Vitamin C, Shingles, and Vaccination

Written By: 

Orthomolecular News Service

by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD

The pharmaceutical industry, and many doctors, appear to be making great efforts by to get as many people as possible vaccinated against shingles. Even if such an intervention was highly effective in preventing shingles, which certainly has not been shown to be the case, the information below should make it clear that such vaccinations are unnecessary. The side effects that would be suffered by a significant number of individuals need never occur in the first place. The real problem is that what is discussed below generates relatively little income for anybody in the healthcare industry. Regardless, you need to decide for yourself.

Shingles is an infection resulting from the varicella zoster virus, usually manifesting in areas supplied by spinal nerves, known as dermatomes. More commonly known in medical circles as Herpes zoster, the infection is typically characterized by a blistering skin rash of extraordinary pain for most individuals. The initial infection with the virus is usually remote from the shingles outbreak, typically occurring in childhood when chickenpox is contracted. For years the virus remains latent in nerve cell bodies or autonomic ganglia. It is when the virus, for unclear reasons, breaks out of these storage sites and travels down the nerve axons that shingles occurs.

Left to itself along with mainstream therapies that include analgesics, antiviral agents like acyclovir, and corticosteroids, the rash will generally resolve in two to four weeks. The pain is generally lessened little by analgesics. Some unfortunate individuals can experience postherpetic neuralgia, a syndrome of residual nerve pain that can continue for months or years following a shingles outbreak.

Treatment of Shingles with Vitamin C

The clinical response of shingles to vitamin C therapy is decidedly different from its response to traditional therapies. While there are not many reports in the literature on vitamin C and shingles, the studies that do exist are striking. Frederick Klenner, MD, who pioneered the effective use of vitamin C in a wide variety of infections and toxin exposures, published the results of his vitamin C therapy on eight patients with shingles. He gave 2,000 to 3,000 mg of vitamin C by injection every 12 hours, supplemented by 1,000 mg in fruit juice by mouth every two hours. In seven of the eight patients treated in this manner, complete pain relief was reported within two hours of the first vitamin C injection. All patients received a total of five to seven vitamin C injections. Having had shingles myself years before I knew of the efficacy of vitamin C therapy, I can assert that this is nothing short of a stunning result on what is usually a painful and debilitating disease.

Furthermore, the blisters on Dr. Klenner's patients were reported to begin healing rapidly, with complete resolution within the first 72 hours. As with other infectious conditions, Dr. Klenner hastened to add that treatment needed to continue for at least 72 hours, as recurrence could readily occur even when the initial response was positive. Dr. Klenner also found a similar regimen of vitamin C just as readily resolved the blistering lesions of chickenpox, with the recoveries usually complete in three to four days. Similar clinical response by chickenpox and shingles to vitamin C is further evidence, albeit indirect, that the chickenpox virus and the later appearing Herpes zoster virus are the same pathogen (Klenner, 1949 & 1974).

Even before Dr. Klenner's observations were published, another researcher reported results just as astounding when measured against today's mainstream therapies. Dainow (1943) reported success with 14 shingles patients receiving vitamin C injections. In another study, complete resolution of shingles outbreaks was reported in 327 of 327 patients receiving vitamin C injections within the first 72 hours (Zureick, 1950). While all of this data on vitamin C and shingles is quite old, there is an internal consistency among the report in how the patients responded. Until further clinical trials are conducted, these results stand. They clearly show that vitamin C should be an integral part of any therapeutic approach used on a patient presenting with shingles.

Vitamin C and Viruses

Vitamin C has a general virus-inactivating effect, with herpes viruses being only one of many types of virus that vitamin C has neutralized in the test tube or has eradicated in an infected person (Levy, 2002). As with the inactivation seen with other viruses mixed with vitamin C in the test tube (in vitro), two early studies were consistent with the clinical results later seen with vitamin C in herpes infections. Vitamin C inactivated herpes viruses when mixed with them in the test tube (Holden and Resnick, 1936; Holden and Molloy, 1937).

The most important factor in the treatment of any virus with vitamin C is to give enough, for a long enough period of time. Certain chronic viral syndromes do not promptly resolve with vitamin C administration, but there is yet to be an acute viral syndrome that vitamin C cannot resolve promptly, unless the patient already has extensive tissue/organ damage and is literally only moments away from death.

Vitamin C therapy can never be considered a failure in an acute viral syndrome until multiple forms have been used in large doses together. While a majority of acute viral syndromes will rapidly resolve with properly-dosed vitamin C of any kind, resistant cases need to be subjected to a multi-pronged approach to vitamin C administration. Such a regimen can include, but not necessarily be limited to:

1. 1,000 to 5,000 milligrams of liposome-encapsulated vitamin C orally daily
2. Bowel tolerance doses of vitamin C as sodium ascorbate orally daily
3. 1,000 to 3,000 mg daily of fat-soluble ascorbyl palmitate orally daily
4. Intravenous vitamin C, 25,000 to 150,000 mg per infusion, depending on body size, as frequently as daily, depending on the severity of the infection

Vitamin C accumulating inside viral particles can rapidly destroy viruses by that approach. The spike of the bacteriophage virus is laden with iron, and the focal Fenton reaction is probably how it penetrates its host cell membrane (Bartual et al., 2010; Yamashita et al., 2011; Browning et al., 2012). Viruses accumulate iron and copper, and these metals are also part of the surfaces of viruses (Samuni et al., 1983). As such, wherever the concentrations are the highest, vitamin C will focally upregulate the Fenton reaction, and irreversible viral damage will generally ensue. Fenton activity and its upregulation is the only really well-documented way by which viruses, pathogens, and also cancer cells can be killed by vitamin C, and it is the stimulation of this reaction by vitamin C that makes it therapeutically effective in resolving many infections and cancers (Vilcheze et al., 2013).

Vitamin C helps resolve infections of all varieties, but its effect on acute viral syndromes are especially dramatic and prompt, and it should always be part of any treatment protocol for an infected patient.

(Dr. Thomas Levy is a board-certified cardiologist as well as an attorney. He is the author of several books, including Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins.)

OMNS free subscription link http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and also the OMNS archive linkhttp://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml are included.

References:

1. Bartual, S., J. Otero, C. Garcia-Doval, et al. (2010) Structure of the bacteriophage T4 long tail fiber receptor-binding tip. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107:20287-20292. PMID: 21041684

2. Browning, C., M. Shneider, V. Bowman, et al., (2012) Phage pierces the host cell membrane with the iron-loaded spike. Structure 20:326-339. PMID: 22325780

3. Dainow, I. (1943) Treatment of herpes zoster with vitamin C. Dermatologia 68:197-201.

4. Holden, M. and E. Molloy (1937) Further experiments on the inactivation of herpes virus by vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid). Journal of Immunology 33:251-257.

5. Holden, M. and R. Resnick (1936) The in vitro action of synthetic crystalline vitamin C (ascorbic acid) on herpes virus. Journal of Immunology 31:455-462.

6. Klenner, F. (1949) The treatment of poliomyelitis and other virus diseases with vitamin C. Southern Medicine & Surgery 111:209-214. PMID: 18147027

7. Klenner, F. (1974) Significance of high daily intake of ascorbic acid in preventive medicine. Journal of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine 1:45-69.

8. Levy, T. (2002) Curing the Incurable. Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins. MedFox Publishing, Henderson, NV.

9. Samuni, A., J. Aronovitch, D. Godinger, et al. (1983) On the cytotoxicity of vitamin C and metal ions. A site-specific Fenton mechanism. European Journal of Biochemistry 137:119-124. PMID: 6317379

10. Vilcheze, C., T. Hartman, B. Weinrick, and W. Jacobs, Jr. (2013) Mycobacterium tuberculosis is extraordinarily sensitive to killing by a vitamin C-induced Fenton reaction. Nature Communications 4:1881. PMID: 23695675

11. Yamashita, E., A. Nakagawa, J. Takahashi, et al. (2011) The host-binding domain of the P2 phage tail spike reveals a trimeric iron-binding structure. Acta Crystallographica. Section F, Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications 67:837-841. PMID: 21821878

12. Zureick, M. (1950) Therapy of herpes and herpes zoster with intravenous vitamin C. Journal des Praticiens 64:586. PMID: 14908970

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/vitamin-c-shingles-and-vaccination

Breaking Report: HPV Cancers Rising In Spite of Vaccination

A new study by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reveals that, despite increasing uptake of human papillomavirus (HVP) vaccines, cancers linked to HPV rose in the past decade.

The report, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was co-authored by researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), and found that while overall cancer death rates in the U.S. continue to decline among both men and women over the past decade, incidence rates are actually increasing for HPV-associated oral, vulva and anal cancers.

As reported by Fierce Vaccines, this finding may "irk HPV vaccine makers Merck and GlaxoSmithKline," whose vaccines have been adopted and lauded by national and global health authorities as safe and effective, 'live saving' interventions.

Obviously, if the report is correct, and by 2010 as many as 48.7 percent of girls ages 13 through 17 had received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine, and 32 percent received all three recommended doses, we should expect to find a widespread decline in HPV-associated cancers if the vaccines actually work as advertised.

While HPV-associated diseases are multifactorial in etiology, with environmental exposures, co-infections, immune dysfunction, nutritional incompatibilities, excesses and deficiencies, and stress-related physiological factors playing key roles, the vaccine industry and their governmental extensions have largely opted for reductionism in their marketing, projecting the rhetorical view that HPV is the single most important, if not the only cause of HPV-associated conditions such as anal and cervical cancer.

All the more reason why this new study is so devastating to their aggressive marketing and PR campaigns, and why the subsequent rallying cry for greater HPV vaccine coverage as the solution to the vaccine's failure -- though extremely typical -- is all the more disturbing.

Recently, we covered the fatal flaws in HPV vaccine promotion in The HPV Vaccine Debate: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, wherein we discussed the expert testimony of HPV researcher Dr. Diane Harper onKatie Couric's controversial show dedicated to the topic, and the CDC's own admission that the HPV vaccines being used today have very limited effectiveness:

"According to the CDC's website, there are over 100 forms of HPV that have been identified thus far, with the vaccine only protecting (in theory) against four, namely, HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18.[xiii]  Nor does vaccination speed the clearance of pre-existing HPV 16/18 infection, making Dr. Harper's point about the prevalence of HPV infection in those younger than 11 all the more poignant.[xiv] So, how effective can a 2-4 strain vaccine possibly be even if it works 100% of the time against them?"

The answer is of course not very effective. And nowhere is this more clearly evident than in the case of African-American girls and women...

Only two months ago, a groundbreaking but virtually unknown report on the National Library of Medicine's health information portal Medline Plus, revealed a disturbing fact about the HPV vaccine, and the institutionalized 'color blindness' in biomedicine today that is having significant adverse impacts on minority populations.  Researchers from Duke University found that although African-American women are twice as likely as Caucasian women to die from cervical cancer, HPV vaccines target strains of HPV that are far less likely to infect them, and are not found in the most concerning precancerous abnormalities. 

As reported by Afro.com:

"The study examined 280 Black women and 292 White women, all carrying varying HPV strains. Some had no signs of cancer, some showed mild signs of pre-cancer and a small percentage had advanced precancerous abnormalities. In the group with the most advanced signs of pre-cancer, White participants carried strains 16, 18, 33, 39, and 59, whereas Black participants carried strains 31, 35, 45, 56, 58, 66, and 68.

Currently, two vaccines on the market target four HPV strains considered most troublesome. Gardasil, which is produced by Merck and can be administered to anyone aged 9 through 26, protects against strains 16, 18, 6, and 11. Cervarix, by GlaxoSmithKline, is available only for girls and women and targets strains 16 and 18."

Could this explain why rates of cervical cancer actually increased in African-American populations, according to the new NCI report?

When a vaccine is being used that forces the immune system of black girls or women to produce antibodies and mobilize immune defenses against HPV strains that are not contributing to the pathogenesis of the presumed 'vaccine preventable' disease, not only does this waste valuable immune resources that would be useful elsewhere, but it focuses the immune system towards a non-existent threat and away from the real one. Obviously, vaccines that produce antibodies without antigen-antibody affinity are not only useless, but harmful. And this does not even account for the multiple, unintended, adverse effects of the other vaccine ingredients (e.g. adjuvants; biologicals) found within the shot.

Shouldn't these two studies confirm that at the very least, African-American populations should refrain from HPV vaccines until further evidence is provided that they are safe and effective? Is this not basic to the precautionary principle, especially when it comes to an unnecessary medical intervention? Shouldn't the burden of proof of safety and efficacy be upon those manufacturing, selling, regulating the product and not the exposed populations who increasingly are being told they have little to no choice in the matter?

For more information on HPV vaccination and HPV, visit our research sections on the topic:

Vaccination: HPV (Gardisil)

Human Papillomavirus HPV

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/breaking-report-hpv-cancers-rising-spite-vaccination

How zinc levels affect your immune system

By Dr. David Jockers

 Zinc is a fundamental mineral and one of the most common deficiencies in the world. Zinc is essential to human and animal growth patterns and has an essential role in the development of hormones and immune molecules. Zinc is one of the best mineral supplements to boost and balance out a tired and overstimulated immune system.

Experts predict that almost 2 billion people, which is roughly 25% of the world's population, are deficient in zinc. This is thought to be from inadequate consumption through the individual's diet. From a functional health perspective, there is a lot more zinc deficiency in our society due to poor biochemical pathways.

When we have poor blood sugar signaling due to a diet that is high in sugar and carbohydrates, we are unable to adequately absorb zinc. Individuals with leaky gut syndrome are often deficient in zinc from poor absorption. Consuming high amounts of phytic acids in grains and legumes can adversely affect zinc levels. The regular use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) depletes zinc levels in the body as well.

Zinc is critical for immune health:

Zinc is critical for balancing the immune system and keeping the Th-1 and Th-2 systems in check. Zinc potentiates the action of the human cytokine interferon-alpha, a protein that inhibits viral replication. This reduces immunological stress and improves the immune coordination.

Zinc is also a component of specific enzymes in the body, including superoxide dismutatse enzymes (SODs). SOD is a powerful intracellular antioxidant that protects the cellular genomics and protects against viral infection and toxic debris accumulation within the cellular matrix.

Zinc reduces inflammatory conditions in the body:

When the immune system recognizes a pathogen, it sets off a series of molecules to create a process that activates the innate immune response. This process involves the nuclear factor-kappa beta (NF-kB) pathway. Healthy immunity depends upon sensitive NF-kB activity, but we must reduce the overstimulation of NF-kB, or we risk chronic inflammation.

Zinc plays an important role, as it binds to a protein within the NF-kB pathway that halts its activity. This is a programmed shutdown of the NF-kB pathway that reduces the effects of too much inflammatory activity within the cells. Without adequate zinc, the NF-kB pathway gets overstimulated and creates chronic inflammatory conditions that have been linked to degenerative disease processes.

Zinc helps reduce cancer cell growth:

Zinc's modulatory effect on NF-kB makes it a formidable player in the prevention of cancer cell growth patterns. It has been shown to decrease tumor cell angiogenesis and the induction of inflammatory cytokines. It also increases apoptosis (programmed cell death) in abnormal cell lines, which reduces the chances of cancer growth.

Research shows that zinc is particularly important in prostate and breast cancers. A 2012 study showed that individuals with the BRCA1 gene (strongly associated with breast cancer development) who had the highest levels of zinc had the lowest risk of cancer development. The study also showed that those with the lowest zinc levels had a significantly elevated risk of developing breast cancer.

Zinc and estrogen balance

In other research, Dr. David Watts reviewed the hair trace mineral reports of thousands of women and found that a pattern of elevated boron, copper and calcium levels with lower levels of zinc occurred in women with breast cancer. Dr. Watts' understanding is that boron and copper appear to make the body more sensitive to the stimulatory effects of estrogen and less responsive to the quieting effects of progesterone. Zinc is the mineral that aids in the production and utilization of progesterone, so this pattern of mineralization makes women less progesterone-responsive and more estrogen-sensitive. Raising zinc levels and lowering boron, copper and calcium levels can bring these women into mineral balance and help in the creation of hormonal balance.

The primary gene protecting men from prostate cancer and women from breast cancer is the TP53 gene. This is thought to be the guardian of the human genome. When this gene becomes mutated, it allows for the development of cancer. The gene requires zinc, and zinc deficiencies are shown to cause mutated versions of the TP53 gene to form. This dramatically raises the risk of breast and prostate cancer cell development.

How much zinc should you take in?

The best food sources of zinc include oysters, shellfish, meat, eggs, whole grains, nuts and seeds. I personally do not recommend oysters or shellfish due to toxic bioaccumulation in these animal sources. Grass-fed beef and organ meat and eggs from 100% pasture-raised animals are much better sources. Sprouted pumpkin, sunflower, hemp and chia seeds are also fantastic sources of zinc.

The recommended daily allowance for zinc is between 8 and 11 milligrams for most adults. However, for functional health, most progressive nutritionists and doctors recommend between 30 and 40 mg/day. Zinc can be a problem when one takes in more than 100 mg/day. It is best to get a combination of zinc complexes from zinc gluconate, zinc amino acid chelate and zinc citrate.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.dummies.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com

http://researchnews.osu.edu

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043415_zinc_immune_system_mineral_balance.html#ixzz2pgZprwMA

Wild Blueberry Polyphenols Improve Vascular Function

Margie King, Health Coach

The more easily blood flows through your arteries and veins, the less your heart has to work.  Now researchers from England and Germany have proven that less than a cup of wild blueberries can have an almost immediate and long lasting effect on how well your vascular system is circulating blood. 

Researchers from the University of Reading and the University of Dusseldorf conducted two randomized, controlled, double-blind crossover studies in 21 healthy men between 18 and 40 years old.[1]  They wanted to determine the impact of various amounts of wild blueberries on cardiovascular function.  

In the first study, some of the men drank varying amounts of blueberry polyphenols, ranging from the equivalent of 240 grams (3/4 cup) to 560 grams (1¼ cups) of wild blueberries.  Others were given a drink with the same macro and micronutrients but no blueberry polyphenols. 

The researchers then measured changes in the men's "flow-mediated dilation."  FMD is the gold-standard technique to measure endothelial function.  The endothelium is the lining of the blood vessels.  FMD is considered a good predictor of cardiovascular disease risk.

The researchers measured changes in FMD at 0, 1, 2, 4 and 6 hours after the men drank the blueberry polyphenols.  They found improvements in FMD at 1, 2 and 6 hours after consumption.  The beneficial effects correlated with levels of blueberry polyphenol metabolites in the blood plasma. In other words, as the blueberry polyphenols were broken down by enzymes into various metabolites, endothelium function in the men improved.  The benefits lasted at least 6 hours.   

A second study was conducted to investigate the dose of blueberry polyphenols needed to see beneficial effects.  The researchers tested the equivalent of 100 grams to 560 grams of wild blueberries at 0 and 1 hour post-consumption.  Their results showed that FMD improved in a dose-dependent manner up to the equivalent of about 240 grams of wild blueberries.  Then the effects plateaued. 

In other words, the men didn't get any additional benefit in endothelial function by eating any more than the equivalent of ¾ of a cup of wild blueberries.   

Earlier researched on the cardiovascular benefits of berries found that women who ate three or more servings of blueberries per week slashed their risk of heart attack by as much as 32%.  And wildblueberries may help improve blood pressure by modulating arterial contractions. 

In the obese, blueberries have been found to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce cardiovascular risk factors. 

Other studies show blueberries may help prevent cancer.     

Visit GreenMedInfo's database for more health benefits of blueberries.

The current study used wild blueberries.  They are smaller than the cultivated versions most often found in your supermarket, with about twice the number of berries per pound.  They also have less water and a higher skin-to-pulp ratio.  That means the wild versions have more intense flavor and double the antioxidant content. 

In North America, the harvest season for wild blueberries is July and August in Maine and Canada.  But you can find fresh frozen berries in supermarkets all year round. 

---

[1] Rodriguez-Mateos A, Intake and time dependence of blueberry flavonoid-induced improvements in vascular function: a randomized, controlled, double-blind, crossover intervention study with mechanistic insights into biological activity.  Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Nov;98(5):1179-91. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113.066639. Epub 2013 Sep 4.  PMID: 24004888
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/wild-blueberry-polyphenols-improve-vascular-function

Science Teacher: Lost 37 Lbs Eating McDonalds

Susanne Posel 
Occupy Corporatism

John Cisna, a science teacher at Colo-Nesco High School in Colorado, inverted the film Super Size Me by eating only McDonalds food – and claims to have lost weight.

Cisna employed his students to assist him in a meal plan of 2,000-calories per day intake while only consuming food produced by McDonalds.

The science teacher explained: “I can eat any food at McDonald’s (that) I want as long as I’m smart for the rest of the day with what I balance it out with.”

Part of the test was to keep strictly to the caloric intake while taking measurements of “carbohydrates, proteins, fat calories and cholesterol”.

For breakfast, Cisna ate:

• Two egg white delights
• A bowl of maple oatmeal
• 1% milk

For lunch, Cisna ate a salad; and for dinner a value meal would be chosen.

Dinner combos included Big Macs, quarter pounder with cheese, sundaes and ice cream cones.

In combination with eating McDonalds, Cisna walked for nearly an hour daily.

Within 3 months, Cisna claimed he had lost 170 pounds.

One of the by-products found by Cisna was “large improvement in [Cisna’s] blood now that he’s capping his nutrients at the recommended daily levels.”

The science teacher attributed his weight loss to better meal choices.

Cisna declared to media: “It’s our choices that make us fat. Not McDonald’s.”

http://youtu.be/m-FBV3-pwDk

Interesting enough, Cisna’s experiment is perfectly timed to follow the debacle over McDonalds website that warned employees against eating their own food.

Before McDonalds removed their website McResource Line (MRL), the corporation admonished to stay away from their products.

One post on the site read: “Fast foods are quick, reasonably priced, and readily available alternatives to home cooking. While convenient and economical for a busy lifestyle, fast foods are typically high in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt and may put people at risk for becoming overweight.”

The MRL states that fast food contains unhealthy amounts of calories, salt, fat and sugars that leads to medical conditions such as:

• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure

According to McDonalds, copious amounts of mayonnaise, bacon, cheese and other processed additives are not conducive for a healthy lifestyle and employees are told to choose restaurants that offer sandwiches, soups and vegetables as viable options.

Last year, at an investor’s conference, Don Thompson, chief executive officer, explained that salads only make up 2% of their US sales.

Thompson said: “I don’t see salads as being a major growth driver in the near future.”

To make sure their profit margin increases, McDonalds will begin pushing hamburgers and chicken sandwiches to make customers want fruit and vegetables. Because the McWraps have tomato, cucumber slices and shredded lettuce, McDonalds sees this as a way to give customers a healthy option.

Thompson claims to eat McDonalds “every, single day” while so commenting that “balance is really important to people.”

He remarked that people can eat at McDonalds every day and still lose weight.

At the same time Thompson announced that he has begun exercising more and lost 20 pounds, McDonalds released the Mega Potato, the item on their menu with the highest caloric count. This item is worth 1,142 calories which is more than half the recommended calorie intake of an average woman.

Ironically, McDonalds is pushing their meat products, such as the Big Mac and double cheeseburgers, because customers are not buying enough salads.

- See more at: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/science-teacher-lost-37-lbs-eating-mcdonalds/#sthash.60XfPWDN.dpuf

GMO Cheerios: Activists Force General Mills to Remove Ingredients

Susanne Posel 
Occupy Corporatism

General Mills has announced they will be responding to public demand and removing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from their products.

The GMO Inside (GMOI) environmental coalition brought together tens of thousands of demonstrators to flood the Cheerios Facebook page with comments, calls to the corporate headquarters and massive amounts of emails to the executives with one message: Take GMOs out of their cereals.

Michelle Kim of GMOI stated : “When GMO Inside began in November 2012, we chose General Mills as our first target for using genetically modified ingredients in Cheerios. It all started when General Mills launched a customer feedback Facebook app, only to be flooded with comments from GMO Insiders, causing the whole project to shut down.”

On Cheerios’ website, the corporation said : “We don’t use genetically modified ingredients in original Cheerios. Our principal ingredient has always been whole grain oats – and there are no GMO oats. We use a small amount of corn starch in cooking, and just one gram of sugar per serving for taste. But our corn starch comes from non-GMO corn, and we use only non-GMO pure cane sugar.”

The company maintains that GMOs are “safe” because “there is broad consensus among major global scientific and regulatory bodies that approved genetically modified foods are safe. The World Health Organization (WHO), the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Health Canada have all weighed in on this question – and all have found approved biotech crops to be as safe and acceptable as their conventional counterparts.”

March Against Monsanto (MAM) is another activist group dedicated to changing the political conversation on GMOs and bring awareness of the dangers of ingesting them to the public.

Monsanto has created deadly versions of canola, corn, cotton, soybean, sugar beets and alfalfa; just to name a few. Their most well-known product, Round-Up, has prompted the creation of plant life that are resistant to the weed-killer.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) concluded in a study that GM foods contain pesticide residue has shown to produce human cellular endocrine disruptors measured at 1000 times below.

Corroborating the NIH, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) found that “GM foods pose a serious health risk.”

Pamm Larry, an expert in GMOs, explained : “[Marches] bring awareness to people – who maybe have never heard about these products – to look into not only Monsanto but other chemical companies and start to look a little deeper about what’s happening to our food supply and what’s happening to our environment.”

Larry asserted: “People have the right to know what they’re buying, eating and feeding their children. And corporations should not be able to control what we eat without us knowing about it.”

http://youtu.be/cocp7utUy64

With “enough scientific evidence” available to prove that GMOs are “unsafe”; now is the time for questions to be asked regarding their “safety for human and animal consumption” as well as their impact on the environment.

Hormone distributors and chemicals used on crops effect agricultural areas that do not use such means to produce food.

- See more at: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/gmo-cheerios-activists-force-general-mills-to-remove-ingredients/#sthash.iM1hqLXn.dpuf

How to Live Longer and Feel Better

How to Live Longer and Feel Better

by Linus Pauling

Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2006. 300 pages, plus index, notes and extensive bibliography.

Reviewed by Andrew W. Saul

Assistant Editor, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine

My Dad always said that when you want to know something, talk to the organ-grinder, not the monkey. With that epithet in mind, may I suggest that you promptly borrow or buy a copy of Linus Pauling’s How to Live Longer and Feel Better, recently reissued in an updated 20^th anniversary edition. Yes, this is THE Dr. Pauling: the man your chemistry teacher idolized and your family doctor tries hard to ignore. Why? Because Linus Pauling committed the cardinal sin of allopathic medicine: he, a medical outsider, dared to present, directly to the public, his insightful reviews of the scientific literature to demonstrate that high doses of vitamins cure real diseases. What’s more, Pauling reassessed many supposedly open-and-thoroughly shut “vitamins-are-useless” studies and explained how the researchers had skirted the fact that their data actually demonstrated that vitamin therapy did indeed have statistical value. Again and again, Pauling criticized study authors who failed to interpret their own work fairly, or even accurately, and had passed off biased opinions as valid conclusions from their work. 

When negative studies are revealed to actually be positive, organized medicine has egg on its beard. Hence, it has long been open season on Pauling, arguably the world’s most qualified, and certainly the world’s best known, critic of our scorbutic (vitamin C deficient) medical system. Pauling’s two unshared Nobel prizes (he is the only person in history with that distinction) are no protection from ignorant critics who slam vitamins without reading the research first.

Like me, for example. I first encountered Linus Pauling's Vitamin C and the Common Cold in 1973 while I was a student at the Australian National University. In addition to being the actual author of my chemistry textbook, Pauling had also just visited our university. In the uni refectory (that's "campus dining hall" for you Yanks), I hereby confess that we privately made fun of Pauling. A physics student and I casually calculated on a serviette (that's a paper napkin, mate) that you'd have to do nothing but eat oranges all day if you wanted to consume the amount of vitamin C that Pauling recommended. Two Nobels or not, we thought he was past it, and we were not alone in our sophomoric view.

Some years later, now back in America and, quite suddenly, with two kids in diapers, I was reading all the Pauling papers and books I could get my hands on. Now, you see, I had become a man with an all-too-prosaic mission: to keep my two little kids healthy. Life for me has not been the same since, nor for my children. I raised them both all the way into college without a single dose of any antibiotic. I saw for myself that Pauling was right. Vitamins worked, for prevention and for cure.

It would be difficult to imagine that his advocacy of the practical medical application of vitamins would ultimately cause more of a ruckus than Pauling's previous overhaul of our knowledge of chemistry, or even the vicious blacklisting that Pauling got from the US government when he opposed nuclear testing. After bringing high-dose vitamin C therapy for colds and flu to the public’s attention in the early 1970s, Dr. Pauling had to spend quite a bit of time defending much-larger-than-RDA nutritional medicine from an abundant supply of under-informed critics. By 1986, when he first published How to Live Longer and Feel Better, he’d had a lot of practice.

Pauling had the rare gift for making the complex understandable, and his talent shows most clearly in this book. Distilling thirty pages of scientific references into logical, common-sense advice, he covers vitamins and cancer, heart disease, aging, infectious diseases, vitamin safety, toxicity and side effects, medicines, doctors' attitudes, nutrition history, vitamin biochemistry and a good deal more. And, with all that, he still finds time to clearly summarize as he goes, and to include some personal thoughts on attaining world peace. This is perhaps the strongest presentation ever written on the need for supplemental vitamins. The new edition benefits from added notes, an introduction outlining Pauling's career, and the welcome inclusion of cartoon illustrations previously dropped from the mass-market edition. There are many good reasons why a one-second Google search for Linus Pauling will bring up nearly a million responses. How to Live Longer and Feel Better is definitely one of the best. 

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

Out with Gout

The oldest records we have establish gout as a disease of over-feeding of protein foods. The simplest preventive solution is vegetarianism.  The simplest therapeutic solution is raw-food vegetarianism and fasting. Those who are not whooped up about fasting might be able to do a "pseudo-fast" by simply not eating meat and drinking lots and lots of water.

One reader says: 

"Until about a year ago I was suffering from increasingly frequent attacks of gout mainly in my big toe joints. The relief came from precriptions of Indomethacin. As I avoid drugs wherever possible, I decided that something different should be found. For reasons which now escape me, I decided to drink large quantities of water, i.e. about 2 litres per day. I have now been free of gout for over a year. This may be coincidence and this is why I have called the evidence inconclusive. However, my doctor observed that this has the effect of stimulating the kidneys. A very recent item on UK radio by a nutritionist and doctor came to the conclusion that we do drink to little water and that many can be suffering dehydration.

"My brother rang me and mentioned he had gout. This was last Saturday. I recommended he try drinking as much water as he could handle. It may be his gout was already going into remission, but anyway by Sunday the pain was receding and gone by Tuesday. Could be coincidence, but... he took no drugs." 

"My advice is, go for that water."

Another anti-gout hint: Increased Vitamin C consumption improves urinary excretion of uric acid. (Cheraskin, Ringsdorf Jr., and Sisley:The Vitamin C Connection, Harper and Row, 1983.) Use buffered ascorbate "C".

But perhaps the tastiest solution is eating cherries. Lots of cherries, cherries by the bowlful. Sour cherries work best, but fresh sweet cherries will help a great deal as well. Such an odd-sounding but time-honored remedy sounds almost too simple to work. Well, it does.

For further reading, a site search for "uric acid" or "protein" at thehttp://www.doctoryourself.com mainpage might be worth your while. 

Copyright 2005 and prior years by Andrew W. Saul.

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

For ordering information, Click Here .

Reviews of VEGETABLE JUICING FOR EVERYONE

Most parents have seen a “milk moustache” on their children’s faces. My kids had bright orange “carrot moustaches.” (If Mark Twain had juiced, just imagine.) That’s how much carrot juice they drank, even as preschoolers. They also never had a single dose of any antibiotic. Not one, not ever. And they had pediatricians that they never met. Our family’s physicians were in a group practice. Doctors came and went and we never met them. Just postcards announcing who was new, and who had retired.

Charlotte Gerson says about VEGETABLE JUICING FOR EVERYONE:"Andrew W. Saul is a man who enjoys his work. But do not be misled into thinking that the fun you will have reading this book makes its message any less serious. Dr. Saul is a committed activist and therapist who has brought sound nutritional information to thousands through his books, newsletters, and lectures.

"Much has been written about nutrition and juicing, so Dr. Saul decided to write something different: “This is what I did.” He has recorded a family saga that at times makes you laugh out loud and at times fills you with admiration for this charming medical teacher and his iron determination.

"How much do we love our children? Enough to make them work hard hours, fighting off frogs and mice in an overgrown vegetable garden, and then drink the juices from their own organic produce? Enough to resist their complaints and overcome their (and our own) laziness? Enough to turn our backs on a totally unhealthy upbringing and start a relentless campaign to save them from antibiotics, vaccinations, pharmaceuticals, and chronic disease? That is how much Andrew Saul loved his children. The youngsters grew to college age without ever taking antibiotics and into maturity sharing their parents’ values and valuing their sharing.

"Much of the charm of Dr. Saul’s story is in the humorous recollections provided by his daughter and co-author Helen Saul Case. Affectionately recalling her rebellious childhood, handled with creative blackmail and rewards by her wise and determined parents, she describes how “the system worked”; since she continues the family tradition of juicing and teaching nutrition to her own children.

"If all parents were able to benefit from the advice in this book, and were to make a habit of growing or purchasing a wide variety of organic vegetables to eat and juice daily, they could do much to avoid the terrible health problems that afflict children today.

"Juicing is time invested in saving time. It is better to spend some happy hours in the garden and kitchen than to be miserable and sick in hospital or in a doctor’s waiting room. Dr. Andrew Saul proves by the rich and varied activities of his life, that if you are healthy you will have plenty of time for work and fun.

"I might add that work is fun when you are helping people get and stay well."

For ordering information, Click Here . 


How is Vegetable Juicing for Everyone Different from All Other Juicing Books?

"Use it, Abe. It's funny."
(Bob Newhart, Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue)

There are a lot of very good juicing books. But the only one with truly humorous, off-the-wall attitude is VEGETABLE JUICING FOR EVERYONE. We wrote a funny book to make it fun to read. We have stories and tales and experiences to share, from the oddities of our childhood to our oddities as parents. There is something in this book to embarass nearly everyone in our extended family, including ourselves. Ah, but that is what great literature is all about! Both authors have taught junior high, and you can blame those surrealistic years for some of the book’s point of view. When you actually relish working with adolescent kids with attitude, it sort of rubs off.

And Now a World from our Sponsor . . . NOT!
The authors have no financial connection whatsoever with any company in the health products industry. We do not market our own products, nor do we market anyone else’s. We do not make a dime from the sale of juicers, or vitamins, or foods. Or garden seed. Or shovels. We have no vested interests except our health, your health . . . and you buying armloads of our books to give to your family and friends. We personally prefer books without product endorsements, and endeavor to offer you the same courtesy.

VEGETABLE JUICING FOR EVERYONE by Andrew W. Saul and Helen Saul Case

Table of Contents 

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Charlotte Gerson
Introduction
Chapter 1: Confessions of the Dad Who Made His Kids Drink Vegetable Juices
Chapter 2: Well, It’s Certainly Not Genetic
Chapter 3: Carrot Juice Kids
Chapter 4: Health Benefits from Juicing
Chapter 5: Mega-Nutrition from Vegetables, the Fun Way
Chapter 6: Geriatric Juicing
Chapter 7: Juicing Excuses
Afterword
Appendix 1: Interview with Andrew W. Saul
Appendix 2: Begining Your Organic Food Garden
Appendix 3: Another Reader's Digest Absurdity: Red Meat is Bad – No, Wait – Good for You!
Appendix 4: Preventing Oxalate Kidney Stones
Resources and Recommended Reading
References
Index
About the Authors
 

For ordering information, Click Here .

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

Study Shows Marijuana Reduces Effects of PTSD in Veterans

Susanne Posel 
Occupy Corporatism

Andrew Holmes, researcher for the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) explained that marijuana helps US veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The study reads: “These results provide the first evidence that pharmacological enhancement of extinction learning is feasible in humans using cannabinoid system modulators, which may thus warrant further development and clinical testing.”

Because of work with laboratory animals, Holmes’ team has found that “tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that gives marijuana its feel-good qualities, acts on a system in the brain that is critical for fear and anxiety modulation.”

In 2012, the Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access (VMCA) demanded in a petition to the White House for the rights of US veterans to use cannabis for “therapeutic purposes”.

Holmes stated that the testing in the rats were positive; however “tests in people are just beginning and will take years to complete. In the meantime, researchers are learning more about how marijuana and THC affect the fear system in people.”

The study concluded that “people who got THC during the therapy had long-lasting reductions in anxiety, very similar to what we were seeing in our animal models. So THC may be most useful when used for a short time in combination with other therapy.”

Earlier this year, a directive issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has enabled clinics and hospitals to prescribe medical marijuana to patients in 14 states.

Although those doctors are not admonished to prescribe marijuana to veterans who are denied pain medication, it sets a precedent.

In addition, it federalizes the use of medical marijuana while at the same time conflicting with federal laws prohibiting the use and sale of marijuana.

Robert Petzel, undersecretary for health at the VA stated that these new guidelines will be sent to all 900 care facilities across the nation; while making a concise warning that doctors retain the right of refusal to patients based on a professional opinion of treatment options.

Petzel said: “If a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in a manner consistent with state law, testing positive for marijuana would not preclude the veteran from receiving opioids for pain management. The discretion to prescribe, or not prescribe, opioids in conjunction with medical marijuana, should be determined on clinical grounds.”

In 2012, a study was published that stated THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, assists the human body in emotional processing and can be “an essential aspect of appropriate social interactions and interpersonal relationships.”

Researchers noted that in their controlled experiment, THC was observed as lowering brain activity in respect to negative stimuli. This unresponsiveness to negative stimuli could prove effective in treating depression; as well as having a beneficial role in emotions and mood.

According to the study: “These findings add to existing evidence that implicate the endocannabinoid system in modulation of emotional reactions, and support a previously suggested role for the endocannabinoid system in abnormal emotional processing associated with various psychiatric disorders.”

Researchers at the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) say that marijuana is the most popular drug of choice across the globe.

Vikram Patel of the Center for Global Mental Health (CGH) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine remarked: “A decriminalized drug policy could potentially transform the public health approach to drug use. The enormous savings in the criminal justice system could be used to fund addiction treatment programs.”

According to the Pew Research Center (PRC), 3 out of 4 Americans assert “that efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they are worth. And 60% said that the federal government should not enforce federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana in states where it is legal.”

- See more at: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/study-shows-marijuana-reduces-effects-ptsd-veterans/#sthash.y4gqVXzX.dpuf