Childhood Obesity May Be Linked to Cold Virus
September 20, 2010
ABC News
By: Nancy Walsh
Researchers have found a possible link between infection with a strain of cold virus and the development of childhood obesity.
Among a group of 124 children, antibodies to adenovirus 36 were detected in 22 percent of those who were obese, compared with only 7 percent of those whose weight was in the normal range, according to Dr. Charles Gabbert of the University of California San Diego and colleagues.
Mean weight in those who carried antibodies to the virus was 92.9 kg, compared with 69.1 kg in those who were antibody-negative, the researchers reported in the October issue of Pediatrics.
During the past three decades, the prevalence of obesity among young people has tripled, reaching 17 percent, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Although consumption of excess calories and inadequate exercise are associated with obesity, other etiologic factors also may contribute.
While adenoviruses are most commonly associated with infections of the upper respiratory tract and the intestines, adenovirus 36 has been found in fat tissue in animal models.
In addition, an association between obesity and antibody positivity has been seen in adults.
To see if this virus also might influence body weight in children, Gabbert and colleagues studied 70 boys and 54 girls ages 8 to 18 years.
More than half of the patients were classified as obese, with a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for age.
Using a serum neutralization assay, the researchers detected neutralizing antibodies to adenovirus 36 in 15 percent of the entire cohort.
Antibody positivity was associated with older age (15.4 years versus 13.1 years), but not with sex, race or ethnicity.
Median BMI was higher in children who carried the antibodies (33.7 kg/m2 versus 25.4 kg/m2), and obese children who were antibody-positive weighed on average 16.1 kg more than the obese children who were antibody-negative.
Other possible explanations for the association of obesity with antibodies to adenovirus 36 could be obesity-related immune dysfunction, making the children more susceptible to infection and to persistence of the infection, the researchers suggested.
Obese children can be severely ostracized and stigmatized. “The possibility that excess weight gain in some children may be attributable to a viral infection could alter the public debate and perceptions regarding childhood obesity,” the researchers wrote.
The possibility also exists that obese children who carry these antibodies may respond differently to weight-loss treatments and could require more intensive interventions.
Strengths of this study include the large and diverse sample size and the rigorous method of performing the antibody assay, the authors noted. Weaknesses include the cross-sectional design, which does not allow for conclusions about causality, and the lack of information about the timing of infection.
“Longitudinal data are needed to elucidate more thoroughly the role of [adenovirus] 36 exposure in human obesity,” the researchers concluded.
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Obesity Is More Expensive for Women
September 21, 2010
AOL News
By: Lauren Frayer
Obesity hurts your health, but it also hurts your wallet.
That’s the conclusion of a new study by George Washington University scholars who’ve tabulated the cost of being obese, compared to merely being overweight. The results found that obesity costs women almost twice as much as men. And it’s more than nine times as costly for women to be obese, rather than just overweight.
Researchers tabulated the cost of medical bills, employee sick days, health insurance, lost productivity and even the need for extra gasoline to fuel cars carrying heavier passengers. In total, they found that the average yearly cost of being obese in America is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man.
When they factored in the idea that obesity can cut short a lifespan, the lost productivity from premature death pushed the figures higher, to $8,365 a year for women and $6,518 for a man. That’s much more expensive than just being a few pounds overweight, which researchers found cost $524 for women and $432 for men.
As for why obesity is more expensive for women, the study’s co-author Christine Ferguson told The Associated Press that previous research shows that fat women earn less on average than slim ones, but that there’s no wage gap between fat and trim men. “This indicates you’re not that disadvantaged as a guy, from a wage perspective,” she said.
The study, called “A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States,” is being released today in a webcast on GWU’s website. Its results were first reported by the AP and The Washington Post.
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Manganese In Water Tied to Lower IQ in Canada
September 20, 2010
CBC News
An IQ comparison shows that Canadian regulations on manganese in drinking water should be updated to protect children, Quebec researchers say.
The average IQ of children whose tap water was in the upper 20 per cent of manganese concentration was six points below children whose water contained little or no manganese, the researchers found.
The study looked at 362 children aged six to 13. The amount of manganese from tap water and food was estimated, based on the results of a questionnaire.
Manganese is a naturally occurring metal found in groundwater. It is an essential nutrient, but in excessive amounts, it can damage the nervous system. It occurs in naturally high levels in several parts of Quebec, New Brunswick and other regions, researchers say.
Their study, published in Monday’s online issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, focused on manganese levels in drinking water in eight communities along the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City.
All the towns chosen for the study rely on ground water for drinking, either from municipal or private wells that aren’t specially treated for manganese.
“I studied mercury, lead, PCBs, and usually the associations we see are more in the range of one IQ point, two, maybe three IQ points,” said the study’s lead author, Maryse Bouchard of the University of Quebec at Montreal’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Biology, Health, Society and Environment.
“But this is a very strong effect,” she added in an interview.
The manganese concentrations were well below current guidelines, the researchers said.
Cognition, motor skills
The towns were chosen because of the high concentrations of naturally occurring manganese in the area.
Each child was also assessed with a range of tests of cognition, motor skills and behaviour.
Factors such as family income, maternal intelligence, maternal education and the presence of other metals in the water were taken into account.
“The findings from the present study support the hypothesis that low-level, chronic exposure to manganese from drinking water is associated with significant intellectual impairments in children,” the study’s authors concluded.
“Because of the common occurrence of this metal in drinking water and the observed effects at low manganese concentration in water, we believe that national and international guidelines for safe manganese in water should be revisited.”
The researchers also called for the findings to be tested in another population.
Manganese is not on the list of inorganic substances in the Quebec Environment Ministry’s drinking water standards.
The Canadian Institutes for Health Research funded the study.
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Medicinal Herbs To Be Outlawed In EU Starting April 2011
September 12, 2010
GAIA Health
By: Heidi Stevenson
Big Pharma has almost reached the finish line of its decades-long battle to wipe out all competition. As of 1 April 2011—less than eight months from now—virtually all medicinal herbs will become illegal in the European Union. The approach in the United States is a bit different, but it’s having the same devastating effect. The people have become nothing more than sinks for whatever swill Big Pharma and Agribusiness choose to send our way, and we have no option but to pay whatever rates they want.
Big Pharma and Agribusiness have almost completed their march to take over every aspect of health, from the food we eat to the way we care for ourselves when we’re ill. Have no doubt about it: this takeover will steal what health remains to us.
It Begins Next April Fools Day
In the nastiest April Fool’s Joke of all time, the European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products (THMPD) was enacted back on 31 March 2004.(1) It laid down rules and regulations for the use of herbal products that had previously been freely traded.
This directive requires that all herbal preparations must be put through the same kind of procedure as pharmaceuticals. It makes no difference whether a herb has been in common use for thousands of years. The costs for this are far higher than most manufacturers, other than Big Pharma, can bear, with estimates ranging from £80,000 to £120,000 per herb, and with each herb of a compound having to be treated separately.
It matters not that a herb has been used safely and effectively for thousands of years. It will be treated as if it were a drug. Of course, herbs are far from that. They’re preparations made from biological sources. They aren’t necessarily purified, as that can change their nature and efficacy, just as it can in food. It’s a distortion of their nature and the nature of herbalism to treat them like drugs. That, of course, makes no difference in the Big Pharma-ruled edifice of the EU, which has enshrined corporatism in its constitution.
Dr. Robert Verkerk of the Alliance for Natural Health, International (ANH) describes the problem of requiring drug-like compliance on herbal preparations:
Getting a classical herbal medicine from a non-European traditional medicinal culture through the EU registration scheme is akin to putting a square peg into a round hole. The regulatory regime ignores and thus has not been adapted to the specific traditions. Such adaptation is required urgently if the directive is not to discriminate against non-European cultures and consequently violate human rights.(2)
Trade Law
To best understand how this can be happening, one needs to see that trade laws have been at the center of the moves to place all aspects of food and medicine under the control of Big Pharma and Agribusiness.
If you’ve followed what’s been happening in the United States regarding raw milk and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) claims that foods magically become drugs when health claims are made, you may have noted that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been part of the process.
Rather than treating food and traditional medicines as human rights issues, they have been treated as trade issues. That makes the desires of large corporations the focus of food and herbal law, rather than the needs and desires of people. It’s this twisting that has resulted in the FDA’s making outrageously absurd statements, such as claiming that Cheerios and walnuts quite literally become drugs simply because of health claims made for them.
The goal of it all is to make the world safe for the megacorporations to trade freely. The needs and health of the people simply are not a factor in their considerations.
How to Fight This Encroachment on Our Health and Welfare
It’s not a done-deal, at least, not quite. If you value your access to herbs, or if you care about access to vitamins and other supplements, please take action. Even if these issues seem meaningless to you, consider the people who do care. Should they be denied the right to the medical treatment and health maintenance of their choice?
The ANH has been active in fighting these encroachments. They are currently going to court in an attempt to stop the implementation of THMPD. We can hope that they’ll succeed, but recent history shows that no legal maneuver is likely to stop this juggernaut. We cannot afford to sit back and wait for the results of their efforts. We need to see their endeavor as part of a whole, one in which each of us plays a role.
It’s up to us—each and every one of us—to take action. If you live in Europe, please, send a letter or message to your Member of European Parliament. Go to this page to find out who is your MEP and the contact information. Then, send a letter that states, in no uncertain terms, that you strongly support the ANH’s actions in trying to suspend the implementation of THMPD and that you hope they will also take a stand in support of the people’s right to choose herbal treatments.
If you find it difficult to write such a letter, click here for a sample (in the universal .rtf format) suggested by ANH. Feel free to use it.
Try to imagine facing your children or grandchildren when they ask why you didn’t. How will you tell them that you really weren’t that interested in their welfare? How will you tell them that it was more important to watch the latest fake reality show on television than to take the time to write a simple letter?
It is only by actively protesting that this travesty against our welfare can be stopped. If we sit back in apathy, then it will happen. Our right to protect our health and that of our children is hanging in the balance. If you care for your child’s or grandchild’s welfare, then you must act. Speak out, for now is the moment of truth. You can sit back and do nothing, or you can speak out.
And then, once you have, talk to everyone you know. Tell them that it’s time to act. There truly is no time to waste.
Click here for the full report
Hidden Papers Expose Lies About Vaccine for Infants
September 21, 2010
Natural News
By: David Gutierrez
British government policy on measles vaccination for children has changed for no discernible reason notes Christina England, writing on vactruth.com, citing an internal document from 1968.
The document, titled “Notes On the Use and Storage of Measles Vaccine (Live Attenuated) for Routine Vaccines,” clearly states in Section 7 that the vaccine should not be given to children under the age of nine months old. According to the paper’s authors, the presence of maternal antibodies in the blood of such children interferes with the action of the vaccine, making it ineffective. Instead, the government recommended vaccination at the age of two after vaccination for diptheria, polio, tetanus and whooping cough.
England contrasts this with the ongoing push for earlier measles vaccination, most recently highlighted with a study that found almost no maternal antibodies present in children’s bodies by the age of six months.
She also draws attention to Section 6 of the government document, which acknowledges that “mild febrile reactions and transient rashes may be expected to follow the administration of the vaccine in a substantial proportion of cases” but that “the Committee on Safety of Drugs … does not however, wish to receive reports of mild febrile reactions and rashes associated with the use of this vaccine.”
Section 8 then goes on to recommend that in order to reduce the risk of adverse effects, “an interval of three to four weeks should normally be allowed to elapse between the administration of measles vaccine and any other vaccine, whichever is given first.”
Yet today, the vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella are given simultaneously, in the form of the MMR shot.
“How safe is the MMR vaccine?” England writes. “The drug company that makes the MMR vaccine publishes an extensive list of warnings, contraindications, and adverse reactions associated with this triple shot. … Afflictions affecting nearly every body system — blood, lymphatic, digestive, cardiovascular, immune, nervous, respiratory, and sensory — have been reported.”
Click here for the full report
Millions to Get Secret Flu Vaccine
September 20, 2010
News of the World
The H1N1 vaccine will be mixed into the regular flu jab for OAPs, pregnant women and others at high risk.
While millions refused to take the jab during last winter’s pandemic, this time they will have no choice if they want to be protected against normal flu.
The Government was left with more than 30million swine flu vaccines after the pandemic fizzled out in 2010.
Some types of swine flu vaccinations are suspected of being linked to an increase in the rare condition narcolepsy, which causes sufferers to suddenly fall asleep at random times.
In Finland, one brand – Pandemrix, produced by GlaxoSmithKline – was banned, and officials in Sweden have started a Europe-wide investigation into it.
An NHS spokesman said that while the pandemic of the H1N1 swine flu virus was over, the disease was still a threat.
The Department of Health said the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority, which monitors vaccines, had given the H1N1 jab the all-clear after fears in Europe over the narcolepsy outbreak.
She added: “By March this year, that particular H1N1 vaccine had been given out 5.5million times and there have been no reported cases of narcolepsy in Britain.”
Global Internet Treaty Proposed
September 20, 2010
Telegragh
By Claudine Beaumont
The proposal was presented at the Internet Governance Forum in Lithuania last week, and outlined 12 “principles of internet governance”, including a commitment from countries to sustain the technological foundations that underpin the web’s infrastructure.
The draft law has been likened to the Space Treaty, signed in 1967, which stated that space exploration should be carried out for the benefit of all nations, and guaranteed “free access to all areas of celestial bodies”.
Under the proposed terms of the law, there would be cross-border co-operation between countries to identify and address security vulnerability and protect the network from possible cyber attacks or cyber terrorism.
It would also uphold rights to freedom of expression and association, and the principle of net neutrality, in which all internet traffic is treated equally across the network.
“The fundamental functions and the core principles of the internet must be preserved in all layers of the internet architecture with a view to guaranteeing the interoperability of networks in terms of infrastructures, services and contents,” reads the proposal.
“The end-to-end principle should be protected globally.”
The proposal was drawn up by the Council of Europe, an organisation, based in Strasbourg, with 47 member states that aims to promote human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Europe.
Senior figures within the internet industry have become increasingly concerned about the potential for government interference in the running of the web.
William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, told technology blog Thinq that the recent Digital Economy Bill, in which the government sought to regulate and manage the internet unilaterally, was a good example of this.
“Everyone’s worried about national governments asserting regulatory authority over the internet,” he said.
Calgary Man Arrested for Criticizing Police on Website
September 20, 2010
Calgary Herald
BY STEPHANE MASSINON, CALGARY HERALD
Posting critical comments about Calgary officers on a personal website goes beyond free speech, the police chief says.
John Kelly, 53, is accused of interfering with an active homicide investigation and was charged with four counts of libel and obstruction of justice after he allegedly posed as a paralegal and approached the mother of a 2003 homicide victim saying he could help her sue police.
Calgary RCMP started their investigation after being contacted about the case by Calgary’s chief of police.
“In my 29 years, I’ve never heard of an individual being charged under the Criminal Code for libel charges, defamation of character,” said RCMP Supt. Randy McGinnis.
While libel itself is not rare, it is usually handled in civil court, not criminal.
Police Chief Rick Hanson said the rarity of the criminal libel charge speaks to the seriousness of the allegations.
“There are occasions when free speech does cross over and can cross over to where it’s criminal in nature, and that’s where the investigation has to take a look,” Hanson told reporters Friday.
“There’s a world of difference between the civil world and the criminal world. The RCMP and the Crown clearly felt in reviewing the facts that criminal charges were warranted.”
The lengthy ordeal and investigation took a toll on many officers who were named on the website, said Hanson.
“If you’re in policing, it’s not unusual to be the subject of criticism, that’s just the way it is. That’s something that a police officer gets used to. Most officers have a pretty thick skin,” the chief said.
“But when things transition over to where certain actions can be perceived as being criminal and there’s an investigation that leads to charges like that, that’s an entirely different thing than just being criticized.”
The website in question is still running. RCMP have no jurisdiction and can only ask the New Yorkbased Internet provider to take it down.
What makes Kelly’s site libellous, said McGinnis, are the false allegations made against two city homicide investigators.
Calgary police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said there are many websites and blogs that are critical of police and he said police don’t have a problem with people expressing their views online.
Brookwell said this website was different because it interfered with an active police investigation.
At his first court appearance Friday, Kelly’s wife said her husband would decline comment to media.
Kelly was released on several conditions, including not having contact with numerous police officers and not adding to his website.
NY Times Edits Tea Party Article After White House Complains
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
The Raw Story
By Ron Brynaert
The Bush administration spent years feuding with The New York Times but the Grey Lady hardly ever backed down.
Most would agree that the media’s honeymoon with the Obama administration appears to be over, but the relationship isn’t as contentious as under Bush.
Perhaps one reason why President Obama seems to get more satisfaction is that he never referred to any Times reporters as “major league assholes.”
“The White House is pushing back hard against a New York Times report that the president’s political team is considering a national ad campaign that would cast the GOP as taken over by tea party extremists,” Mike Allen and Andy Barr report for Politico.
One unnamed White House official claims the story was “100 percent inaccurate,” but “Times Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet counters that the ‘piece is accurate.’”
As Politico notes, the Times article’s headline was changed to “Obama Aides Weigh Bid to Tie the GOP to the Tea Party.”
However, Allen and Barr add, “Those changes were not enough to satisfy the White House, according to sources.”
Over the last year, the New York Times has become increasingly more critical of Obama, calling him out for breaking campaign promises and criticizing his administration’s handling of crises ranging from the BP oil spill to controversial war on terror arrests.
Last year, the Obama administration appeared to take a back-handed swipe at the Times for its Israeli, Palestinian coverage, according to the American Thinker.
ut for some conservatives, the Times isn’t as tough on Obama as it should be.
Say Anything criticized the paper for giving Obama a pass on allegedly “bowing” to foreign leaders. The blog mentions that former President Clinton once drew heat, but ignores the factthat President George W. Bush and many other presidents did, too.
Tea Partiers, Quakers and Anti-War Rallies Seen as Security Threats
September 20, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
September 20, 2010
Trib Live
By Brad Bumsted and Mike Wereschagin
Taxpayer-funded bulletins listed meetings of Tea Partiers, Quakers and Pittsburgh anti-war activists as potential security threats.
A year’s worth of bulletins released Friday by the governor’s office shows the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response warned state Homeland Security officials about events as far away as the Sinai and as easy to predict as looking at a calendar.
The reports ignited controversy earlier this week when opponents of Marcellus gas drilling learned that gas companies had received the “Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletin” listing their planned participation in public hearings as part of a warning about potential terrorist threats to public infrastructure.
Gov. Ed Rendell denounced the reports on Tuesday and said he won’t renew the institute’s $103,000 contract when it expires in October. State senators plan a hearing to investigate. At least one activist plans to file a civil rights lawsuit.
A November report said two Tea Party rallies against illegal immigration might attract “white nationalists.”
“I think it is one of the more bizarre things I’ve ever heard,” said Karen Kiefer, a Tea Party activist from Scottdale. “A lot of people say they never feel safer than at a Tea Party rally. They got $103,000 in taxpayers’ money to compile these bogus lists? That is absolutely shocking.”
The co-director of the institute yesterday defended the bulletins and took issue with Rendell’s criticism of its work, saying the governor is “regrettably, misinformed. … We provide information on potential issues that may require enhanced security responses in the protection of clients’ obligations to public safety and protection of their assets.”
The co-director, Michael Perelman, a former York city police officer, said in a brief telephone interview: “The indications that the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response tracked gay groups is inaccurate and offensive.”
Rendell had no response to Perelman’s comments, press secretary Gary Tuma said.
Rendell on Tuesday said the information the institute gave the state “has no value. … It may have some value to other people, but it had no value to us.”
The reports were supposed to help state Homeland Security officials protect critical public infrastructure, a post-9/11 federal mandate. Most reports, however, are dedicated to possible terrorist action in places such as Ireland, Afghanistan, Turkey and Chile. It notes Pennsylvania colleges that have study-abroad programs in those countries.
One report, in August, listed “newly identified corporate targets of pro-life boycotts.” The institute said the boycott list, which included the YMCA and Johnson & Johnson, represented a “low-to-moderate” threat because it could be used by “more militant anti-abortion elements and lone wolves.”
The most recent report, issued Monday, listed the dates of upcoming Jewish holidays and noted they would result in “very high attendance at Jewish houses of worship and public gatherings in Pennsylvania.”
A November bulletin noted an approaching anti-war protest in Philadelphia by the Brandywine Peace Community and the American Friends Service Community, a Quaker organization. The protesters planned to wear placards saying, “Dear President: Do Not Send More Troops to Afghanistan. War is Not the Answer,” the terror institute wrote.
Another report alleged links between G-20 protesters and an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh. Protests of the September 2009 G-20 world summit resulted in 193 arrests.
Several reports issued this month warn that opponents of Arizona’s immigration law planned to protest at the Pirates game against the Arizona Diamondbacks and that an animal rights group will protest the Lulu Shrine Rodeo in Plymouth Meeting. It quotes “activist material” that calls the rodeo “the worst of the worst.”
“We’re an open organization,” said Kenneth Miller, an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World, which had planned the Diamondbacks protest. “It’s terrible that our government officials view our protest as a security threat. That’s sick.”
The institute’s monitoring of drilling opponents led to the following headline in one bulletin: “Would-be protesters to become ‘Citizen Journalists.’ ” The report attributed the information to a website run by the natural gas company Chesapeake Energy.
Luzerne County Republican Sen. Lisa Baker announced a Senate committee she chairs will conduct a hearing, saying citizens are “angry about what appears to be a serious abuse of government power.”
The Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee’s hearing is set for Sept. 27, Baker said.
“People were targeted for no reason, other than they were exercising their fundamental rights of free speech and assembly,” Baker said.
In his statement, Perelman said the institute identified “threats to critical infrastructure and to people.”
The institute “operates within the scope of the law in fulfilling the contractual obligations of its clients,” he said.
