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Adderall has Extreme Side Effects, but FDA Says Keep Taking it

(NaturalNews) The attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug Adderall is known to cause serious physical side effects including heart attack, stroke, elevated blood pressure and heart rate, and even sudden death. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aware of this and more, but insists that people continue taking the drug anyway.

Adderall is basically a cocktail of various amphetamine stimulants and is often referred to as "prescription speed". And because it is similar in makeup to illegal methamphetamines, it is highly addictive.

So in addition to its many side effects, users will have a difficult time functioning without Adderall once they start taking it.

Adderall also comes with a full slate of mental side effects as well as physical ones. Ironically, the drug can actually cause behavior to become worse, leaving one to wonder how or why such a drug was ever approved as a legitimate medicine to treat a disorder that it may actually aggravate.

Taking Adderall can also thwart proper brain function, increase behavioral aggression, and even cause episodes of psychosis in which the patient becomes maniacal and starts hearing voices.

In other words, it is absolutely insane for this dangerous drug to be on the market, let alone be touted as a safe medicine for children. And the FDA is aware of the seriously dangerous nature of this drug because it warned the public back in 2009 about its many extreme side effects.

The FDA conducted its own study of Adderall's effects on children and early data pointed to the fact that the drug increases the risk of sudden death in children. But neither the study nor any of the other facts about the drug's dangerous effects prompted the FDA to actually pull the drug from the market. In fact, the FDA made a point of denying the results of its own study and insisting that patients continue to take the drug.

The best way to deal with ADHD is to focus on getting proper nutrition, which includes supplementing with powerful superfoods. Cleansing the body of built-up toxins and feeding it with rich nutrients is the number one priority when trying to maintain mental clarity and boost energy and focus.

Remember to avoid excessive caffeine, refined sugars and processed foods, because these things only help to intensify the undesirable symptoms.

Sources for this story include:

http://topnews.us/content/218105-despite-detrimental-side-effects-adderall-fda-advises-not-stop-giving-drug-patients

Australia Bans Flu Vaccines in Children After Vomiting, Fevers, Seizures

(NaturalNews) Although it's still summer in North America, it is of course winter in Australia, and the flu season is well under way there. As usual, Australian health authorities have been urging parents there to vaccinate their children against the flu, propagating the mythology that flu vaccines are both safe and effective. But this time around, many Australian parents found out the hard way that they were being lied to.

It didn't take long to realize the truth after their children start going into convulsions following the flu vaccine injections. Other children began vomiting or exhibiting dangerously high levels of fever. One child has gone into a coma and may never recover.

As reported in WA Today (http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/flu-vaccination-ban-goes-national-after-fever-convulsions-in-children-20100423-tglp.html?from=age_ft)

"Perth mother of two Bea Flint said her 11-month-old boy Avery had a seizure after receiving the first dose of the two-dose flu vaccination on Saturday. Mrs Flint said that after the 9am vaccination she noticed Avery had a minor temperature about 2pm. At 7.45pm, Avery started whimpering and moaning. When Mrs Flint got to his cot the baby had vomited and was lying on his side having a seizure. 'He couldn't cry - his head was hanging down in the car seat and he couldn't move. I was petrified - it was one of the worst experiences of my life."

The story goes on to say, "The doctor who treated Avery told Mrs Flint her baby was the fifth child with similar symptoms admitted to the hospital that day."

In other words, this was no rare event. Vaccinated children suffering severe convulsions were piling up in hospital emergency rooms across the country.

The real kicker, though, is that children started having convulsions two weeks ago but Australian health authorities ignored them, insisting that the vaccine was safe and causing it to be injected in yet more babies. Two weeks later, with dozens more children experiencing convulsions (and who knows how many thousands actually being harmed in less obvious ways), Commonwealth chief health officer Professor Jim Bishop finally announced the vaccination ban.

Remember: Health authorities in Australia, UK, the United States and everywhere else have relentlessly insisted that flu vaccines are perfectly safe and can't possibly harm anyone. In the U.S., the FDA has given its approval to the very same flu vaccine that's harming children in Australia, and the CDC has insisted that all children in the USA -- regardless of age -- should now be injected with this very same flu vaccine.

So now we've got a vaccine that Australia has banned by the USA somehow says is safe enough to inject into a six-month-old infant. How many convulsing babies will it take in the U.S. before American parents realize the truth about flu vaccines?

Chemically induced convulsions
As you're reading this, you may find yourself wonder, "Well, what could cause such convulsions in children?"

The answer is more terrifying than you might think, because it's not "weakened flu viruses" that vaccine manufacturer claim they put into the vaccines. A weakened flu virus doesn't send children into convulsions. Only a chemical can do that.

The chemical in question is one that's routinely added to most vaccines as a way to aggravate the immune system to respond to the presence of the weakened virus. It's called an "adjuvant" and consists of a highly inflammatory chemical that we now know may damage brain tissues and the nervous system. It is this adjuvant that most likely caused the convulsions in children.

Even in children who don't experience convulsions, there is speculation that this adjuvant may lead to future Alzheimer's disease or other neurological disorders. Vaccine manufacturers always attempt to downplay their use of adjuvant chemicals, and few media outlets focus on this important point, but it is the adjuvant that is most likely responsible for sending these Australian children into hospitals with convulsions.

Health authorities defend dangerous vaccine
One thing I've noticed about vaccine pushers is that they behave like irrational zealots. No matter how much evidence surfaces about the dangers of vaccines, they continue to mindlessly push them while ignoring the evidence.

A pediatric professor in Australia, Dr Peter Richmond, admitted that researchers were trying to figure out if the entire vaccine was dangerous, or if there was just a bad batch. But even before getting the answer to this question, he goes on to say that everybody over the age of five should go ahead and get injected with this same vaccine! (http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/flu-vaccination-ban-goes-national-after-fever-convulsions-in-children-20100423-tglp.html?from=age_ft)

In other words, he's so convinced the vaccine is safe -- even after dozens of children were obviously harmed by it -- that he's still pushing the same dangerous vaccine onto everybody else!

This is precisely the kind of attitude reflected across the vaccine industry. Reports of children being harmed, or paralyzed, or hospitalized by vaccines are always written off as "coincidence." The mounting evidence is simply thrown out the window because it conflicts with the pro-vaccine agenda.

Can you imagine the outrage if an herbal product sent fifty kids to the hospital suffering from convulsions? Health authorities across the world would be quick to condemn the product, and they'd confiscate it right off the shelves while shutting down the operations of its manufacturer. But somehow when a vaccine does the same thing, these same health authorities urge people to keep on injecting their children with it!

It makes no sense. But then again, the vaccine industry was never based on rational thinking in the first place. If health authorities were truly rational, they'd be handing out vitamin D supplements to children instead of injecting them with vaccines, because vitamin D has been scientifically proven to provide better protection against the flu than vaccines. (http://www.naturalnews.com/029333_vitamin_D_flu_vaccines.html)

Of course, to ask health authorities to make rational decisions is sort of like asking politicians to start telling the truth. In the complicated world of profits and politics, rational, honest thinking just doesn't get any traction. It's far more profitable to keep lying to the world and raking in billions of dollars each year off dangerous vaccines, even as they continue to harm innocent children.

I often wonder... How many dead children will it take before parents wake up and realize that flu vaccines are dangerous? The answer may surprise you: Even a million dead children won't change the minds of most parents because they just do whatever they're told by health authorities, even if it makes no rational sense.

Most parents are so brainwashed by the medical system that they would gladly line up to have their babies injected with chemotherapy if they were told it was somehow necessary.

At some point, the parents whose babies are being harmed or potentially even killed by these vaccines can only blame themselves. They were the ones who brought their babies to be injected with a chemical adjuvant and viral fragments, and they should know better than to trust the government when it comes to health advice. The government, after all, still says that pharmaceutical chemicals are good for you while vitamins, herbs and natural remedies are dangerous. And it's the government that approved the very vaccines that are right now sending these children to the hospital.

Any parent that trusts the government with the health of their child is setting themselves up for catastrophe. And that catastrophe could very well cost them the life of their child.

Additional sources for this story include: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7918351/Flu-jab-linked-to-fits-in-under-fives-officials.html

Bottled Tea Beverages Contain Little or No Antioxidants

(NaturalNews) Countless studies over the years about the health benefits of tea -- particularly green tea -- have driven many health-conscious consumers to stock up on all the latest tea beverages that claim to improve health. But a recent study has shown that most commercial bottled tea drinks contain virtually no antioxidants and a whole lot of sugar or artificial sweeteners.

"Consumers understand very well the concept of the health benefits from drinking tea or consuming other tea products," explained Shiming Li, Ph.D., an analytical and natural product chemist, concerning the study. "However, there is a huge gap between the perception that tea consumption is healthy and the actual amount of the healthful nutrients -- polyphenols -- found in bottled tea beverages. Our analysis of tea beverages found that the polyphenol content is extremely low."

Polyphenols are the unique antioxidants commonly found in freshly-brewed tea that exhibit anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic effects on the body. But after analyzing six different brands of bottled tea beverages, Li and his colleagues discovered that three contained "virtually no" polyphenols, and the others had so little that they provided little benefit.

To put this into perspective, an average cup of home-brewed green or black tea contains anywhere from 50 to 150 milligrams of polyphenols. The bottled teas examined, on the other hand, contained as little as three milligrams of polyphenols per bottle.

"Someone would have to drink bottle after bottle of these teas in some cases to receive health benefits," emphasized Li.

Part of the reason why commercial bottled teas contain so little polyphenols is that these antioxidants are what give tea its bitter flavor. So in order to appeal to the masses, commercial producers often dilute, process and sweeten the tea to make it more appealing to consumers.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/acs-btb080610.php

FDA Uses Massive Egg Recall to Push for Egg Pasteurization

(NaturalNews) Amid the massive egg recall currently underway over potential salmonella poisoning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been working hard to push its pasteurization agenda. The agency recently made an announcement recommending that all grocery stores and restaurants begin stocking pasteurized eggs instead of raw ones.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of salmonella cases being reported has been steadily increasing throughout the summer. Rather than the average 50 illnesses reported each week, June and July saw numbers as high as 200 per week, prompting a response from the FDA.

However, in typical FDA fashion, the agency has decided to ignore the actual cause of illness and contamination -- filthy, industrialized food production systems -- and instead call for all eggs to be cooked before being sold to consumers.

Other recent outbreak scares include both spinach and tomato recalls, after which the FDA made similar recommendations urging produce irradiation as the solution. But this philosophy fails to address the real problem with the current food system.

The industrial food system is both unsustainable and unhealthy. Whether with animals or produce, the methods typically used to raise food commercially are toxic and unsanitary, and are actually responsible for causing food contamination. Animals and produce that are raised organically and naturally, the way nature intended, do not become contaminated with salmonella.

But none of this phases the nation's regulatory agencies, which continue to push for killing food rather than trying to clean up the system and fix the problem at the source.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pasteurized-shell-and-liquid-eggs-recommended-by-food-and-drug-administration-in-wake-of-massive-egg-recall-100980639.html

Obesity Linked to Poor Sperm Quality

(NaturalNews) Young men now have a new incentive to stay lean and fit. According to a new report in the journal Fertility and Sterility, overweight young men have poorer sperm quality than their peers of a more healthy weight do.

The findings reveal that not only do overweight men have lower sperm counts, but their sperm are less mobile and less able to travel in the right direction as opposed to simply swimming aimlessly. In other words, overweight men between the ages of 20 and 30 may have a much harder time becoming fathers than leaner, fitter men will.

Researchers say it is unclear whether or not the difference in sperm quality is significant enough to affect overall fertility, but they believe that it could, and that further research is necessary.

For the study, Dr. Uwe Paasch and his team from the University of Leipzig in Germany analyzed more than 2,000 men who had visited fertility clinics between 1999 and 2005 to test their sperm quality. None of these men had any known fertility problems at the time.

Based upon the analysis, overweight men from this group had lower sperm counts than normal-sized men, but generally all the men were still in the "normal" range. However, this range is quite large, spanning between 20 and 150 million sperm per millimeter of semen, which may affect fertility.

Other studies suggest that the reason why overweight men have poorer sperm quality is due to imbalanced hormone levels caused by excess fat. Obese men can have levels of estrogen that are too high, while their testosterone levels are below normal levels. So it is important for men to maintain healthy body fat levels.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67A44F20100811

SAMe Supplement Effective at Treating Depression, Study Finds

(NaturalNews) Researchers recently completed a study revealing that the increasingly popular supplement S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe) is an effective treatment for people with depression. The substance, which occurs naturally in the body, exerts influence on the brain in ways that improve brain function, alleviate stress and feelings of depression and reduce inflammation.

For the study, scientists administered either 1,600 milligrams (mg) of SAMe or a placebo on top of participants' existing medication regimens for six weeks. Following this period, the team found that those participants taking SAMe experienced better relief from depression that did those simply taking conventional antidepressants.

And since SAMe is naturally produced in the body, there are no negative side effects from taking it like there are from taking chemical antidepressant drugs.

According to Dr. George Papakostas, author of the study and psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the results are "exciting because [SAMe] works differently than what we have now -- it doesn't seem to be associated with the kind of side effects that FDA-approved treatments for this niche have."

And this is good news for many who have experienced devastating side effects from taking antidepressants. SAMe is not only a viable alternative to these pharmaceutical drugs, but it exerts many other positive changes within the body as well.

"SAMe is a naturally occurring molecule present in all living cells, and is made in the body by a reaction between methionine and another compound called adenosyntriphosphate (ATP). It has many incredible benefits, including a positive effect on depression and arthritis pain...it helps the liver to replenish important substances, notably the all-important glutathione," explains Johny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., in his book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67C30P20100813

http://www.naturalpedia.com/Methionine.html

Achieving Muscle Fatigue, Not Lifting Heavy Weights, Key to Building Healthy Muscle

(NaturalNews) A new study out of McMaster University says that lifting heavy weights is not the best way to gain healthy muscle mass. Lifting lighter weights until your muscles are tired is better, they say.

"Rather than grunting and straining to lift heavy weights, you can grab something much lighter but you have to lift it until you can't lift it anymore," explained Stuart Phillips, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster. "We're convinced that growing muscle means stimulating your muscle to make new muscle proteins, a process in the body that over time accumulates into bigger muscles."

Many people struggle with the idea of having to lift heavy amounts of weight in order to gain strength. But this new research offers a viable alternative that is not only easier to achieve, but that will put less strain on other areas of the body that are prone to being damaged by heavy lifting regimens.

The team examined subjects by giving them "heavy" weights that represented 90 percent of what they could physically lift, as well as "light" weights that were about 30 percent of what they could lift. Muscle fatigue occurs after between five and ten lifts of a weight that is 80 to 90 percent of what a person can lift, but according to study results, the same muscle fatigue is achieved after lifting the lighter weight about 25 times.

This is good news for everyone, especially for elderly and otherwise ill or injured people that are working towards building much-needed muscle mass. Now they can perform muscle building exercises that are easier for them but that will help to achieve the same results.

"We're excited to see where this new paradigm will lead," emphasized Phillips.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/mu-bmd081110.php

Antibiotics on the Verge of Becoming Completely Useless

NaturalNews) The journal Lancet Infectious Diseases recently published a sobering piece about how antibiotics are becoming wholly ineffective as treatments for infection. According to the report, even the most powerful antibiotics available are largely inadequate at tackling the emerging forms of new and powerful "super" bacteria.

Antibiotic overuse has become a pandemic problem. They are used in animal feed to make animals grow more quickly and they are handed out like candy by many doctors to people with almost any ailment. And they are simply not working anymore to fight infection.

Published by Professor Tim Walsh and his colleagues, the paper explains how a new gene called NDM 1 is changing the way infectious bacteria survive. The NDM 1 gene passes among bacteria like E. Coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and makes them resistant to antibiotics. Even carbapenems, the most powerful antibiotics available, are no match for these new bacteria.

"This is potentially the end. There are no antibiotics in the pipeline that have activity against NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae. We have a bleak window of maybe ten years where we are going to have to use the antibiotics we have very wisely, but also grapple with the reality that we have nothing to treat these infections with," explained Walsh in a recent Guardian piece.

According to Dr. Livermore, director of the antibiotic resistance monitoring and reference laboratory at the U.K. Health Protection Agency, the entirety of modern medicine could collapse as a result of antibiotics becoming useless.

"A lot of modern medicine would become impossible if we lost our ability to treat infections," he emphasized.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/12/the-end-of-antibiotics-health-infections

Guess Where Your Fluoride Comes From? China!

(NaturalNews) Much of the fluoride added to municipal water supplies across the United States is imported from China, and is contaminated with heavy metals, according to a warning by Bernard Miltenberger, president of the Pure Water Committee of Western Maryland.

In a letter published in the Cumberland Times-News, Miltenberger notes that he first became aware of the issue in an engineering report for the city of Boulder, Colo. The report noted that the fluoridation chemicals used for the city's water had been evaluated, and were found to contain lead levels of 40 milligrams per bag and arsenic levels of 50 milligrams per bag. The bags were being imported from China under no regulatory monitoring of acid or salt content.

Miltenberger then visited the Frostburg Water Filtration Plant in Maryland and noticed that the fluoride bags were not labeled with any importation information. He contacted the plant's chemical supplier, Univar USA, and was then referred to Sovay fluorides. Sovay informed him that the fluoride had been manufactured by Shanghai Minthchem Development in China.

"This type of trade from a country with a track record of lead paint on toys to antifreeze in cough syrup medicine is completely unacceptable," Miltenberger writes.

Heavy metal contamination is only the latest concern to emerge over the practice of water fluoridation, which has been controversial since its inception. Fluoride is a well-known toxic chemical, as Miltenberger notes:

"The material safety data sheets from Solvay fluorides show that a teaspoon amount of five grams of sodium fluoride can be fatal to an average size man of 70kg. ... chronic toxicity by oral route may cause skeletal and dental fluorosis, thyroid, testes, kidney, liver, ambiguous carcinogenic and mutagenic effects, fetotoxic and fertility effects."

Miltenberger also notes that fluoride toothpaste contains a warning that anyone who consumes more than a pea-size amount should contact a poison control center at once. This amount of toothpaste contains as much fluoride as just eight ounces of fluoridated water. A prescription-strength fluoride supplement marketed by Colgate warns that children under the age of six should not consume doses regularly added to municipal water.

Sources for this story include: http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Alert/United-States/Maryland/Chinese-fluoride-is-a-homeland-security-matter.

Even a Low Dose Vitamin D Pill Cuts Breast Cancer Risk by 24 Percent

(NaturalNews) A recent research study on vitamin D has shown that even low-dose vitamin D supplementation plays a big role in preventing breast cancer. According to the study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who take at least 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day lower their risk of developing breast cancer by 24 percent.

Over 6,500 patients participated in the study, which study authors believe points to vitamin D's ability to regulate and control the growth and spread of malignant cancer cells. According to Laura Anderson, one of the study authors, breast cells have their own receptors for vitamin D, so it makes perfect sense that vitamin D exerts a positive influence on the body in terms of warding off cancer.

Several other recent studies have also shown a definitive link between vitamin D intake and decreased cancer risk, highlighting this nutrient's powerful health-promoting and disease-preventing capabilities.

The research team also noted that vitamin D assimilates very well when coupled with calcium, and vice versa. The two vitamins work in tandem for maximum absorption of both in the body, so it is important to get plenty of both.

And although it was not specifically mentioned in the report, vitamin D is easily obtained through natural sunlight exposure. Your skin is fully capable of absorbing sunlight and processing it into vitamin D. In fact, just 15 to 30 minutes of exposure a day during the warmer months will ensure that you get the maximum amount of vitamin D for maintaining optimal health, without the need for a supplement.

During the winter months when sunlight exposure is limited, you can supplement with natural vitamin D3 as an alternative. It will effectively achieve the same results as if you were getting natural sunlight, however natural sunlight is preferable when available.

The governmental recommended daily intake of vitamin D is a mere 400 IU for adults, which many now consider to be far too low. To get a significant therapeutic effect from vitamin D, dosages upwards of 10,000 IU a day are far more appropriate. Because the body absorbs roughly 20,000 IU from the sun before shutting off for the day, it is safe to assume that supplementing with vitamin D3 in roughly this amount is safe as well.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63S4GH20100429

Drowning in Soda - America's Health Problems Made Far Worse by Massive Soda Consumption

(NaturalNews) The booming popularity of sugary soft drinks has led to 6,000 more deaths, 14,000 more cases of heart disease and 130,000 new cases of diabetes in the past 10 years, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California-San Francisco and presented at the annual Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention conference of the American Heart Association.

"We can demonstrate an association between daily consumption of sugared beverages and diabetes risk," researcher Litsa Lambrakos said. "We can then translate this information into estimates of the current diabetes and cardiovascular disease that can be attributed to the rise in consumption of these drinks."

The researchers found that sugary soft drinks also contributed to the loss of 21,000 life-years, plus an increase of 50,000 in the life-years spent suffering from heart disease.

"We probably underestimated the incidence, because the rise is greatest among the young, and our model focuses on adults 35 and older," researcher Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo said.

The analysis included juices with sugar added but excluded 100 percent juice.

"Juice from fruit itself is nutrient-rich, and its nutritional value goes beyond the carbohydrate content," said Robert H. Eckel of the University of Colorado, a former president of the American Heart Association.

The findings may build new support for the growing push for a soda tax. According to policy experts, a tax of just one cent per ounce would reduce soda consumption by 10 percent.

"The reason why there is a current debate about a tax is that scientific evidence in populations has consistently shown that more than one drink a day increases your risk," Bibbins-Domingo said.

"The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a dramatic health benefit."

A single serving of soda or other sweetened soft drink contains between 120 and 200 calories of sugar, equivalent to a man's recommended intake for a full day and exceeding the recommended daily intake for a woman.

Sources for this story include: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636642.html ; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7376295/Sugary-soft-drinks-lead-to-diabetes-research-finds.html.

Vitaminwater Revealed as Non-Healthy Beverage by Coca-Cola's Own Lawyers (opinion)

(NaturalNews) Do you ever wonder things like "Who is actually gullible enough to think that Vitaminwater is healthy?" Although that question may seem demeaning or even arrogant, it turns out that the Coca-Cola company (which owns the Vitaminwater brand) is essentially asking that exact question.

How so? In response to a recent lawsuit against Coca-Cola filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Coke's attorneys replied in court briefings that, "...no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Except, of course, millions of consumers were misled into believing precisely that. This illusion was helped in no small part by Coca-Cola's advertising of Vitaminwater, which blatantly positions it as a health-enhancing beverage. Even the name itself implies that the product is made solely out of vitamins and water.

But of course it isn't.

"Sugarwater" might be a better name
If Vitaminwater were accurately named, it would actually be called Sugarwater. Its first two ingredients are, not surprisingly, sugar and water (the sugar coming in the form of crystalline fructose, a processed sweetener that has been linked to health problems) (http://www.naturalnews.com/029371_fructose_health.html).

In addition to the sugar and water, Vitaminwater contains a smattering of synthetic vitamin chemicals that any informed health consumer probably wouldn't want to ingest. So in reality, Vitaminwater is really sugar water with the addition of synthetic chemicals that happen to be called "vitamins" (but which are not the natural, plant-based nutrients your body would greatly prefer).

So what we have now with Vitaminwater is a beverage that's positioned and marketed as a health-enhancing beverage, yet its own corporate lawyers dismiss any notion that the beverage is "healthy." How, then, can Coca-Cola get away with advertising Vitaminwater as a healthy beverage?

Simple: Because corporations use advertisements to lie to consumers. And virtually no one in the history of corporate advertising has mastered the art of deception better than Coca-Cola -- a company whose products have contributed to untold numbers of diabetes victims while being positioned as cool, hip drinks that make you feel energized or inspired.

Coca-Cola isn't really in the business of selling beverages, you see. It's in the business of selling the illusion of happiness in a bottle or a can. Buy their products, say the advertisements, and you too can feel happiness (or freedom, or sexiness or whatever). But what Coca-Cola delivers isn't really happiness at all: Many of Coke's products deliver the liquid sugars, artificial chemical sweeteners and bone-dissolving acids (like phosphoric acid) that promote disease and suffering. And no reasonable person would equate degenerative disease with happiness.

Misleading name, misleading labels
Speaking of disease, how much sugar is actually in Vitaminwater? A lot more than you might think: While the label claims only 13 grams of sugar per serving, one bottle of vitamin water is actually 2.5 servings, meaning that you're chugging down 32 grams of liquid sugars with every bottle.

That's just one of the many "deceptive and unsubstantiated claims" pointed out by CSPI in its lawsuit against Coca-Cola. It is this lawsuit that resulted in Coke's lawyers making the incredible statement that no reasonable person could possibly conclude Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.

Lawyers, by the way, can argue absolutely anything -- even if it makes no sense. And they can do it with a straight face, too. If you're looking for a professional liar, hire a lawyer. Coca-Cola seems to already have its share working at their headquarters in Atlanta.

Using its lawyers, Coca-Cola tried to argue its way out of this CSPI lawsuit, but that effort was rejected by the courts. "A federal judge has denied Coca-Cola's motion to dismiss a lawsuit over what the CSPI says are deceptive and unsubstantiated claims on the company's "vitaminwater" line of soft drinks," touts an article on the CSPI website (http://www.cspinet.org/new/201007231.html)

That same announcement goes on to quote Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, who says "The names of the drinks, along with other statements on the label have the potential to reinforce a consumer's mistaken belief that the product is comprised of only vitamins and water."

CSPI's litigation director Steve Gardner adds, "For too long, Coca-Cola has been exploiting Americans' desire to eat and drink more healthfully by deceiving them into thinking that vitaminwater can actually prevent disease. In fact, vitaminwater is no more than non-carbonated soda, providing unnecessary added sugar and contributing to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases. We look forward to representing all Americans whom Coke has deceived."

Who really drinks Vitaminwater?
Reading all this, you might wonder who drinks Vitaminwater in the first place. I've never even tried the beverage myself because I read ingredients labels and I don't drink liquid sugars.

But most consumers don't read labels. Even if they attempted to, most consumers are simply unable to decode what food labels really mean. People simply believe whatever is most prominently displayed on the front of the package, which in this case are the two words "vitamin" and "water."

On top of that, mainstream consumers are disturbingly gullible. If a product is positioned as being healthy, that's what people believe it's for, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. After all, why do so many people believe Slim-Fast will make them lose weight even though it's made mostly from processed refined sugar?

Slim-Fast, by the way, never technically claims it's a weight loss product. It dances around that claim with all sorts of other gray-area language that implies it is a weight loss product without making any direct claims. If pushed in the courts, its manufacturer would no doubt pull the same thing Coca-Cola just did and proclaim that no reasonable person could conclude that Slim-Fast is a weight loss product.

You see, big food companies are masters at making implied claims about their products that, upon closer inspection, are blatantly false. There are all sorts of false claims found on the labels of popular food products: A chocolate milk product made with sugar claims it "builds strong bones!" A liquid meal substitute sold in cans and made mostly with sugars and milk proteins claims to provide "balanced nutrition!" A product for diabetics claims to be "sugar free" but neglects to mention it's sweetened with a chemical that may actually promote diabetes.

The list of examples like these is endless. And thanks to these food corporation deceptions, consumers are faced with a food product minefield when attempting to intelligently shop for foods.

That's why several years ago I developed the Honest Food Guide (http://honestfoodguide.org), a free downloadable guide that explains which foods are truly good for your health (and which are not).

Download it now and check it out for yourself.

In the mean time, don't buy Vitaminwater. Unless, of course, you think you could use 32 grams of liquid sugars and some synthetic vitamin chemicals in your diet. And if you somehow think that Vitaminwater is healthy, the Coca-Cola corporation thinks you are a fool.

Sources for this story include: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/vitaminwater2.htm

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/order_on_m-dismiss_doc_44.pdf

http://www.cspinet.org/new/201007231.html

Pharmacists, Doctors are the New Drug Dealers Who Flood the Streets with Addictive Pills

(NaturalNews) Prescription drug abuse is emerging as the new face of the U.S. drug problem, with unscrupulous pharmacists and doctors taking the place of street pushers or other stereotypical visions of the "drug dealer."

Southern Ohio has emerged as a major supplier of illegal prescription drugs, with 74,000-person Scioto County making the Drug Enforcement Agency's list of the 10 top prescription drug trafficking locations in the country. Authorities believe that as many as eight pill mills, where people can easily get prescriptions for painkillers written and filled, may be operating in the tiny county at any one time.

The poverty of the Appalachian region is a major driver of the abuse, and Scioto County's high unemployment rate makes selling prescription drugs an attractive financial option for many desperate residents. Southern Ohio lies strategically near not only the major city of Columbus, but also the high prescription drug-abuse states of Kentucky and West Virginia. Because cross-state drug shipping is hard for authorities to track, the area is an ideal place for pill mills.

Making the problem worse, local officials have a long tradition of looking the other way at the problem, while limited resources make it hard on those few who do wish to tackle the problem.

According to Scioto County sheriffs, the local jails are full of prescription drug abusers and pushers, while in nearby Adams County, the sheriff was recently forced to ship county jail prisoners to confinement in community centers in order to make room for 28 people arrested in a prescription drug bust.

Nearly three million prescriptions for oxycodone painkillers were filled in Ohio in 2008, or almost one for every four residents. An additional 4.8 million prescriptions for hydrocodone painkillers were also filled, or one for every 2.5 residents.

Nationwide, the DEA estimates that the number of people abusing prescription drugs has increased 80 percent in the last decade, to 7 million.

This epidemic comes with a highly visible cost: deaths from prescription drug abuse have increased 280 percent in Ohio over the past 10 years.

"This is crazy, and it has to be stopped," said Ohio activist Barbara Howard, whose daughter Leslie Cooper died of an accidental overdose. "Someone needs to regulate these pain clinics and stop doctors from handing out drugs to people who don't need them.

"People are dying in their living rooms, on their front porches and in their kitchens. And they're dying because they took a pill."

Records show that Cooper had two painkillers, a muscle relaxer and an anxiety drug in her system. She had driven two hours that day in order to fill a prescription at a pill mill.

"Yes, my daughter was an addict," Howard said. "But what kind of doctor keeps giving her prescriptions for hundreds of pills at a time? How do they sleep at night? How do they live with themselves?"

The Ohio pharmacy board complains that police, prosecutors and judges regularly fail to follow up when the board reprimands pharmacists or doctors for illicit prescription practices. Police, meanwhile, say that current laws do not give them the authority to target medical professionals.

Officials like Adams County sheriff Kimmy Rogers have called for new measures to track prescriptions and monitor people convicted of participating in prescription drug abuse. But groups like the Ohio State Medical Association complain that such laws would unfairly burden the vast majority of doctors, who are law-abiding.

"People say you can't do that, or it would take too much money to address the problem," Rogers said. "Well, if we aren't going to spend the money to fight these prescription drugs, then we need to be clear. And we might as well start selling them at yard sales."

Sources for this story include: www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/02/07/OXYCONTIN.ART_ART_02-07-10_A1_HGGH7K4.html?sid=101.

Hawaiian Ocean Water Could Be Used to Produce Renewable Energy

(NaturalNews) A team of researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa believe that ocean water on the Leeward side of the Hawaiian islands -- that is, the downwind side -- can be used to produce clean, renewable energy. They say ocean-based renewable energy plants may one day be able to use both warm and cold ocean water in the area to power heat engines, ultimately generating a steady stream of renewable energy.

The Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy refers to this technology as Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). The way it works is a heat engine is installed between warm water at the surface and cold water underneath. Both streams are captured by the engine's turbines and used to spin them, generating electricity.

The technology has been around for a while, but has yet to become widely used due to the relatively low cost of oil and other fossil fuels. In other words, there has not been an urgent need for this type of energy generation technology, so funding for it is limited.

But as nations gradually shy away from high polluting fuels like oil and towards cleaner, more renewable energy sources, the need for OTEC plants may soon arise. And since Hawaii's Leeward shores have an ideal balance of both cold and warm waters, they would be the perfect place to install these engines.

"Testing that was done in the 1980s clearly demonstrates the feasibility of this technology," explained Gerard Nihous from the University of Hawaii. "Now it's just a matter of paying for it."

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/aiop-gef080310.php

HFCS - The Poison that Promotes Obesity and Liver Damage

(NaturalNews) Two new studies have added more reason for concern that high-fructose corn syrup causes significantly more harm to the body than its mere sugar content would suggest.

High-fructose corn syrup contains 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. In contrast, table sugar (also known as sucrose) contains a 50-50 split.

In the first study, published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, researchers from Princeton University found that rats consuming high fructose corn syrup gained more weight and developed more cardiovascular risk factors than rats consuming equivalent amounts of sucrose.

"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, " researcher Bart Hoebel said.

Hoebel and colleagues fed two groups of rats an identical diet, supplemented with one of two sweetened beverages. One beverage consisted of a sucrose solution in concentrations similar to those found in many sweetened beverages. The other consisted of a high-fructose corn syrup solution at roughly half the concentration of a typical soda. The researchers found that the rats consuming the corn syrup solution gained significantly more weight than the rats consuming the sucrose solution.

In a followup experiment, the researchers compared metabolic changes in rats fed only rat chow with rats fed chow plus a high-fructose corn syrup solution. All the rats consumed the same amount of calories.

After six months, the rats in the corn syrup group had gained 48 percent more weight. They also underwent an increase in fat deposition (especially in the abdomen) and a drop in circulating triglycerides. These changes are consistent with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that predispose humans to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Every rat consuming high-fructose corn syrup became obese. In contrast, rats fed a high-fat diet did not become obese in all cases.

Another study, conducted by Duke University researchers, once again implicates high-fructose corn syrup in a heightened risk of liver damage.

Previous research has suggested that large amounts of fructose liver in the same way as excessive alcohol consumption. Another study linked high-fructose corn syrup specifically with a form of liver scarring known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The new study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, found that high-fructose corn syrup worsened the effects of NAFLD.

"We found that increased consumption of high fructose corn syrup was associated with scarring in the liver ... among patients with NAFLD," researcher Manal Abdelmalek said.

The researchers analyzed the diets and livers of 427 adults with NAFLD, and found that only 19 percent of them never consumed fructose-containing beverages. In contrast, 52 percent of participants had between one and six servings of a fructose-containing beverage per week, while another 29 percent had at least one serving per day. The higher patients' fructose intake, the worse the scarring of their livers.

"We have identified an environmental risk factor that may contribute to the metabolic syndrome of insulin resistance and the complications of the metabolic syndrome, including liver injury," Abdelmalek said.

Abdelmalek noted that NAFLD is a severe problem that cannot be treated and may lead in some cases to liver cancer, liver failure and a need for liver transplant.

Researchers are still unsure why high-fructose corn syrup appears to damage the body more than its extra 5 percent fructose content would suggest. Some have hypothesized that the negative effects come from the massive quantities in which it is consumed -- high-fructose corn syrup is found in nearly all processed foods.

Other researchers have observed that beverages made with high-fructose corn syrup contain high levels of reactive carbonyls, which can damage cells. Still others have noted that the fructose in high-fructose corn syrup is chemically unbonded and thus spreads through the body more freely than the fructose in table sugar.

Sources for this story include: http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/new-study-fuels-bitter-debate-over-use-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup/19412768; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/dining/21sugar.html?_r=1; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100322204628.htm

Heart Failure Breakthrough - Placebo Controlled Study Shows

Major Improvement with Acupuncture

(NaturalNews) Heart failure is a progressive condition marked by a worsening of the heart's ability to pump enough blood to supply the body's needs. It is most often caused by a heart attack, years of high blood pressure or other injuries to the cardiovascular system and kills about 250,000 people in the U.S. each year, according to the Heart Failure Society of America. One of the most debilitating results of heart failure is shortness of breath and severe fatigue with exercise. But a new study by German scientists shows an ancient non-drug therapy -- acupuncture -- can dramatically improve exercise tolerance in patients suffering from chronic heart failure.

The new research, just published in the medical journal Heart, involved two groups of heart failure patients who were being treated with conventional medications and were in stable condition. Both groups of research subjects believed they were receiving ten authentic acupuncture treatments. However, only one group was given real acupuncture based on traditional Chinese medicine. These treatments focused on acupuncture points believed to boost general strength, influence the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and reduce inflammation markers. The other control group was treated with special placebo needles that only simulated acupuncture needle pricks but did not break the skin.

The results? After the real acupuncture treatments, the patients could walk far longer than those in the placebo group. What's more, even though the measurable work capacity of the heart was found to be unchanged, the acupuncture treated heart patients recovered more quickly after exercise and reported they felt far less exhausted.

So what was the acupuncture actually doing to improve heart failure symptoms? The research team, headed by cardiologist Dr. Johannes Backs of Heidelberg University Hospital, pointed out in a press statement that previous studies have shown that the ability of heart failure patients to tolerate exercise is independent of the pumping function of the heart and appears to stem primarily from the muscles. Inflammation chemical messengers in the blood are increased in chronic heart failure and that's what makes muscles tire easily, causing extreme fatigue.

"The blood level of a certain messenger, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) actually drops after the real acupuncture treatment. Since TNF alpha leads to a reduction of muscle mass and muscle strength among other things, this would explain the positive effect (of acupuncture) on skeletal muscle function," Dr. Arnt Kristen, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement to the media. The research team also noted that heart failure is much more complex than previously assumed and involves an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system and various nerve transmitters. "This is precisely where acupuncture may intervene, by bringing these processes back into balance -- it influences the autonomic sympathetic nervous system (excitation), boosts the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation), and also has an anti-inflammatory affect," the researchers explained in the press statement.

For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20554511 http://www.naturalnews.com/acupuncture.html

Adult Stem Cells Treat a Host of Diseases, Say Doctors

(NaturalNews) Doctors and researchers are hailing the successes of adult stem cell treatments, which are treating everything from heart disease and diabetes, to leukemia and blindness. Adult stem cells -- the kind harvested from adult bone marrow and other tissues -- can be injected into the body to help regrow and repair organs, tissues and skin.

Unlike controversial embryonic stem cells which are harvested from aborted, human embryos, adult stem cells are extracted from living, adult humans. And based on years of experience using innovative therapy treatments, adult stem cells are proving to be highly successful in treating otherwise "incurable" diseases.

Dr. Thomas Einhorn, chairman of orthopedic surgery at Boston University Medical Center, for example, successfully used a man's pelvic bone stem cells to heal the same man's broken ankle. By drawing bone marrow from the pelvis and condensing it into an injectable liquid, Einhorn was able to spur a complete ankle healing in four months.

Then, there is the case of a patient whose damaged vision was restored after receiving adult stem cell treatment.

A recent Denver Post article explains that adult stem cells are being used to treat people with leukemia, lymphoma, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. The possibilities are endless with adult stem cells, say numerous doctors and medical experts.

Adult stem cells can literally turn into bones, blood vessels and tissues that are diseased or damaged, and they seem to adapt to whatever is needed by the body to heal a specific area.

"That gives adult stem cells really a very interesting and potent quality that embryonic stem cells don't have," explains Rocky Tuan from the University of Pittsburgh.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15655878

Johns Hopkins Researcher Speaks Out - Arrogance of Doctors is Killing Tens of Thousands of Patients

(NaturalNews) Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, is a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Although he works right in the heart of mainstream academic and clinical medicine, Dr. Pronovost is taking an unusual and even heroic step and speaking out about medical errors. Tens of thousands of people are dying unnecessarily, he says, and one main reason involves the enormous arrogance of many doctors.

In his commentary, published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr. Pronovost, who is a patient safety expert, argues no measurable, achievable and routine strategies to prevent patient harm even exist in the health care industry. In fact, he states there are too many barriers in the way to attain workable ways to protect patients -- and at the top of the list is the arrogance of doctors "who are overconfident about the quality of care they provide or always believe things will go right and aren't prepared when they don't, and of hospital officials who fail to aggressively address problems like hospital-acquired infections."

In his JAMA paper, Dr. Pronovost points out that each year about 100,000 people die from health care-associated infections, another 44,000 to 98,000 die of other preventable mistakes and tens of thousands more die from diagnostic errors or failure to receive recommended therapies. Unfortunately, there is limited evidence these patient outcomes are improving, either. "It's unconscionable that so many people are dying because of these arrogance barriers," Dr. Pronovost said in a statement to the media. "You can't have arrogance in a model for accountability."

There is one area where patient safety is improving -- in the area of central line-associated bloodstream infections -- at least, in a few hospitals. Although these deadly infections remain common, enormously expensive and kill over 30,000 Americans a year, they are now known to be largely preventable due to Dr. Pronovost's own research and innovations. He introduced a simple checklist into hospital intensive care units (ICUs) at Johns Hopkins and then the entire state of Michigan. Wherever the checklist was consistently used, these life-threatening infections were reduced to almost zero.

However, here's the most surprising part of this story. Dr. Pronovost admits it wasn't only his checklist that led to the dramatic improvements in patient safety in these ICUs. The infection rate was reduced in ICUs where nurses were finally allowed and even encouraged to question doctors who had previously been treated as god-like experts who were not to be challenged.

When nurses spoke out about physicians who might have skipped a step or otherwise violated safety protocols, infection rates plummeted. Dr. Pronovost says the bottom line is this: patient safety must be put ahead of individual egos.

So are all hospitals and physicians getting on board to follow the checklist and to change hospital culture so they can prevent ICU infections and save tens of thousands of lives? The answer is a resounding and disappointing "no". Dr. Pronovost reports US hospitals have been extremely slow in enrolling in the program. In some states, less than 20 percent of hospitals have volunteered to participate.

"Some hospitals have reduced infections, most have not. Some hospitals claim they use the checklist, despite having high or unknown infection rates. Some hospitals are content to meet the national average, despite evidence that these rates may be reduced by half. Some hospital administrators say their patients are too sick; these infections are inevitable. Yet, intensive care units in several large academic hospitals have nearly eliminated CLASBIs, or central-line associated bloodstream infections. Some hospitals blame competing priorities for their inattention to these infections," Dr. Provonost writes. "If these lethal, expensive, measurable, and largely preventable infections are not a priority, what is?"

For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20628135 http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/566344/?sc=mwtr;xy=5024973

Even with Life-Threatening Side Effects, Adderall is Frequently Abused on College Campuses

(NaturalNews) Even though the side effects of the popular Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) drug, Adderall, are potentially deadly, many college students are now using the drug to increase energy levels and brain power in order to get good grades, according to new reports.

A potent cocktail of amphetamines, Adderall is basically a legalized form of methamphetamine. You know, the kind cooked up in "meth labs" that so often get raided by police. But because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given glowing approval for it, Adderall meth is legally and commonly administered to millions of adults and children.

But according to a recent 60 Minutes report, it is quite easy for students who do not necessarily have a disorder to obtain Adderall. In an interview with a group of college students, reporter Katie Couric extracted the following about how simply a person can obtain this powerful and dangerous drug:

"I'd say it's not that hard [to get]. I mean the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder are you're not able to focus, have trouble concentrating. You know, if you go in and tell a doctor that, I would say, you know, at least eight out of ten times he's gonna say, 'Oh well, you probably have Attention Deficit Disorder'," remarked one of the students.

This is not hard to believe, considering that many doctors hand out prescriptions like candy. And many people are willing to say whatever they need to in order to get the prescription they are looking for, which leads to widespread abuse.

So what are some of the symptoms of Adderall? According to the drug's own label, it can cause high blood pressure, anxiety, cocaine cravings, severe infections, heart attack, stroke, and even sudden death. Psychologically, it can cause a person to hallucinate, see strange visions, hear voices, and even develop extreme psychosis.

All of these side effects can and do occur when people simply take normal dosages. In fact, Adderall was temporarily pulled from the Canadian market back in 2005 because 14 American children died from taking it as prescribed. Another 12 children had strokes.

But the FDA made sure to conduct its own "study" shortly after showing that the drug is somehow still safe. Not long after, the Canadian ban was lifted.

To this day, the FDA continues to repeat the mantra that Adderall is safe, despite its numerous extreme side effects and widespread abuse.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.examiner.com/x-31589-Healthcare-Industry-Examiner~y2010m4d26-Adderall-side-effects-are-life-threatening-Students-use-Adderall-Ritalin-to-boost-brain-power

http://www.adderall.net/

Flu Vaccine Push Already Underway; First Batch Causes Seisures in Children

(NaturalNews) As ridiculous as it seems, retailers across the U.S. are already stocking their stores with Christmas goods. It's all about the big commercial push, of course, since retailers make about 50 percent of their profits during the Christmas season.

Similarly, flu vaccine manufacturers generate huge profits during the Christmas season, too, and they've already begun shipping this year's winter season flu vaccines to U.S. pharmacies and hospitals. Never mind the fact that the actual flu strain in the vaccine is little more than a hodgepodge collection of last year's flu strains. Each year's flu vaccines are technically only applicable to last year's flu season, making them perfect for time travelers but useless for everybody else.

Along with the big vaccine push comes the inevitable vaccine propaganda. It's all so predictable: First there's the announcement that "everybody should get vaccinated." This is followed by some later announcement in the pre-Christmas season of "how bad" this year's flu season is getting. This is followed yet again by another urgent bulletin by health authorities urging everyone to get vaccinated.

The big vaccine push only quiets down when vaccine supplies dwindle. But as long as vaccines remain in inventory, the big vaccine push will stay aggressive, and during this annual charade, there won't be a word mentioned about vitamin D and how it is far more effective than any vaccine at protecting people from seasonal flu.

Reading between the vaccine lines
This year's vaccine push has begun with some curious admissions by the vaccine industry, reflected in a Reuters story (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN3019609820100730). After the usual explanatory text about how flu vaccine manufacturers have started shipping their largest quantity of vaccines ever produced for flu season, the story prints this curious text:

"And U.S. officials said they were changing the labeling on a vaccine made by Australia's CSL Ltd (CSL.AX) because it appears to have caused a higher than usual rate of seizures in children."

Now hold on a second.

If you read between the lines here, this statement implies that: 1) Vaccines cause seizures in children. And then 2) This particular vaccines causes a higher rate of seizures in children than the usual rate of seizures in children.

Why is this curious? First off, because vaccine pushers have always sworn their vaccines caused no seizures whatsoever. No neurological problems. No spontaneous abortions in pregnant women. No increased rates of autism. Vaccines are all perfectly safe, they say, and no children are ever harmed by them.

That's the mythology, at least, behind vaccines. But the reality is far different: Vaccines do cause seizures in children, and this year's vaccines look like they're going to cause a significantly higher rate of seizures than usual.

Note, by the way, that this was not the headline of the story. This admission was tucked away in the text of a Reuters story, without any real emphasis. If Reuters was really interested in reporting the truth about vaccines, the story headline would have been, "Flu vaccines cause seizures in children."

Line up, sheeple!
The story goes on to say, "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone be vaccinated against seasonal flu this year."

Yep, everyone. That means one-month old infants. Pregnant women. Children with seizure disorders. Immune suppressed seniors. Everyone!

You see, in years past, vaccines were never recommended for everyone due to well-founded safety concerns. In some people, you see, the nearly-dead viral strains used in vaccines can actually cause the very flu they claim to prevent. So the CDC has, for as long as anyone can remember, always warned certain groups to be excluded from vaccines for their own safety.

Well not anymore. Any safety concerns have been thrown out the window in the quest to push more vaccines onto more people. Billions of dollars in pharmaceutical profits are at stake here, and health officials can't afford to let a little safety get in the way.

This Reuters story continues:

"Most years, seasonal influenza infects between 5 percent and 20 percent of the U.S. population and kills 36,000 people. It puts about 200,000 into the hospital."

Well, not really. The 36,000 figure often quoted from the CDC is wildly inaccurate (http://www.naturalnews.com/026169_medical_myths_swine_flu.html). It's a statistical guess based on such outdated data that to quote it as fact is laughable. Besides, it's technically wrong to say that influenza kills anyone. The real killer here is vitamin D deficiency which causes a stalled out immune system. If people had sufficient levels of vitamin D circulating in their blood, the flu virus would be powerless to harm them. And since there are viruses everywhere in the world around us every single day, isn't it more accurate to say that the "flu season" is actually the "vitamin D deficiency season?"

Think about it: Why does the flu circulate in the winter months in North America, but the summer months (June - August) in Australia? It's because those are the times of weaker sunlight exposure resulting in widespread vitamin D deficiencies. The flu is always around, living amongst us, just waiting for weakened immune systems so it can strike. To say that "the flu" kills people in the winter is factually wrong. It's the vitamin D deficiency that kills people by giving the flu an opportunity to attack a weakened immune system.

This is a simple factual point that the entire system of western medicine, with all its high-IQ doctors, has so far failed to realize. Sometimes it feels like we're still living in the Dark Ages of medicine, I swear...

Where are the clinical trials?
Anyway, this Reuters story continues with one more whopper of a statement:

"The labeling for one vaccine, CSL Limited's Afluria, has undergone changes this season to inform health care providers about an increased incidence of fever and febrile seizure... The FDA said it was asking CSL to conduct a study of its vaccine in children."

Read between the lines on this one: This Afluria vaccine causes an increased risk of seizures, it's being imported into the USA to be injected in children this flu season, and the FDA is just now asking for a study? That means, of course, that no study has been conducted on this vaccine yet.

In other words, this vaccine which causes seizures in children has never actually been properly tested in children according to FDA guidelines, so the FDA wants a test to be done but the vaccine will be injected into children in the USA anyway, even before the testing is likely to be completed.

And that means, of course, that U.S. children are being used as guinea pigs to see what happens to them following this vaccine injection. If enough children have seizures or end up paralyzed or dead, the FDA will probably pull the vaccine off the market. But that only happens after the fact and after the damage has already been done.

Don't you get it? Your children are the experiment! The American People are the guinea pigs for every vaccine these companies come up with, and it doesn't matter if the vaccine causes seizures, brain damage or even death... American children are going to be injected by the millions in order to find out what happens.

No need for influenza vaccines in anyone
This whole annual charade is utterly useless to begin with. There is simply no medically justifiable need to inject anyone with a flu vaccine -- ever! What people need is vitamin D to activate their immune response so that natural exposures to seasonal flu are easily handled by their existing immune system functionality.

Let's face it: The human immune system is far more intelligent and technologically advanced than any flu vaccine. It already has a pattern recognition system that can identify and destroy foreign invaders in the blood. But as research has shown, when vitamin D levels are deficient in the body, the immune system is effectively paralyzed and can't respond. (http://www.naturalnews.com/029312_immune_system_vitamin_D.html)

When vitamin D levels are high, the immune system responds rapidly to any influenza threat. That's why I never get a flu shot and even so, I haven't been sick for years. I do, however, get sunshine on a regular basis, and when I can't get sunshine, I take a quality vitamin D3 supplement. And guess what? I don't need a flu vaccine at all. I can walk into a room full of sick people infected with influenza and be completely and utterly immune to their coughing, sneezing, nose wiping and finger-licking handshaking.

Having vitamin D in your body is like wearing a bulletproof vest for influenza.

The medical industry won't tell you this because there's huge profit to be made in scaring people into paying for flu shots they don't need. If people were told the truth about the dangers and the ineffectiveness of flu shots, very few would buy them. Because the truth is that, even in best-case scenarios, flu shots are maybe effective at preventing infections in one percent of those who take them.

And that means ninety-nine percent of those receiving flu shots are wasting their time and their money. Plus, they're exposing themselves to chemicals that are obviously dangerous to the human body or else they wouldn't cause seizures in children, get it?

And yet every flu season, people line up by the millions to get injected with something that might harm them, and they actually pay for being potentially harmed! Why do people do this? Because they foolishly trust in health authorities who almost universally have financial ties to the vaccine manufacturing companies and so are pushing a particular agenda in order to profit from vaccine sales.

But scientifically speaking, the flu season could be stopped in its tracks by handing out vitamin D3 supplements instead of vaccine injections. No needles. No seizures. And no drug company profits.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather swallow a vitamin than get jabbed with a sharp needle. But that's just me.

Most other people, it seems, would rather spend their winters wiping their noses raw with Kleenex, drowning themselves in over-the-counter flu medicines and missing a week or two of work while they try to fight off a flu infection they could have prevented with a few vitamin D supplements in the first place.

Believe me, it's a lot more fun to laugh off the flu season and spend your winters healthy, well rested and completely immune to seasonal flu.

Wanna join me in a healthy winter this year? Just boost your vitamin D levels and you too can laugh off seasonal flu and all the sheeple lining up to get injected like cattle in a branding line.

Music Benefits the Brain, Research Reveals

(NaturalNews) Northwestern University scientists have pulled together a review of research into what music -- specifically, learning to play music -- does to humans. The result shows music training does far more than allow us to entertain ourselves and others by playing an instrument or singing. Instead, it actually changes our brains.

The paper, just published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, is a compilation of research findings from scientists all over the world who used all kinds of research methods. The bottom line to all these studies: musical training has a profound impact on other skills including speech and language, memory and attention, and even the ability to convey emotions vocally.

So what is it that musical training does? According to the Northwestern scientists, the findings strongly indicate it adds new neural connections -- and that primes the brain for other forms of human communication.

In fact, actively working with musical sounds enhances neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and change. "A musician's brain selectively enhances information-bearing elements in sound. In a beautiful interrelationship between sensory and cognitive processes, the nervous system makes associations between complex sounds and what they mean," Nina Kraus, lead author of the Nature paper and director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, explained in a statement to the media. "The efficient sound-to-meaning connections are important not only for music but for other aspects of communication."

For example, researchers have found that musicians are better than non-musicians in learning to incorporate sound patterns for a new language into words. Their brains also appear to be primed to comprehend speech in a noisy background.

What's more, children who have had music lessons tend to have a larger vocabulary and better reading ability than youngsters who haven't had any musical training. And children with learning disabilities, who often have a hard time focusing when there's a lot of background noise, may be especially helped by music lessons. "Music training seems to strengthen the same neural processes that often are deficient in individuals with developmental dyslexia or who have difficulty hearing speech in noise," Dr. Kraus stated.

The Northwestern researchers concluded their findings make a case for including music in school curriculums. "The effect of music training suggests that, akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development," they wrote.

In addition to musical training, listening to music has also been shown to have some remarkable beneficial effects on the body. For example, as NaturalNews has previously reported, Tel Aviv University scientists found that premature infants exposed to thirty minutes of Mozart's music daily grew far more rapidly than premature babies not exposed to classical music (http://www.naturalnews.com/028011_music_premature_babies.html) and researchers at the University of Florence in Italy documented that listening to classical, Celtic or Indian (raga) music once a day for four weeks significantly reduced the blood pressure in people suffering from hypertension (http://www.naturalnews.com/023479_blood_pressure_hypertension.html).

For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20648064 http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/

Mainstream Media Slants Cancer Articles Toward Unrealistically Positive Outcomes

(NaturalNews) Mainstream media coverage of cancer treatments disproportionately covers positive outcomes and aggressive treatments while underreporting on palliative care and death, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Very few news reports about cancer discuss death and dying, and even those that do generally do not mention palliative and hospice care," the researchers wrote.

Palliative care is medical care designed to reduce suffering and improve quality of life but not to cure a disease. It is a major component of care for terminal or hard-to-cure cancers.

The researchers reviewed 436 articles that had appeared in the magazines Newsweek, Parade, People, Redbook and Time, as well as eight daily newspapers in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. They found that while 32.1 percent of the articles focused on successful treatment of at least one patient, only 7.6 percent covered patients who died or were expected to. Only 2.2 percent addressed both positive and negative outcomes.

Of 216 people mentioned by name in the articles reviewed, 78.7 percent were survivors and only 21.3 percent died. Yet 50 percent of U.S. residents diagnosed with cancer do not survive the disease.

In addition, the researchers found that although many cancer treatments can have serious and even dangerous side effects, only 30 percent of the articles reviewed mentioned the possibility of adverse effects.

Fifty-seven percent of the articles covered only aggressive forms of cancer treatment, yet only 13.1 percent acknowledged that such treatments do not always result in improved survival. Only two of the articles (0.5 percent) mentioned end-of-life care, while only 11 (2.5 percent) mentioned both aggressive treatment and palliative care.

Such skewed coverage gives people a distorted image of their treatment options, the researchers warned.

"Unrealistic information may mislead the public about the trade-offs between attempts at heroic cures and hospice care," they wrote.

Sources for this story include: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/HealthPolicy/19040.

Socially Active Environment Can Cause Cancer Tumors to Shrink and Even Disappear

(NaturalNews) If you or someone you know ever receives a cancer diagnosis, especially one that is labeled "incurable" or fatal, take heart in the fact spontaneous regression (remission) has been reported in the medical literature numerous times for virtually all cancers. Spontaneous regression has been documented most often in neuroblastoma, renal cell carcinoma, lymphoma and malignant melanoma. And, as NaturalNews has previous reported, scientists have also discovered recently that some invasive breast cancers appear to simply go away on their own (http://www.naturalnews.com/024901.html). Now comes research from Ohio State University that could help explain what triggers spontaneous remissions.

The new study, published in the July 9th issues of the journal Cell found that when mice with cancer were given enriched living conditions and a boost in their social life, their tumors shrank -- and some of their cancers disappeared completely. That's powerful evidence, the scientists say, that social connections and an individual's mental state, play an important role in the way the body responds to malignancies. "Animals' interaction with the environment has a profound influence on the growth of cancer -- more than we knew was possible," Matthew During, who headed the study, said in a statement to the press.

The lab rodents were originally housed in groups of about five, given all the food they wanted and allowed to play all day. However, for the research project, mice with cancer were placed in an even better, enriched environment. They had bigger living groups with 15 to 20 other animals to interact with. They also had more space and extra toys, hiding places and running wheels.

During and his colleague, Lei Cao, found that malignant tumors in animals living in this enriched environment started to shrink. In fact, tumors decreased by an impressive 77 percent in mass and decreased in volume by 43 percent, the researchers report. Moreover, five percent of mice with cancer showed no evidence of the disease at all after just three weeks of living in their new home. That seemingly spontaneous cancer cure never happened in control animals kept in standard housing.

So what specifically is going on here that impacts cancer? Animals in a regular mice environment in the lab who exercised more didn't experience improvements in their cancer, so the scientists say more exercise isn't the total explanation. Instead, they think the complex social dimension in the new living arrangement was apparently the key.

The enriched living environment appears to have sparked more, but apparently cancer-fighting, stress in the cancer-stricken mice. The animals showed higher levels of stress hormones called glucocorticoids. What this means, the researchers said in statement to the media, is that low levels of stress, or certain kinds of stress, are probably beneficial.

"A lot of people think stress is bad, but our data show the animals aren't just happy. Antidepressants won't give you the same effect," the scientists said in the press statement. "The goal isn't to minimize stress, but to live a richer life, socially and physically. You want to be challenged."

In addition, the rodents had lower levels of a hormone produced by fat called leptin, indicative of a significant shift in metabolism. Their immune systems also appeared to be "ramped up a bit," During said.

During and his colleague pinned down an increase in a growth factor expressed in the hypothalamus called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the mice living in the improved mouse environment. Further study revealed that manipulations designed to increase BDNF levels also reduced tumor burden. If animals lacked BDNF, the benefits of an enriched environment were not apparent. The findings could ultimately lead to advances in the way cancer and other diseases are treated -- perhaps through environmental modifications that offer mental and social stimulation. "We're really showing that you can't look at a disease like cancer in isolation," During said in the media statement. "For too long, physicians and others have stuck to what they know -- surgery, chemo, radiotherapy. Traditionally working on the area of lifestyle and the brain has been a 'soft area'. This paper really suggests if we look at people more in terms of their perceptions of disease, their social interactions and environment, we could realize a profound influence on cancer..."

For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20603014 http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/10/1031.abstract http://yalepress.typepad.com/fightingcancer/2009/11/can-cancer-undergo-spontaneous-regression-1.html http://www.opednews.com/articles/Spontaneous-Remission-Canc-by-Jeffrey-Dach-091105-43.html

Vitamin D Prevents Heart Disease, too

(NaturalNews) An increase in blood levels of vitamin D can significantly reduce a person's risk of heart disease, according to a study conducted by researchers from Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City and presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta.

Researchers reviewed the health records of more than 9,000 people who had been diagnosed with vitamin D insufficiency and who had also undergone vitamin D testing at a later date. They found that approximately 50 percent of all patients had achieved healthy vitamin D levels of at least 30 nanograms per milliliter by the second test. Rates of heart disease were significantly lower in this group than among patients who were still deficient in the vitamin.

Prior studies have shown a correlation between low levels of vitamin D and a higher risk of heart disease. Yet researchers have been unable to determine whether there is any direct connection between the two factors, since low vitamin D levels might also correlate with a number of other cardiovascular risk factors such as general poor health, poor diet or lack of exercise.

The only way to firmly establish a connection would be to conduct an experiment where only half a group of vitamin D-deficient participants is supplemented while the rest receive a placebo. Because vitamin D deficiency has been proven to increase the risk of other diseases, such a study would not be ethical and cannot be conducted.

"What we did was observational and not definitive, but we think it adds significantly to the story," said lead author J. Brent Muhlestein. "It's at least a reasonable piece of evidence to add to the hypothesis that low vitamin D is causative of cardiovascular risk and treatment can reduce cardiovascular disease risk."

The body synthesizes vitamin D naturally upon exposure to sunlight. Low levels of the vitamin have been linked to weakened bones and higher risks of infection, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Sources for this story include: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-vitamind16-2010mar16,0,3491955.story?track=rss.

Scientists Discover Olive Oil Directly Impacts Genes to Halt Inflammation

(NaturalNews) Research has been steadily accumulating that olive oil, a main component of the Mediterranean diet, has extensive health-protective properties. For example, phytonutrient components of olive oil have been found to be effective against breast cancer cells (http://www.naturalnews.com/025633_cancer_olive_oil_brst.html) and studies suggest the abundance of olive oil in the Mediterranean style of eating may be the reason that diet helps prevent depression (http://www.naturalnews.com/027265_depression_mediterranean_diet_health.html). Now scientists have discovered that phenolic compounds in olive oil directly repress genes linked to inflammation.

This could be especially important in halting the dangerous effects of metabolic syndrome. Characterized by excess abdominal fat, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels, metabolic syndrome is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and early death.

Research published in the journal BMC Genomics investigated changes in genes mediated by olive oil phenols (which are most abundant in the extra-virgin varieties of olive oil). The double-blind, randomized study, headed by Francisco Perez-Jimenez from the University of Cordoba, involved 20 research subjects, all with metabolic syndrome. For six weeks, the patients did not take any supplements or drugs and they were all placed on similar low-fat, carbohydrate-rich diets. Then, for breakfast, they ate either a breakfast containing virgin olive oil with a high content of phenolic compounds or a similar breakfast with low phenol content.

The research team took blood samples after the meals to check for the expression of over 15,000 human genes. The results? The high phenol olive oil clearly impacted the regulation of almost 100 genes -- many of which have been linked to obesity, high blood fat levels, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"We identified 98 differentially expressed genes when comparing the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil. Several of the repressed genes are known to be involved in pro-inflammatory processes, suggesting that the diet can switch the activity of immune system cells to a less deleterious inflammatory profile, as seen in metabolic syndrome," Dr. Perez-Jimenez said in a statement to the press. "These findings strengthen the relationship between inflammation, obesity and diet and provide evidence at the most basic level of healthy effects derived from virgin olive oil consumption in humans."

The ability of olive oil's phenolic compounds to reduce or prevent inflammation also provides a molecular basis for the reduction of heart disease observed in Mediterranean countries, where virgin olive oil represents a main source of dietary fat.

For more information: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/11/253 http://www.naturalnews.com/olive_oil.html

Sweating in the Summer Heat Promotes Good Health

(NaturalNews) Summertime heat is an annoyance to some people, but according to Xu Qian, director of the infectious diseases department at the China-Japan Frienship Hospital in Beijing, sweating from the hot, summer heat is a natural part of keeping your body healthy, and avoiding this heat can actually cause health problems.

People typically run their air conditioners throughout the summertime in order to beat the heat, but doing so can actually compromise the immune system.

"People should go with the rules of nature. Summer is the time to sweat. It's a natural process for the body to respond to the outside environment, and adjust itself through the constricting of blood vessels and nerves. In this sense, air conditioning is a reactive restrain of the body against nature," Qian explained in a China Daily article.

Excessive sweating without replenishing the body with water, electrolytes and healthy salt, can be a bad thing, but not sweating at all can be even worse. And moving from hot areas to cold areas, and vice versa, on a regular basis throughout the summer can put excessive strain on a person's health

"Air conditioning might induce infection of the upper respiratory tract, cause colds, throat pain, pharyngitis, and even pneumonia," said Qian.

Sweating is also an important method by which the skin helps to eliminate toxins from the body.

"One of [the skin's] functions is to eliminate a portion of the body's toxic waste products through sweating," explains Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, in her book Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Food Supplements.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2010-07/21/content_11029566.htm

http://www.naturalpedia.com/S/Sweating-skin.html

Natural compound in bananas prevents HIV transmission

(NaturalNews) A kind of protein naturally occurring in bananas may hamper the spread of HIV, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan and published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The protein, known as BanLec, is in the family known as lectins. Lectins are able to identify and attach to foreign sugars, including those found in the outer coating of the virus that causes AIDS. The researchers found that HIV viruses in the presence of BanLec were blocked as effectively as viruses in the presence of two different modern HIV drugs.

Multiple applications of lectins' newfound property suggest themselves. For example, the proteins could be incorporated into topically applied vaginal microbicides to reduce women's risk of HIV infection.

"The explosion of AIDS in poorer countries continues to be a bad problem because of tremendous human suffering and the cost of treating it," senior author David Markovitz, said. "That's particularly true in developing countries where women have little control over sexual encounters, so development of a long-lasting, self-applied microbicide is very attractive."

Researchers also hope to find a way to use lectins to prevent the HIV virus from integrating into host cells even if it does gain entry into the body.

"The problem with some HIV drugs is that the virus can mutate and become resistant, but that's much harder to do in the presence of lectins," co-author Michael D. Swanson said. "Lectins can bind to the sugars found on different spots of the HIV-1 envelope, and presumably it will take multiple mutations for the virus to get around them."

Although AIDS is especially a problem in Third World countries, it also remains a serious health problem in the United States. An estimated 57,000 women in the United States are infected with HIV, along with three times as many men. AIDS is the single biggest killer of African American women between the ages of 35 and 34.

Sources for this story include: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/637068.html; http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Bananas+enlisted+help+stop+spread/2684817/story.html; http://www.examiner.com/x-29099-Grand-Rapids-Public-Health-Examiner~y2010m3d16-UM-Med-School-researches-bananas-as-an-HIV-inhibitor.

90 percent of scientists backing Avandia diabetes drug had financial ties to drug companies

(NaturalNews) More than 90 percent of researchers who have published studies favorable to the controversial diabetes drug Avandia had a financial stake in the issue, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Mayo Clinic.

The Mayo Clinic is one of the few research organizations in the United States that does not accept corporate funding.

Sales of GlaxoSmithKline's bestselling drug Avandia plunged in 2007, after evidence emerged linking the drug to an increased risk of heart attack and death. These reports sparked a debate over the drug's safety that continues to this day.

In an analysis of more than 200 studies, articles, editorials and letters published in scientific journals since 2007, Mayo Clinic researchers have concluded that financial conflict of interest continues to play a major role in that debate. Fully 87 percent of all authors who expressed positive views about Avandia had financial ties to GlaxoSmithKline, while another 7 percent had ties to other pharmaceutical companies involved with diabetes. Among authors with financial conflicts of interest, only 30 percent "expressed unfavorable views" of the drug.

In contrast, authors who were critical of Avandia were "largely free of identifiable conflicts of interest," the researchers said.

The conflicts of interest cut both ways. Of 29 authors who recommended the drug Actos as a safer alternative to Avandia, 25 had ties to that drug's maker, Eli Lilly.

In order to identify conflicts of interest, the Mayo Clinic researchers searched through multiple published works by each given author, as well as conducting investigations on the Internet. This research uncovered that while 47 percent of all authors surveyed had a financial stake in the diabetes drug debate, 23 percent failed to disclose these links. Most of these authors merely remained silent about their conflicts of interest, while three actually lied and said they had none.

"The implication is that there should be better disclosure," lead researcher Mohammad Murad said. "People [with financial links to companies] should realize they are probably biased, and as readers we should be aware of probable bias."

Sources for this story include: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/glaxo-funded-backers-of-danger-drug-1923852.html.

Expectant mothers who take probiotics have healthier babies

(NaturalNews) Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) recently conducted a study on the effects of probiotic supplementation during pregnancy. The team found that mothers who drank probiotic-supplemented milk during their pregnancies cut their children's risk of developing eczema by 40 percent.

The study is part of a larger Norwegian research project being conducted by the university called "Prevention of Allergy Among Children in Trondheim", or PACT. In this particular study, women were given either milk with probiotics or milk with a placebo, beginning at week 36 of their pregnancies. Neither group knew which formula they were drinking. Researchers evaluated the women and their children from pregnancy until the children were two years old before presenting their findings.

"The taste of both products was similar, and the milk was delivered in unmarked milk cartons. This means that neither the participants in the study or the researchers knew who had received probiotic milk or placebo milk," explained Torbjorn Oien, one of the study researchers. "We can therefore say with great certainty that it was the probiotic bacteria alone that caused the difference in the incidence of eczema between the two groups."

Probiotics have been studied quite heavily in recent years, and science continues to discover the many health-promoting benefits of this beneficial bacteria.

"Probiotic bacteria favorably alter the intestinal microflora balance, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria (like Candida albicans, or "yeast"), promote good digestion, boost immune function, and increase resistance to infection. Probiotics also contain enzymes that help break down and digest dairy products like lactose in milk," explains Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., in his book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Treatments Work and Why.

The Norwegian study is the first to identify a definitive link between probiotics and eczema prevention, particularly as the effects are passed down from mother to child. The team plans to conduct a follow-up study to evaluate the preventative effect of probiotics on allergies like asthma as well.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.ntnu.edu/probiotic-use-in-pregnancy

http://www.naturalpedia.com/probiotic.html

Researchers urging ban on point-of-sale tobacco advertising

(NaturalNews) Stanford University Medical School researchers recently conducted a survey in which they found that point-of-sale tobacco advertising greatly influences teenagers' desire and willingness to smoke. According to the survey, teenagers who frequent establishments where this type of advertising exists are more than twice as likely to try smoking than those who do not visit them.

More than 2,000 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 14 years old participated in the survey, which recently appeared in the journal Pediatrics. Experts believe the study is a major eye-opener into the effects of direct tobacco advertising on young people.

"The tobacco industry argues the purpose of advertising is to encourage smokers to switch brands, but this shows that advertising encourages teenagers to pick up a deadly habit," explained Lisa Henriksen, a senior research scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and author of the study.

Henriksen also laments the number of cigarette ads present on objects in and around convenience stores located near schools. Trash cans, clocks, floor mats, cardboard displays, and other forms of advertising are all used in stores where many young people shop, and Henriksen and her team believe this type of advertising needs to stop.

For more than a decade, cigarette use among teens has dropped significantly, from 36.4 percent of high school students in 1997, to 19.5 percent of high school students in 2009. But experts are concerned that the rate of decrease is beginning to slow, and that something must be done.

"The train won't continue downhill without further action. Regulating retail marketing would be ideal for smoking prevention," believes Henriksen.

According to Connie Bennett and Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., author of the book Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life -- and How You Can Get Back on Track, tobacco companies also lure young people into a habit of smoking by adding sugar components to cigarettes to make them more "candylike".

"It's easy to get children to smoke cigarettes because the taste approaches sweetness," it explains.

Sources for this story include:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2010/07/19/ban-point-of-sale-tobacco-ads-in-retail-outlets-researchers-urge.html

Fish oil reduces risk of breast cancer by a third

(NaturalNews) When you look at statistics about breast cancer, it's no wonder that the very mention of the disease causes dread in many women. After all, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) says about 210,000 Americans, almost all females, will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and about 40,000 will die from the disease. However, although it's rarely reported in depth by the mainstream media, there's actually a lot of good news accumulating about specific ways to stop breast cancer from ever developing in the first place.

For example, a mounting of body of data shows cruciferous vegetables like broccoli fight breast cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/028822_broccoli_brst_cancer.html) and six studies have shown eating an apple a day can reduce the risk of breast cancer, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/025685_cancer_brst_apples.html). Now comes word of yet another natural substance that helps keep breast tumors away -- scientists have discovered that fish oil can slash the chance a woman will get breast cancer by approximately a third.

How fish oil works to prevent breast cancer
The new study, just published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, was conducted by a research team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. They investigated 35,016 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 76 with no history of breast cancer who were participating in the Vitamins and Lifestyle cohort study (dubbed VITAL, short). The woman was asked to complete a 24 page questionnaire about their use of supplements other than vitamins and/or minerals.

After six years of follow-up, 880 of these women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, those women who reported regularly taking fish oil supplements, which contain high levels of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, were found to have a 32 percent reduced risk of invasive ductal breast cancer -- the most common type of breast cancer. The use of other specialty supplements, such as the herbs black cohosh and dong quai which are often taken by women to relieve symptoms of menopause, was not associated with raising or lowering breast cancer risk.

As NaturalNews has previously reported, fish oil has been found to have a host of remarkable health protective properties. For example, a study published in the European Heart Journal concluded that consuming fatty fish and the marine omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil protects men from heart failure. And fish oil has been shown to be helpful in preventing mental illness, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/026130_heart_failure_fatty_fish_health.html).

For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20615886

US military says school lunches are a threat to national security

(NaturalNews) A group of retired military officials recently expressed concern that school lunches are a threat to national security. According to them, the food being fed to children at public schools is making them "too fat to fight", leaving a potentially considerable gap in military recruitment.

"Mission: Readiness", the non-profit group of over 130 retired military leaders that is calling for healthier federal food for children, is expressing support for new legislation that would outlaw junk food from schools so that more children will qualify to enroll in the military.

The group believes that "national security" is America's top priority, so it is doing everything it can to increase military enrollment, even if that means supporting and passing federal food restriction legislation.

According to the group's report, roughly 75 percent of all young Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 do not qualify for military service because they do not finish high school, have criminal records, or they are not physically fit enough to serve.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, the number of states with 40 percent or more of the young adult population being overweight or obese has jumped from one to 39 in just ten years. Currently in three states, more than half of the young adult population is overweight.

Mission: Readiness is calling on Congress to amend the Child Nutrition Act to include three new policies:

- Permit the USDA to adopt updated nutrition standards that would eliminate high-calorie, low-nutrition junk foods from public schools.

- Provide additional funding to improve the quality of food at public schools and increase the number of children who have access to it.

- Administer school-based programs to teach parents how to teach their children to adopt better eating and lifestyle habits.

Sadly, the motivation for such legislation does not seem to be for the actual benefit of the children themselves, but rather to fuel the endeavors of the military-industrial complex. And while there are some good proposals for switching to healthier food in public schools, threatening proposals to further increase federal control over people also seem to be present in the push.

Supporting healthier food for children is always a good thing, but it's important to lead the charge as a free and independent people, rather than simply grant increased power and control to federal bureaucrats. Remember, if they have the power to give it, they have the power to take it away.

Sources for this story include:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/school-lunches-pose-national-security-threat-ret-military/story?id=10424313

http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/MR_Too_Fat_to_Fight-1.pdf

Foods and drinks sweetened with fructose linked to high blood pressure

(NaturalNews) Fruits and vegetables contain relatively small amounts of the form of sugar known as fructose. But the typical American diet is now loaded with unnaturally high amounts of refined versions of this sweetener, primarily in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is found in everything from soft drinks and juice drinks to bakery products and other processed foods and it has been linked to a host of health woes ranging from obesity to the pre-diabetic condition known as metabolic syndrome. Now researchers have found that consuming foods sweetened with fructose raises the risk of developing one of the top killers in the U.S. -- high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.

According to the Institute of Medicine, one in three Americans has hypertension and many don't know their blood pressure is elevated, putting them at risk for several deadly diseases. For example, hypertension is blamed for more than one-third of heart attacks. It's also a leading cause of strokes and kidney failure, plays a role in blindness and can contribute to dementia, too.

Scientists have searched for environmental factors that might play a role in the development of high blood pressure -- and it appears a big connection to diet has been found. Diana Jalal, MD, of the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center, and her colleagues have come up with evidence that the rise in the rate of hypertension over the past hundred years is directly related to the increase in the consumption of fructose.

Dr. Jalal and her research team analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected from 2003 to 2006. Their study involved 4,528 US adults 18 years of age or older with no prior history of hypertension. The research subjects answered questions about their consumption of foods and beverages such as fruit juices, soft drinks, bakery products, and candy sweetened with fructose (primarily HFCS).

The results, just published in the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN), showed that people whose diet contained 74 grams or more per day of fructose -- the equivalent of drinking about 2 and a half soft drinks daily -- had a greatly increased risk of high blood pressure. A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg. But for research participants consuming fructose regularly, the risk of a high blood pressure level of 134/85 went up 26 percent and the risk of having a blood pressure reading of 140/90 climbed by 30 percent. However, the risk of very high blood pressure -- 160/100 -- was 77 percent higher in those consuming fructose sweetened foods and drinks on a daily basis.

According to the scientists, their findings suggest that cutting back on foods and beverages containing a lot of fructose might decrease the risk of developing hypertension. "Our study identifies a potentially modifiable risk factor for high blood pressure," Dr. Jalal said in a statement to the media. "However, well-planned prospective randomized clinical studies need to be completed to see if low fructose diets will prevent the development of hypertension and its complications." For more information: http://www.asn-online.org/press/pdf/2010-media/Jalal_fructose_study.pdf http://www.naturalnews.com/fructose.html

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US military says school lunches are a threat to national security