So, how do you say “rat poison” in Chinese?

Yup, the rat poison that was found contaminating many brands of pet foods, turned out to be a chemotherapeutic agent in this country (but rat poison in China).

On the serious side, http://www.menufoods.com/recall/ is where you can find a list of foods that are possibly contaminated.

Currently, the news media is abuzz with this one; some people calling for organic pet foods, others initiating a class action lawsuit, and the actual number of animals affected depends on who's telling you.

As a pet lover, this is disturbing. Just luckily, none of the foods I feed mine were tainted.

Last Minute Addition

Someone sent me to Jon Barron's site. I was very impressed.

Alzheimer's disease has been in the news lately. Alzheimer's disease is affecting more and more people; the ranks are growing; it could become an epidemic.

Jon has some of the best research I've read on Alzheimer's. His writing is crisp and clear.

We asked his permission to reprint his articles on Alzheimer's and here they are:

Alzheimer's and Dementia Bullets

Treating and Preventing Alzheimer's

I must have received 30 emails with the subject: Cheap, 'safe' drug kills most cancers.

Here's the story.

Cancer cells metabolize by fermentation. Fermentation requires sugar and the by product is lactic acid.

There is a condition in humans where because of lack of oxygen, muscles overproduce lactic acid. If you are a long distance runner, you know this, because the day after you're muscles are in pain. That pain is caused by lactic acid. Having too much lactic acid in your system is called Lactic Acidosis.

The “new” cancer cure is called DCA or dichloroacetate has been used to treat Lactic Acidosis. Thus, someone got the idea to test this on cancer. If it stops the creation of lactic acid, perhaps it could stop the same process in cancer's metabolization (neat word;  you'll only find two incidences of it in online reference books).

Long story short, it worked. Canadian scientists at the University of Alberta in Edmonton found that DCA killed lung, breast, and brain cancer cells, but not healthy human cells, outside the body (in vitro).

Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks. [NewScientist.com]

The article goes on to quote the publication in which this study was first published:

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar. Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis's experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died (Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020).

Despite the fact that many in the cancer industry would argue the point about mitochondria in cancer cells, the theory goes on that once re-awakened, they activate apoptosis (cell death) in the cancer cells.

“Once reawakened by DCA, mitochondria order the abnormal cancer cells in a tumour to die.”

DCA is considered “relatively safe” and very cheap. It is related to chlorine, and heaven knows we don't have a lack of chlorine in our society.

By the time I got the 30th email on DCA from my wonderful readers, a quick search of the web showed a flood of articles warning people about DCA.

DCA does have side effects: pain, numbness, and gait disturbances in some patients.

So now we have articles telling us that we have a really cheap cancer cure, which, they admit, no pharmaceutical company will ever invest in because they couldn't possibly make a profit from it (funny how everyone seems to agree on this point, while the AMA calls this a conspiracy theory) and others are warning us about DCA's dangers and that we must proceed with caution and not give cancer patient's false hope.

The first paper I discovered that began the debunking of DCA was at the American Cancer Society's pages, written by Dr Len Lichtenfeld. He writes:

Before we replace rational discourse with irrational exuberance, it is my personal opinion that a bit of caution is in order. The basic reason for my conservative view is “been there, done that.”

Ironically, this has been the response of the ACS since it's inception. They've trashed every cheap alternative to come down the pike, even taking Gerson to congressional hearings for promoting food therapies. Today, the ACS publishes pamphlets on diet and nutrition and cancer as if they discovered the connection.

The first thing that Dr Lichtenfeld points out is that a quick scan of medical literature and you'll discover that DCA causes liver cancer in mice.

What he doesn't tell us is that you have to dose the mice quite a bit to get this; and this is why the mice in the Canadian study didn't get the liver tumors.

The good doctor goes on to tell of his experiences; how someone came out and claimed to have a cure and sure enough, after a thorough examination it turned out to be a dead end.

Sadly, when doctors test inexpensive cancer therapies, they do have a tendency to fail, mainly because the study was designed to fail. All you have to do is read the story of Hydrazine Sulfate. If not for the Russians testing HS years later, we'd still think the stuff was useless. However, the scientist who initially studied HS was proved out. His estimates of the efficacy were exactly what the Russians found in their study.

“It is way too soon to know whether this is a cancer treatment breakthrough or an urban legend or something in between,” Dr Lichtenfeld tells us, but then again, he's an oncologist and not a cancer patient.

The number of articles warning people about self medicating with DCA or telling us to sit back and let the system work (as if it's ever worked) are quickly approaching the number of articles praising this new and possible cancer cure.

Where do I stand on it? Read our article Rational Medicine. In there I propose that universities, with funding by the government (the one of the people, by the people, and for the people), test non patentable therapies.

It takes about a billion dollars to pass a drug thru the FDA (and then it still might kill you).

As the original article in New Scientist magazine says:

The next step is to run clinical trials of DCA in people with cancer. These may have to be funded by charities, universities and governments: pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to pay because they can't make money on unpatented medicines. The pay-off is that if DCA does work, it will be easy to manufacture and dirt cheap. [From issue 2587 of New Scientist magazine, 20 January 2007, page 13]

There's that conspiracy theory again: pharmaceutical companies are mean and hateful and only interested in profits.

No, not really. It's business as usual.

Before I leave this subject, I should tell you that there's a web site that is already up and running that will keep us all updated on DCA's progress: www.thedcasite.com

Next, I ran across an article on DCA that came to the same conclusion we have, but then the author says:

Anyway, you’ve learned more about DCA than you care to, or need to, know. That’s because there is another small molecule that deserves more attention. Like DCA, it is a small molecule that can enter the cell nucleus and switch genes on or off. It is perceived by the body as a toxin, but actually is non-toxic, and it is very stealth, it can penetrate any resistant cancer cell. It works in a similar manner to DCA by inducing cancer cell death (apoptosis). The molecule is resveratrol, known as a red wine molecule. Resveratrol appears to kill off cancer cells by depolarizing (demagnetizing) mitochondrial bodies within tumor cells.

Resveratrol is 100 anti-cancer drugs in one. Resveratrol works in so many ways to block cancer, researchers can’t find a cancer-promotion pathway it doesn’t inhibit. It is virtually non-toxic since, after oral ingestion, it is quickly metabolized by the liver, attached to a detoxification molecule called glucuronate, which renders it harmless, though biologically inactive, at least for a time. [About the Latest Cancer Cure]

This I got a kick out of. Right on. If science were really interested in curing cancer, it would study Resveratrol, or Ellagic Acid, or Nerium Oleander Extract.

And as long as we're talking about the buildup of lactic acid and loss of oxygen. Nothing brings oxygen and a solid negative electrical charge into the body like flax oil. We've talked about this a lot at this web site, especially concerning Johanna Budwig's work, and the fine product Omegasentials that has come out of her work.

The list goes on, and on, but sadly, even science has a bottom line: profits. So stay tuned for the next cheap alternative that will be ignored by your cadre of oncologists.

For the latest news on DCA, check out NewScientist.com.

Under Alternative Cancer Therapies, we modified our articles on ABM Mushrooms, Organic Germanium, and Coley's Toxins (we added a site that sells them, and one that is conducting a clinical tiral). We have about seven more alternatives to post. Hopefully we'll do those soon.

Under UV Light we've added new pictures of Sunlight Therapy (Heliotherapy) for TB, as well as a quick little list of what sunlight can do for you.

Additionally, under UV Light, in the article on Photoluminescence Therapy, we list two more sites that offer this therapy, one in Oklahoma and the other in Arizona.

We've taken down all our water articles. We are currently researching and will be rewriting them soon. It seems that one of our sources for this information told us a lot of myths. Because we had no one else at the time to bounce these off, we were taken in. So, we have found a credible source who is offering us a lot of his research, and we will hopefully present it to you in the next newsletter.

We've published a Near Death Experience in our section on the Spirit. This NDE is considered one of the most unique, and most extraordinary NDEs ever described. It is called Through the Light. We thank the author for his permission to republish in our book Bypassing Bypass, and now that we've put the book online (for free), we again thank him for his contribution. I hope you'll all read it.

The Monsanto Video on our home page is missing. Why is it missing? Does Monsanto have enough clout to force Google to remove the video? All we know is that it no longer exists and we don't know where to find another copy. If anyone out there knows who made the video, or where it can be found, please pass this information to us: info@mnwelldir.org.

The most important article we've posted in a long time is called Rational Medicine. This should be the medicine of the future, the medicine of today. Perhaps it will take over profit driven medicine. Perhaps it won't. We can only pray. 

Under the heading of Medical Fraud: Chemotherapy, we have two responses to the articles by people familiar with this stuff. Worth the read: Responses.

And finally, we've published a series of three articles on the politics of cancer that we got from our good friends at cancertutor.com. They are very important articles about a disease that seems to touch us all. They're a bit overwritten, at times; personally I don't think any sentence needs six exclamation points, but the people are passionate, and no one can blame them for that. Here is the first article (the rest are linked): Introduction to Alternative Cancer Treatments - Part 1: The Medicine.

Probiotics for your pipes!

Good for your pipes, good for your septic system, good for the city sewage system, and good for the environment. And if your child gets a hold of it, you won't have to call poison control.

Read All About It!

Because of my hobby of photography, I get as many letters about that as I do about our articles. Many have asked about the camera equipment I use, about how I got a particular shot, techniques, etc. However, a lot of people ask me about the software I use when working with my photos. Some have continued writing asking about video editing software and rippers and DVD editing software.

Well, to tell the truth, I'm not rich enough to buy a lot of programs, but I am blessed with some great readers. Some have sent me copies of software, others have contacted software developers and asked them to send me copies.

You see, before I got into writing about journalism, I was a computer expert. My roots go way back to working with C/PM and beta testing MS DOS 1.0.

I'm much too old to learn new software quickly, but when it comes to reviewing software, my readers would really appreciate software that is easy to learn.

I have created a page where I will be posting my reviews. Like everything I write, they'll be understandable, enough to get you started, and broad enough to give you a taste of the software as if you had hands on experience.

Here is the site: www.mnwelldir.org/docs/p_reviews

Please note that only that page exists for now. I'll be writing the reviews over the next few months. There are still more software packages I expect to receive soon. If you have a suggestion, contact the publishers, tell them about our site, tell them we have over half a million readers, and give them our address.

The worst that can happen is that they can say “no.”

We heard about Nutiva from a reader who complained about hemp and flax products containing phytoestrogen (plant estrogen). We’d known about flax, but not hemp. Yes, there are phytoestrogens in both, but nothing compared to the amounts in most soy products.

We went to the Nutiva web site to take a look. The products Nutiva manufactured sounded interesting. For instance, here is what they say about their HempShakes™:

The powdered shakes contain nourishing superfoods, such as hemp, blueberries, pomegranates, açai and goji berries, maca root, and ramon nuts, that are rich not only in protein but in minerals, antioxidants, and healthful fatty acids. Hemp protein contains 66 percent edestin—easier to digest than soy—and, unlike most soy protein, isn’t processed with hexane solvents.

Nutiva sent us a package filled with a  nice variety of their products.

The first things we tried were the shakes. The first one we tried (a friend and myself) was the chocolate shake. No one doesn’t like chocolate. We couldn’t think of a fruit juice that would blend with chocolate, so we got some organic skim milk. The shake? Not so hot. We really like chocolate in this house.

The second shake we tried that day, was the Berry Pomegranate. Since we had pomegranate juice in the house, we mixed the powder up in 8 oz of that, and BINGO: that was a good drink.

Later that night, we decided to try the last shake, the Amazon Acai. We mixed it with orange juice, and then got a little naughty and put in half a shot of Malibu Coconut Rum. Now THIS shake was EXCELLENT, though not as healthy with the rum in it. However humans do not live by health foods alone, and this was a delightful combination.

They also sent us some of their Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. And yes, it was as good as any we’ve ever tasted.

Finally, they sent us something that seems to be sold out at their site. They explain why this happens occasionally, and we know you'll all want to try it: Organic shelled hempseed.

The hemp is from Canada. Canada seems to be a bit smarter than we down here. Hemp is not Marijuana. Smoke it and you’ll get a headache. It has no natural enemies, so it needs not pesticides. If you grow it close together, it chokes out all weeds, so it needs not herbicides. And finally, there is more protein in an acre of hemp than in an acre of soybeans. And if we’re looking for alternatives to petrochemical oil from the Middle East, one acre of hemp creates 20 barrels of oil.

We immediately made, of course, MUFFINS!

Here is the recipe we used:

Banana Chocolate Chip Hemp Muffins

Makes 8 Texas Sized Muffins
(the big muffin pans are called Texas Muffin Pans here)

If you do not have the coconut flour (we use coconut flour because it’s high in both protein and fiber) you can substitute two cups of organic whole wheat pastry flour, and remember to cut the number of eggs to just two. Coconut flour requires one egg per ounce of coconut flour.

Please note: Diamond V XPC is the product that stimulated the research and production of Epicor. Please read above on Epicor. Also note that Diamond V XPC is NOT really required in this recipe. The muffins are just as great without the XPC.

Combine all the dry ingredients: Hempseed, flour, Diamond V XPC, salt, baking powder, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. Mix together (in a blender) coconut milk, eggs, maple syrup, honey, bananas, and melted coconut oil; and fold in the first dry ingredient mixture.

Note: Finely ground Celtic Sea Salt® Brand can be substituted for Himalayan Crystal Salt.

Pour into oiled muffin tins. It is at this point that I add the chocolate chips. We use milk chocolate extra large chips from our food co-op; they are milk chocolate and are much larger than your original chocolate chip. The chocolate is Fair Trade (meaning the people who produce it make a living wage). I simply fill each muffin location nearly to the top and add some chocolate chips.

Bake at 340 degrees until the mixture begins to rise (about five minutes), then drop the temperature to 325 and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes more. If you press the tops and they bounce back, they're done. At our place, they're ready in just 13 to 15 minutes more after lowering the temp, but we have a convection oven.

Now, these muffins were not as healthy as the Omegasentials version which had fish oils and more fiber than these, but these muffins were light and delicious. One taster said that they were like “fine pastries.” But yes, Hempseed are rich in your omega-3 essential fatty acids, so these are some very healthy snacks.

Finally, they sent us some of their snack bars, with hemp seed, nuts, some had flax seed, but darn, I got to taste only one. I had friends over and they went really quickly. Great healthy snacks charged with honey for quick energy.

Health food doesn’t have to be boring.

Nutiva® is a fine company and deserves our business. They donate some of their profits to non profit organizations, they make healthy products, and their prices are very reasonable. We’re proud that they allowed us to enjoy their products, and hope all of you will visit their website: http://nutiva.com/

Links on Hemp:

http://www.ratical.org/renewables/hempseed1.html

http://nutiva.com/hempinfo.php 

 
Read Our Review

Body Burden is the amount of toxic substances in your body. Some will be there permanently, as the body does not have a method of expelling them.

There have been found some 455 chemical toxins, pesticides, pollutants, and a variety of manufacturing chemicals in blood, urine, and breast milk.

We've already talked about the rocket fuel found in breast milk and DNA adducts of Benzine (attached to a newborn baby's DNA).

But we're not about to stop. We have a few articles we will post here and others we will link to.

The Frightening Truth About Household Products
 By Theresa Allen

Children in America today inhabit a world that is vastly different from that of two generations ago. The traditional infectious diseases have been largely eradicated. The expected life span of a baby born now in the United States is 20 years longer than that of a child born at the beginning of the 20th century. But children today face hazards in the environment that were neither known nor suspected only a few decades ago. There have been at least 75,000 new synthetic chemicals developed and dispersed into our environment and fewer than half of these compounds have ever been tested for their potential toxicity to humans and fewer still have been assessed for their toxicity to children, according to the Office of Children's Health Protection of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Children's Environmental Health Basics: A Brief Fact Sheet lists historical facts that show an increase in birth defects, behavioral disabilities and serious illnesses in children as the production of synthetic chemicals has increased over the past half-century.

According to America's Children and the Environment: Measure of Contaminants, Body Burdens and Illnesses (2003), the incident of cancer in children jumped 26% between 1975 and 1998. The report, In Harm's Way, authored by Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, links chemicals widely used by industry and commonly found at home to learning, behavioral and developmental disabilities. Many of us assume that if products are sold in stores, they are safe. Unfortunately, most of the chemicals in ordinary products that we use or are exposed to every day have not been tested for safety. In the article Making Informed Decisions: Why it is Important to Know What's in the Products You Use by Andrea DesJardins of Earth Angels Association/Health & Environmental Resource Center, DesJardins points out that the liver (our body's most important detoxification organ) can lose as much as 70% of normal functioning before symptoms of liver disease surface. This is just one of the reasons we should all be selective in choosing safe products for our families.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has put together a great tool for educating children on the hazards of chemicals in everyday household products. Learn About Chemicals Around Your House is interactive, fun and very informative for adults too!

This article is not intended to scare, but to educate you so that you can be selective in choosing products that you bring home. It is YOUR responsibility to replace the products in your home with safer products for the protection of your children. It is OUR responsibility as we become more informed, to tell our friends and neighbors to stop using products that contain dangerous chemicals hazardous to both their health and the environment.

The MOM Team educates families on household wellness and shows you how to convert your home to environmentally safe products. We focus on Complete Family Wellness: As you improve your physical wellness, reduce financial pressures and free up your time, you will find yourself in the best position to focus on the needs of your family.

"By the year 2010, an additional $1 Trillion dollars of the US economy will be devoted to the Wellness Industry. People are becoming concerned with the consequences of not living a healthy lifestyle."

========

Contact information: Theresa Allen
Director I The MOM Team
momsonamission@charter.net
(734) 878-9081
www.MomAtHomeWorking.com

Links:

Carcinogens Are Everywhere: A pretty good article at the Life Extension Foundation. Lots of ideas and things we can do proactively.

Pollution In People: Take a tour inside someone who might be your neighbor, your grocer, your child's teacher at school. Then discover the chemicals found in their bodies.

Toxic Chemicals by the Hundred Found in Blood of Newborns: A frightening story of the Body Burden of newborn children.

Chemical Body Burden: Another good site with lots of research into the chemicals found in our blood.

Trade Secrets: A very in-depth PBS program on Body Burden presented by Bill Moyers (who had his blood tested).

Body Burden at the Annieappleseed Project.

Body Burden Chemical Load: A very in depth paper on the history of chemical toxins in our country, health risks, and action you can take.

Dr Green's Body Burden: A pediatrician's take on body burden.

A Body's Burden: This is a Flash presentation. Very well done, but it's over 2MB so if you've got dial up internet, it's going to take at least 10 minutes to download.

That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway

Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First

If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran

Bush. Like a Rock, Only Dumber

If You Can Read This, You're Not Our President

Of Course It Hurts: You're Getting Screwed by an Elephant

Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?

George Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight

Impeachment: It's Not Just for Blow jobs Anymore

America: One Nation, Under Surveillance

They Call Him "W" So He Can Spell It

Whose God Do You Kill For?

Cheney/Satan '08

Jail to the Chief (Left over from the Nixon Campaign)

No, Seriously, Why Did We Invade Iraq?

Bush: God's Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap

Bad President! No Banana.

We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language

We're Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them

Is It Vietnam Yet?

Bush Doesn't Care About White People, Either

Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Hand basket?

You Elected Him. You Deserve Him.

Impeach Cheney First

When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46

Pray For Impeachment

The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century

What Part of "Bush Lied" Don't You Understand?

One Nation Under Clod

2004: Embarrassed; 2005: Horrified; 2006: Terrified

Bush Never Exhaled

At Least Nixon Resigned


For a $10.00 donation, we will make you any two bumper stickers you want, on a white background, and send them to you with no shipping charge.

Reprinted with permission from Mystic Pop Magazine, Nov/Dec Issue 2006
www.mysticpopmagazine.com

“What strange beings we are!” noted the 13th Century mystic Rumi, “That sitting in Hell at the bottom of the dark, we are afraid of our own immortality!” Perhaps it is actually the power to choose our immortality, as well as everything from our personal healing to the peace of our world, that truly frightens us!

A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that it is us —our consciousness— that holds the key to life and even reality itself! In 1967 the pioneering physicist Konrad Zuse married the ideas of consciousness with modern technology and proposed that our universe works like a massive consciousness computer. And just as every computer translates “Input-commands” into “Output-results,” our cosmic consciousness computer appears to do precisely the same thing! When we translate our deepest beliefs into the reality of our world, we are literally re-writing the code that makes the universe appear as it does.

Living In A Participatory Universe

A series of breathtaking discoveries has given us a powerful new way to think of our role in the universe. Rather than the conventional view that suggests we are passive observers, living a brief moment of time in a creation that already exists, the discoveries suggest that it is actually consciousness itself that is responsible for the existence of the universe! Perhaps the most revolutionary discovery supporting this idea, is the scientific fact that when we look at the stuff our world is made of — tiny quantum particles such as an electron, for example — the very act of us watching that electron changes the way it behaves in our presence. What’s more, the longer we look, the more it changes! In 1998, scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science documented this phenomenon showing that “the greater the amount of ‘watching,’ the greater the observer’s influence on what actually takes place.” (Nature, Feb. 26, 1998) Citing such experiments, Princeton University physicist John Wheeler suggests that we not only play a role in the creation of our everyday world, but we play the prime role in what he calls a “participatory universe.” Wheeler states that we can no longer think of ourselves merely as onlookers who have no effect on the world around us, because it is impossible to simply watch. If we are alive and conscious, then we are affecting our world. “The old word ‘observer,’” he says, “simply has to be crossed off the books…and we must put in the new word ‘participator!” The key to Wheeler’s proposition is the word “participatory.” In a participatory universe, you and I are part of the equation. We are both creating the events of our lives, as well as the experiencers of what we create. Both are happening at the same time! In other words, we are like artists expressing our deepest passions, fears, dreams, and desires through the living essence of a mysterious quantum canvas. The difference between us and conventional artists, however, is that we are the canvas, as well as the images upon the canvas. We are the tools as well as the artists using the tools. And just as artists refine an image until it is just right in their minds, we may think of ourselves as perpetual artists, building a creation that is ever changing and never ending. Through our artist’s palette of beliefs, judgments, emotions, and prayers, we find ourselves in relationships, jobs, and situations of support and betrayal that play out with different people in different places. What a beautiful, bizarre, and powerful concept.

Living from the Answer

From the perspective of us participating in an ever-changing universe, the solution to any condition is a change in attitude and belief. And this is the great secret of propelling our heart’s desires from the possibility of imagination, to the reality of our everyday lives. The key is our ability to feel as if our dreams have already come to life, our prayers already answered, and live from that feeling. There is a subtle, and yet powerful difference between working toward a result, and feeling from that result. When we work toward something, we embark upon an open-ended and never-ending journey. While we may identify milestones, and set goals to get us closer to our accomplishment, in our mind we are always “on our way” to the goal, rather than in the experience of accomplishing our goal. This is precisely why Neville’s invitation to “enter the image” of our heart’s desire and “think from it” is so powerful in our lives. In the ancient studies of martial arts, we see a beautiful metaphor in the physical world for precisely the way this principle works in consciousness. When martial artists choose to break a concrete block as a demonstration of focus, for example, the very last thing in their minds is the place where their hand will touch that block. The key is to place our focus upon the completed act: the healing already accomplished, or the brick already broken. As a student of the martial arts, I was taught to do this by focusing on a point in space that is beyond the bottom of the block. The only way that my hand could be at that point was if it had already passed through the brick. In this way, I was thinking from the completion, rather than how hard it would be to get to the completion. I was feeling the joy of what it feels like to accomplish the act, rather than all of the things that must happen before I could be successful. This simple example offers a powerful analogy for precisely the way that consciousness seems to work. And this is the great secret that has been protected and preserved for us in wisdom of our past. From the monasteries of Egypt and Tibet to the forgotten texts of our most cherished traditions we are reminded that we are part of, rather than separate from, the world around us. As part of everything we see, we have the power to participate — not control or manipulate — but to consciously chart the course of our lives and our world. Please don’t be deceived by the simplicity of contemporary philosopher Goddard Neville’s words when he suggests that all we need to do is to “assume the feeling of our wish fulfilled.” In a participatory universe of our own making, why would we expect that peace, healing, and a long and healthy life should be any more difficult?

Editor's Note: This article came from an online newsletter I receive called DOCTORS HEALTH e-BULLETIN published by the Doctors Health Press. We have heard from many sources that this "technique" is making a comeback. However, please read the note at the end of the article.

It might sound like something from the Middle Ages, conjuring up dark images for many of us, but blood-letting is now being considered as a potentially beneficial treatment for some heart disease patients.

Blood-letting was a medical practice that was used quite commonly during ancient times, in many different cultures, and right up to the 19th Century. Basically, it was thought that removing substantial quantities of blood from the body would prevent or cure many different conditions for a variety of reasons that we won't go into right now. For the most part, this technique has died out, as it proved to be ineffective (and sometimes dangerous). However, it's currently being investigated for a few diseases, including peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Many medical professionals believe that there is a link between a high level of iron in the body and the risk of developing heart disease. However, this theory is controversial. It is thought that the body, unable to excrete iron (except in the case of premenopausal women), can build up the mineral to a point where it can cause oxidative damage. For this reason, it makes sense that bringing the level of iron in the body down could reduce a person's vulnerability to heart problems.

That's the reasoning behind this latest study, anyway. So, to see if there could be such a link, researchers decided to see if removing blood (thus, iron) could help people with PAD.

Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) can affect the veins, arteries, or lymph vessels. PAD is the most prevalent form of this disease -- eight to 12 million Americans are living with it. What occurs is that fatty deposits ("plaque") build up on the inner artery walls, slowing down and sometimes blocking blood flow. Eventually, such a blockage can lead to heart attack or stroke.

Another dangerous thing about this condition is that many people, especially women, don't realize that they have it. One reason is that 75% of PAD sufferers have absolutely no symptoms at all. A second reason is the insidiousness of the most common symptom: cramping in the hips, thighs, or calves. This is caused by "intermittent claudication," which basically means that, because the arteries are blocked by plaque, not enough blood is getting to your muscles, causing pain.

However, most people don't pay much attention to cramps, leaving PAD to flourish untreated. If you're feeling any type of pain in your leg area while moving, make sure you mention it to your doctor.

The recent PAD trial was based on within the Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program's Iron and Atherosclerosis Study (FeAST), which occurred between 1999 and 2005. U.S. researchers performed a random study involving 1,277 adults with PAD. Half of the patients received blood-letting therapy, also known as "phlebotomy," every six months. The other half was maintained as a control group.

At the end of the study, there was no significant difference between the groups when it came to mortality rate, either due to any cause or to heart attack/stroke. However, when looked at from an age standpoint, the numbers took on a different meaning. Study subjects between the ages of 43 and 61 who had had blood-letting saw some significant benefit.

Specifically, there were 54% fewer mortalities from all causes and 57% fewer after non-fatal heart attack or stroke in this group. Benefits were also seen in smokers and non-diabetics. Therefore, blood-letting could have a role in preventing heart-disease-related deaths -- but only if it's done early enough in life. More studies need to be done in order to back up these findings before blood-letting can be recommended as a prevention technique in PAD.

Sources:

Zacharski, L.R., "Reduction of Iron Stores and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease," JAMA, February 14, 2007; http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/6/603

"Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)," American Heart Association, accessed February 20, 2007; http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3020242

Gardner, A., "Blood-Letting Treatment Might Help Some Heart Patients," HealthDay News, February 13, 2007; http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.asp?docID=601870

Editor's Note: Maslow once said: If the only tool you have is hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.

I laughed when I read this article, and then I got mad.

Vitamin C bonds with iron and then you pass it. This is how simple the problem of excess iron can be handled. But do not expect your doctor to prescribe vitamin C. 

ANAEMIA: Major warning on drugs that kill

A major health alert has been issued on a class of drugs that treats anaemia. The drugs, known as erythropoiesis stimulating agents, cause fatal cancers and heart problems.

In an earlier study that involved 1,432 patients, 222 suffered heart problems, some of which were fatal.

America’s drugs watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration, has issued a federal alert about the drugs, and will review their continued availability at a meeting next month. In the meantime, the FDA is advising doctors to keep dosages low.

The drugs are big business.  In 2002, the latest year when figures are available, global sales had reached $8.1bn (£4.2bn), an increase of 18 per cent on the previous year.

The drugs are routinely given to patients who are anaemic following chronic renal failure, cancer, chemotherapy treatment, or HIV and AIDS.
(Source:  The FDA website).

Have you heard the fish oil advertisements that tell you "We Icelanders live longer than anyone else in the world!"

Well, here are the latest longevity figures:

I've Got A Headache

German police baffeled by Bush poo-flags : Indybay

Priests to purify site after Bush visit

As a gun owner, a hunter, and a member of the NRA, I am still appalled that these guns can be purchased in the US. They must be restricted to military use.
50 Caliber Sniper Rifle

Fair Elections

Please, it is up to us, each and every one of us, to petition our government and demand Fair Elections.

Sign The Petition

“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” Joseph Stalin

Filed under: Promise Her Anything

In 2000, Team Bush took over the Republican Party and laid out its promises to the American people.  The following pledges and claims are taken directly from the 2000 GOP Platform. 

Honest Government
“Trust, pride, and respect: we pledge to restore these qualities to the way Americans view their government.”

Keeping Intelligence Free of Politics
"Nor should the intelligence community be made the scapegoat for political misjudgments. A Republican administration working with the Congress will respect the needs and quiet sacrifices of these public servants as it strengthens America's intelligence and counter-intelligence capabilities…”

Diplomacy and Maintaining Allies
“The arrogance, inconsistency, and unreliability of the [Clinton] administration's diplomacy have undermined American alliances, alienated friends, and emboldened our adversaries."

Endless Military Missions, Exit Strategies and Troop Readiness
"The current administration has casually sent American armed forces on dozens of missions without clear goals, realizable objectives, favorable rules of engagement, or defined exit strategies.” [Emphasis added.]

"Sending our military on vague, aimless, and endless missions rapidly saps morale. Even the highest morale is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, inadequate training, and rapidly declining readiness. When it comes to military health, the administration is not providing an adequate military health care system…"

Restoring the Rule of Law and the Justice Department
The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice. The credibility of those who now manage the nation’s top law enforcement agency is tragically eroded. We are fortunate to have its dedicated career workforce, especially its criminal prosecutors, who have faced the unprecedented politicization of decisions regarding both personnel and investigations.”

Gas Prices (then $1.55 per gallon)
“Today, gas prices have skyrocketed, and oil imports are at all-time highs....By any reasonable standard, the Department of Energy has utterly failed in its mission to safeguard America’s energy security. “

Did you know that:

• Feeding children hot dogs increases their risk of brain cancer by 300%?

• Strawberry yogurt, fruit punch and other red-looking grocery products are often colored with dead, ground-up cochineal beetles? The ingredient is called "carmine," and it's made from insects. It's listed right on the label of many of your favorite foods.

• Food companies now "hide" MSG in safe-sounding ingredients like yeast extract or torula yeast?

• Many Florida oranges are actually dipped in an artificial orange dye in order to make them more visually appealing? It's the same dye that's been banned for use in foods because of cancer risk.

• Girl Scout cookies are still made with hydrogenated oils that contain trans fatty acids?

• Many so-called "healthy" or vegetarian foods also contain the very same offending ingredients as conventional groceries?

• Eating just one serving of processed meats each day increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%?

• One artificial color additive causes behavioral disorders in children?

• And that 80% of children diagnosed with ADHD can be outright cured of the condition in two weeks by avoiding certain ingredients?

• The #1 ingredient in Slim Fast meal replacement shake (powder form) is sugar?

• Some guacamole dips don't even contain avocado? Instead, they're made with hydrogenated soybean oil and artificial colors.

Source: Newstarget.com

Can you guess which of the following are true and which are false? (Answers below, above the copyright notice, but don't peek!)

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. (I don't see how this could be true.)

3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.

4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.

5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!

6. Only 7 per cent of the population are lefties.

7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.

8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.

9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.

10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.

11 The average housefly lives for one month.

12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.

14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.

15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.

16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.

17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.

18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.

19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."

20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South CarolinaStateanthem.

21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.

22. Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.

23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.

24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.

25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.

26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

Ike's Farewell
A warning to all future generations.

Amazing Illusion

The Torture Memos

My friend, KooKoo the fox, passed away after 14 glorious years in the care of my good friend Peggy. In the wild, a fox lives about 4 years.

NATIONAL ORGANIC STANDARDS BOARD STACKED WITH INDUSTRY REPS
The USDA, behind closed doors, recently announced several highly questionable appointees to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). Despite calls from the organic community to let the public know ahead of time who the nominees were, the USDA kept the names of the nominees secret. The NOSB advises the USDA on how to interpret and implement national organic standards. Despite federal law that mandates that the 15-member NOSB must be broadly representative of the organic community, the USDA's recent appointees are all notable for their past or present ties to corporate agribusiness. For example the appointee for the seat reserved for a "Consumer and Public Interest Group Representative" was given to Tracy Miedema, who works for Stahlbush Island Farms, a split-farm operation with 3/4 of its acreage non-organic. Miedema, who previously worked for a subsidiary of General Mills (Small Planet) freely admits that Stahlbush utilizes Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, as well as other chemical pesticides and fungicides. The USDA's appointee for the seat reserved for a scientist is Katrina Heinze, who works for Small Planet/General Mills, a company with a hardball reputation for selling sugar-laden cereals to kids, supporting GMOs, and industrial agriculture. Heinze was forced to resign from the NOSB last year, under pressure from the OCA and the Consumer's Union, after being appointed "consumer representative" to the NOSB. Another one of the "organic experts" appointed to this powerful government board is a representative of Campbell's Soup. Please tell the USDA that organic consumers want all nominees and future appointments to be made in a fair and transparent manner and that we believe the current crop of pro-industry appointees are completely unacceptable.
Learn more and take action: http://www.organicconsumers.org/rd/nosb.cfm

"A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam. When American uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming." George Bush 2000 RNC

Kitelife Magazine - Ray Bethell (Promo Video)

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month (8/23). The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. She dictated and I wrote:

Dear God,

Will you please take special care of our dog, Abbey? She died yesterday

and is in heaven. We miss her very much. We are happy that you let us have her as our dog even though she got sick. I hope that you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and swim before she got sick. I am sending some pictures of her so that when you see her in heaven you will know she is our special dog. But I really do miss her.

Love,

Meredith Claire
ps: Mommy wrote the words after Mer told them to her

We put that in an envelope with 2 pictures of Abbey, and addressed it to

God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Mer stuck some stamps on the front (because, as she said, it may take lots of stamps to get a letter all the way to heaven) and that afternoon I let her drop it into the letter box at the post office.

For a few days, she would ask if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had. Yesterday, for Labor Day, we took the kids to Austin to a natural history museum. When we got back, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch. Curious, I went to look at it. It had a gold star card on the front and said "To: Mer" in an unfamiliar hand.

Meredith took it in and opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers, "When a Pet Dies ". Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God, in it's opened envelope (which was marked Return to Sender:  Insufficient address). On the opposite page, one of the pictures of Abbey was taped under the words "For Meredith." We turned to the back cover, and there was the other picture of Abbey, and this handwritten note on pink paper:

Dear Mer,

I know that you will be happy to know that Abbey arrived safely and soundly in Heaven! Having the pictures you sent to me was such a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.  You know, Meredith, she isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me--just like she stays in your heart--young and running and playing. Abbey loved being your dog, you know. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets!—so I can't keep your beautiful letter. I am sending it to you with the pictures so that you will have this book to keep and remember Abbey.

One of my angels is taking care of this for me. I hope the little book helps.

Thank you for the beautiful letter. Thank your mother for sending it. What a wonderful mother you have! I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am in heaven and wherever there is love.

Love,

God, and the special angel who wrote this after God told her the words.

As a parent and a pet lover, this is one of the kindest things that I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is some very kind soul working in the dead letter office. Just wanted to share this act of compassion. 

* * *

What We Call The News - Funny Video Animation by JibJab

* * *

An elderly gentleman went to the local drug store and asked the pharmacist for the little blue "Viagra" pills.

The pharmacist asked, "How many?"

The man replied, "Just a few, maybe a half dozen.  I cut each one into four pieces."

The pharmacist said, "That's too small a dose.  That won't get you through intimacy."

The old fellow said, "Oh, I'm past eighty years old and I don't even think about intimacy much anymore.  I just want it to stick out far enough so I don't pee on my new golf shoes."

* * *

 A very elderly gentleman, (mid nineties) very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well looked-after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge. Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady, in her mid-eighties.

The gentleman walks over, sits alongside of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I come here often?"

***

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years.

He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%.

The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again."

The gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I've changed my will three times!"

***

Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says: "Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?"

Slim says, "I feel just like a newborn baby."

"Really!? Like a newborn baby!?"

"Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants.

***

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, "Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly."

The other man said, "What is the name of the restaurant?"

The first man thought and thought and finally said, "What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know... the one that's red and has thorns."

"Do you mean a rose?"

"Yes, that's the one," replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, "Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"

***

Hospital regulations require a wheelchair for patients being discharged However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman -- already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet -- who insisted he didn't need my help to leave the hospital.

After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let me wheel him to the elevator. On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him.

"I don't know," he said. "She's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown."

***

A couple in their nineties are both having problems remembering things. During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're physically okay, but they might want to start writing things down to help them remember.

Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair "Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?" he asks.

"Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?" "Sure." "Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?" she asks. "No, I can remember it."

"Well, I'd like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down, so's not to forget it?"

He says, "I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries."

"I'd also like whipped cream. I'm certain you'll forget that, write it down?" she asks.

Irritated, he says, "I don't need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!"

Then he toddles into the kitchen. After about 20 minutes, the old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.

She stares at the plate for a moment. "Where's my toast?"

***

A senior citizen said to his eighty-year old buddy: "So I hear you're getting married?"

"Yep!"

"Do I know her?"

"Nope!"

"This woman, is she good looking?"

"Not really."

"Is she a good cook?"

"Naw, she can't cook too well."

"Does she have lots of money?"

"Nope! Poor as a church mouse."

"Well, then, is she good in bed?"

"I don't know."

"Why in the world do you want to marry her then?"

"Because she can still drive!"

***

Three old guys are out walking. First one says, "Windy, isn't it?" Second one says, "No, it's Thursday!" Third one says, "So am I. Let's go get a beer."

***

A man was telling his neighbor, "I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me four thousand dollars, but it's state of the art. It's perfect."

"Really," answered the neighbor. "What kind is it?"

"Twelve thirty."

***

Morris, an 82 year-old man, went to the doctor to get a physical.  A few days later, the doctor saw Morris walking down the street with a gorgeous young woman on his arm. A couple of days later, the doctor spoke to Morris and said, "You're really doing great, aren't you?"

Morris replied, "Just doing what you said, Doc: 'Get a hot mamma and be cheerful.'"

The doctor said, "I didn't say that. I said, 'You've got a heart murmur; be careful.'"

***

A little old man shuffled slowly into an ice cream parlor and pulled himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool. After catching his breath, he ordered a banana split. The waitress asked kindly, "Crushed nuts?"

"No," he replied, "Arthritis."

***

He was the city's most successful lawyer. So a United Way volunteer paid the lawyer a visit in his lavish office.

The volunteer opened the meeting by saying, "Our research shows that even though your annual income is over two million dollars, you don't give a penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give something back to your community through the United Way?"

The lawyer thinks for a minute and says, "First, did your research also show you that my mother is dying after a long, painful illness and she has huge medical bills that are far beyond her ability to pay?"

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbles, "Uh... no, I didn't know that."

Secondly," says the lawyer, "my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair and is unable to support his wife and six children."

The stricken United Way rep begins to stammer an apology, but is cut off again.

"Thirdly, did your research also show you that my sister's husband died in a dreadful car accident, leaving her penniless with a mortgage and three children, one of whom is disabled and another that has learning disabilities requiring a huge array of private tutors?"

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, says, "I'm so sorry, I had no idea."

And the lawyer says,   "So...if I didn't give any money to them, what makes you think I'd give any to you?"

* * *

Just Too Precious