BPA Tied to Impotence in Men

November 11, 2009

ABCNews

By Joseph Brownstein

While environmental groups have sounded the alarm about the presence of bisphenol-A, or BPA, in products such as infant formula, baby bottles and other plastics, a new study provides some of the first evidence that the chemical can be harmful to humans, linking it to sexual dysfunction in men in high doses.

Researchers looked at 550 factory workers in China, some of whom were exposed to BPA as part of their job, and found that men who worked with BPA were four times more likely than their counterparts who did not work with the chemical to report some level of sexual dysfunction.

“The study certainly provides the human evidence to confirm animal studies, but one study is not going to answer any questions,” said Dr. De-kun Li, the study’s lead author and a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

Li noted that while BPA’s presence has been confirmed in a number of consumer products, all studies before now had only shown harm in nonhuman populations.

“Up to this point, it’s largely, basically animal studies,” said Li, explaining that little has been done about BPA because of a lack of studies in people.

“There has been no human studies, at least in the context of the male reproductive system, so this has been dismissed by some critics,” he said of the potential harms BPA may pose.

But Li acknowledged that the current study will likely do little to change policy, since the levels of BPA were much higher than those encountered by the average person in his or her daily life. The average worker exposed to BPA had levels roughly 50 times higher than the average person.

“At this point … we don’t know the safety of the lower level,” he said, but noted that people do not need to worry too much. “We don’t have to be alarmed and go crazy.”

In the study, 15.5 percent of men exposed to BPA complained of erectile dysfunction more than half of the time, while only 4.4 percent of men not exposed to BPA had the same complaint. Meanwhile, 13.9 percent of men with BPA exposure on the job complained of difficulty ejaculating, while only 2.5 percent of men without the on-the-job BPA exposure had the same complaint.

While previous reports on BPA have relied heavily on animal studies, none have promoted a ban on the substance.

The National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, considers BPA to be a substance of “some concern” — the third level of a five-part scale ranging from “serious concern” to “negligible concern.”

“There are insufficient data from studies in humans to reach a conclusion on reproductive or developmental hazards presented by current exposures to BPA, but there is limited evidence of developmental changes occurring in some animal studies at doses that are experienced by humans. It is uncertain if similar changes would occur in humans, but the possibility of adverse health effects cannot be dismissed,” the agency writes about BPA in its factsheet.

It is unclear exactly how BPA would cause sexual dysfunction, according to Dr. Michele Marcus, a professor and interim chair in the department of epidemiology and environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. One possible explanation, she said, is that BPA, a known endocrine disruptor, can mimic estrogen and block some effects of testosterone.

Avoiding BPA ‘Would Be My Advice,’ Doctor Says

Because his study does not provide answers for the average person looking to know if BPA will do him or her harm, Li said any steps would be strictly precautionary.

“It’s certainly based on everybody’s risk tolerance level,” he said, adding that avoiding BPA “would be my advice. It’s unlikely the regulatory agencies will do anything yet, because they would like to see the evidence from human studies.”

“If there’s credible evidence of the potential of harm, why not look for a safer alternative?” said Kathy Gerwig, vice president for workplace safety and environmental stewardship officer at Kaiser Permanente.

Gerwig said that while BPA has not been proven harmful, there were steps consumers could take if they wanted to reduce their BPA exposure.

“If you’re going to buy a rigid plastic bottle, look for one that is BPA-free,” she said.

Second, Gerwig recommended avoiding canned foods, which contain BPA in the linings, something she said would be advantageous because it promoted eating fresh foods.

Third, she said, “It’s a smart decision to stay away from heating foods in the microwave in plastics.”

Industrial Scale

Given the high levels of BPA industrial workers were exposed to in the study, many may be tempted to dismiss the much lower levels of exposure the average person experiences.

But paradoxically, lower levels may be more harmful, explained Dr. David Ozonoff, a professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health.

“These are hormone-like chemicals, and your body is used to responding to hormones at really low levels,” he said.

He compared it to two friends in a crowded bar trying to speak, who cannot do so because of the noise. In those circumstances, the noise may be cancelled out, while in a quieter room, that message may be heard and listened to.

For a signal that has the potential to be disruptive, said Ozonoff, a signal that can be “heard” can be more dangerous than a large number of signals that can be dismissed as static.

“That’s one of those things that we worry about,” he said.

Ozonoff said the study is still open to interpretation, and further studies will need to be done for any conclusions to be drawn about the potential harmfulness of BPA.

However, he concluded, “There’s nothing about this that should give any comfort to someone that thinks BPA is OK.”

Click here for the full report.

Dr. Mehmet Oz is a Fraud

November 11, 2009

NaturalNews.com

By Mike Adams

Dr. Mehmet Oz is a huge promoter of vaccines. He’s been on television reinforcing fear about H1N1 swine flu and telling everyone to get vaccinated. But what he didn’t tell his viewing audience is that he holds 150,000 option shares in a vaccine company that could earn him millions of dollars in profits as the stock price rises. It is in Dr. Oz’s own financial interest, in other words, to hype up vaccines and get more people taking them so that his own financial investments rise in value.

Evidence describing these facts was delivered to NaturalNews by a private investigator named Joseph Culligan (http://webofdeception.com/oprah.html#oz). That evidence includes an SEC document detailing how Dr. Oz. bought options on stocks for SIGA Technologies in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. SIGA Technologies (stock symbol SIGA) is a vaccine technology company with many advanced developments whose success depends on the widespread adoption of vaccines. According to SEC documents, Dr. Mehmet Oz. currently holds 150,000 option shares on SIGA Technologies, purchased for as little as $1.35 back in 2005.

At the time of this writing, SIGA Technologies is trading at $7.10, making those options bought in 2005 worth $5.75 in profits today. If all the 150,000 options purchased by Dr. Oz. were exercised today, they would be worth roughly $180,000 in profits (they were bought at different prices, not all at $1.35). This is all revealed in what the SEC website calls an “insider transaction” document (link below).

These options won’t expire until the years 2015 – 2019, and the higher the stock price of SIGA gets before then, the more profit can be realized when these options are cashed out.

If the stock price of SIGA Technologies could be pumped up even more — say, from someone hyping up vaccines in front of a national audience — these options could mathematically be worth millions of dollars. Just to clarify, by the way, SIGA Technologies doesn’t currently manufacture a vaccine for H1N1 swine flu. It focuses on future vaccine technologies that could be applied to many different vaccines down the road.

Dr. Oz. isn’t merely a holder of SIGA stock options, by the way: He’s on the Board of Directors! As SIGA’s own website explains, Dr. Oz has served on the board since 2001 and continues his role there today. This brings up the obvious question:

Is it right for someone talking about whether vaccines are safe on television to also be carrying stock options and serving on the board of directors of a vaccine company at the same time?

Just to make things a little more interesting, SIGA Technologies recently received a $3 million grant in taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of the grant money? To fund the study of a chemical adjunct named ST-246 to be used in future vaccines. So taxpayer money is now being used to fund a vaccine technology company whose stock price increases will financially benefit the very celebrity doctor who is hyping up vaccines to a national audience.

Something sounds fishy here…

Conflict of interest?
To my knowledge, Dr. Oz. has never disclosed to his viewing audience the fact that he owns 150,000 option shares of SIGA Technologies. And yet, with an audience of millions, Dr. Oz has continued to beat the drum of the vaccine industry, urging people to get vaccinated while implying that vaccines protect people from swine flu (even though there is absolutely no scientific evidence to back up that claim).

The RealAge Big Pharma front group
In addition to holding stock options in a vaccine technology company, Dr. Oz. is also a front man for the RealAge website, a sort of “health front group” for the pharmaceutical industry that uses information provided by RealAge members to solicit consumers with pro-pharma marketing message targeted by age or health condition.

Corporate sponsors of RealAge include most of the major drug companies and their most profitable pharmaceutical products such as Adderall, Ambien and Celebrex. The companies sponsoring RealAge include GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, Wyeth and many others. RealAge is essentially a marketing platform for Big Pharma, disguised to look like a consumer health information service.

The New York Times calls RealAge “a window for drug makers” and explains, “The test has received widespread publicity because of its affiliation with Dr. Mehmet Oz.”

This NY Times article goes on to explain how the RealAge scheme operates:

People come to the site, then provide an e-mail address to take [the RealAge test]. They are asked throughout the test if they would like a free RealAge membership. If people answer yes to any of the prompts, they become RealAge members, and their test results go into a marketing database.

RealAge allows drug companies to send e-mail messages based on those test results. It acts as a clearinghouse for drug companies, including Pfizer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, allowing them to use almost any combination of answers from the test to find people to market to, including whether someone is taking antidepressants, how sexually active they are and even if their marriage is happy.

RealAge sends the selected recipients a series of e-mail messages about a condition they might have, usually sponsored by a drug company that sells a medication for that condition.

The RealAge ads seen all over the internet do not openly disclose that taking the RealAge test gets you signed up to be solicited by Big Pharma for medication advertisements. Dr. Oz’s continued promotion of this service has exposed tens of millions of health consumers to this deceptive marketing front for Big Pharma.

How much has Dr. Oz earned from his affiliation with RealAge? He isn’t saying.

Front man for Big Pharma?
In my view, Dr. Mehmet Oz. is a front man for Big Pharma and the vaccine industry. He’s pushing vaccines for his own personal financial gain while championing one of the largest internet Big Pharma marketing scams yet concocted.

Dr. Oz. stands to profit millions of dollars from helping creating demand for vaccines, and yet he does not disclose to his audience this huge, blatant conflict of interest. Sadly, by catapulting his career from her own show, Oprah has inadvertently unleashed a vaccine pusher onto the general public and given him influence over millions of people who may now be corralled into services like RealAge that seek to sell more drugs to unsuspecting consumers.

I respect Oprah. She’s an amazing achiever. But I don’t respect all the wannabe celebrity leeches who use her to launch their own careers and then exploit their newfound popularity for financial gain at the expense of the public.

Shame on Dr. Oz. for his financial conflicts of interest and his strong affiliation with the deadly pharmaceutical industry. Through his actions, Dr. Oz. has aligned himself with precisely the evil corporations that are destroying health in America today. Does the man have no shame?

He may not have any shame, but he does have 150,000 stock options that could be worth millions in the years ahead.

Click here for the full report.

Drugs That Change Taste Damage Metabolism

October 26, 2009

NaturalNews

By S. L. Baker

It’s not unusual to hear about herbicides having suspected toxic effects or prescription drugs producing side effects. But a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study just published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry has found another negative and surprising way common herbicides and fibrate drugs (which are used to lower elevated blood lipids) impact the human body: they block a nutrient-sensing taste receptor on the tongue called T1R3.

So what’s the big deal about this? It turns out there’s emerging evidence these taste receptors are also found in hormone-producing cells in the intestine and pancreas. When working properly, these internal taste receptors in the gut trigger the release of hormones involved in the regulation of normal homeostasis (the ability of the body to maintain internal physiological stability) of glucose as well as energy metabolism. Simply put, screwing up the ability of T1R3 to sense certain nutrients could possibly wreak havoc on the human body in a variety of ways — from playing a role in unhealthy blood sugar levels to causing people to gain weight .

“Compounds that either activate or block T1R3 receptors could have significant metabolic effects, potentially influencing diseases such as obesity, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome,” said Monell geneticist and study leader Bedrich Mosinger, MD, PhD, in a statement to the media.

For their study, Dr. Mosinger and his research team tested the ability of two classes of chemical compounds to block the T1R3 taste receptor. These compounds were selected because they have strong structural similarities to lactisole, a sweet taste inhibitor that is known to block T1R3. Specifically, the researchers investigated fibrates (a class of drugs often used to lower blood cholesterol, especially triglycerides), and phenoxy herbicides.

Fibrate drugs are sold in the U.S. under several names including gemibrozil (brand name Lopid) and fenobribrate (brand name Tricor). Phenoxy herbicides are chemicals widely used in agricultural fields, on golf courses, rights-of-way and lawns to control broad-leaf weeds. The best known, called 2,4-D, is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the world. According to the Oregon State University Extension Service web site, popular brands of phenoxy herbicides include MCPA, Crossbow, Banvel, Garlon, Weed-B-Gone, and Brush Killer. They are also incorporated into a host of “weed and feed” and brush control products for use on grass.

In laboratory experiments, the researchers found that both classes of compounds were very potent in blocking activation of the human sweet taste receptors. Additional tests showed that this ability of both fibrates and phenoxy herbicides to block T1R3 is specific to humans.

“The metabolic consequences of short and long-term exposures of humans to phenoxy herbicides are unknown. This is because most safety tests were done using animals, which have T1R3 receptors that are insensitive to these compounds,” Dr. Mosinger said in the press statement. “Given the number of compounds used in agriculture, medicine and the food industry that may affect human T1R3 and related receptors, more work is needed to identify the health-related effects of exposure to these compounds.”
 

Click here for the full report.

Fatal Heart Problems Among Risks of Hormone Therapy for Prostate Cancer

October 23, 2009

Natural News

By S. L. Baker

According to the National Institutes of Health, “The appropriate treatment for prostate cancer is not clear.” However, men who have prostate cancer that has spread beyond the prostate gland or who have had a recurrence of their disease are routinely subjected to a specific treatment anyway — hormone therapy, which consists of either surgical or, more commonly, a kind of pharmacologic castration. This shuts down the source of the male hormones testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT or 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone, a male hormone that is converted from testosterone within the prostate) believed to be fueling the cancer.

Side effects of this chemical castration can be devastating, including reduced or total lack of sexual desire, impotence, weakness and fatigue, loss of muscle mass, growth of breast tissue, hot flashes, depression and osteoporosis. Now there’s new research showing the hormone-blocking approach used to treat men with prostate cancer has yet another dark side: It results in a dramatically increased risk of serious and often deadly heart problems.

Scientists meeting at Europe’s biggest cancer congress, dubbed ECCO 15 – ESMO 34, in Berlin recently announced the findings of the largest and most comprehensive study to date on the issue. Bottom line: the researchers said physicians should consider the risk of cardiovascular side effects when they prescribe hormone therapy for prostate cancer patients. In fact, they should refer patients to a cardiologist before starting treatment.

For the study, headed by cancer epidemiologist Mieke Van Hemelrijck of King’s College in London, the researchers looked at the records of 30,642 Swedish men with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who had received hormone therapy as the primary treatment for their disease between 1997 and 2006. The men were followed for about three years and the scientists studied their risk of developing ischemic heart disease, heart attacks, arrhythmia, heart failure requiring hospitalization, and death from heart disease. Then they compared the rates of heart problems among these prostate cancer patients with those of people in the general Swedish population.

“We found that prostate cancer patients treated with hormone therapy had an elevated risk of developing all of the individual types of heart problems and that they were more likely than normal to die from those causes,” Van Hemelrijck said. She added another worrisome point: the heart problems started within only a few months after the men began their hormone therapy.

In all, prostate cancer patients treated with hormone therapy had a 24 percent increased risk of a non-fatal heart attack, a 19 percent increased risk of arrhythmia, a 31 percent increased risk of ischemic heart disease and a 26 percent increased risk of heart failure. The risk of a fatal heart attack was increased by 28 percent, the risk of dying from heart disease soared by 21 percent, the risk of heart failure death was increased by 26 percent and the risk of a fatal arrhythmia was increased by 5 percent.

Men taking anti-androgen therapy (which block testosterone from binding to the prostate cells but still allows some testosterone to circulate in the body) had a somewhat lower risk of heart problems than those on gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist therapy which is a stronger testosterone blocker. The association with heart risk when the testicles were removed was also extra high, similar to those taking the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist therapy.

But, despite all the dangerous side effects and risks associated with depriving a man of his male hormones, this kind of therapy must be worth it because it cures some men of advanced disease, right? Wrong. In fact, it is not a cure at all.

Click here for full report

Brain Scans for the Healthy?

October 7, 2009

NaturalNews

By S. L. Baker

Technological advances, especially in critical emergency medical situations, can be life-saving. For example, scans of the body can locate with great precision a bullet that needs to be removed from near a vital organ, or detail how a shattered bone needs to be treated. But there’s growing and worrisome evidence that the medical industry is pushing a variety of costly scans on the healthy and well, ignoring possible side effects. The latest target for those selling scans-for-no-good-medical-reason? Your brain.

A new study by University of Edinburgh scientists has raised concerns about the growing market for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain screening tests, which people can pay for out-of-pocket as part of a general health screening. So why would anyone who has no symptoms or valid reason to suspect a brain malady want one of these high price scans? The Scottish researchers noted the tests are increasingly popular with the so-called “worried well” who simply want to get rid of any fears they harbor about having an undiagnosed brain tumor, stroke or other condition.

The trouble is, these MRIs for the healthy are far more likely to do more harm than good. The research team reached their conclusion after analyzing the results of almost 20,000 brain scans from people who underwent the tests. These research subjects had no symptoms suggesting that they were suffering from an undiagnosed brain condition. Instead, they had the brain scans as part of general health screenings or they were volunteers for medical research.

The University of Edinburgh scientists found that less than three per cent of these healthy people had an abnormality on a brain MRI scan. But that didn’t mean they had some awful problem that needed medical care. In fact, the researchers warn that even when an incidental abnormality — such as a weakened blood vessel in the brain or a benign tumor — is discovered on an MRI, there is no clear medical evidence that treating these conditions would do more good than harm.

What’s more, the researchers concluded that finding out there’s an abnormality in your brain, even if it is not known to need treatment or to have any life-threatening consequences, can create enormous anxiety. The result can rob people of their quality of life as they worry about whether to push for risky, potentially unnecessary brain surgery or leaving their condition untreated.

“The difficulty with these health check-ups is that in the small number of people who do harbor some undiagnosed brain condition, there is not a clear next step. We do not have enough medical evidence to know whether we should treat the abnormalities or just leave them be. Until we have that knowledge, we cannot be sure that commercial screening benefits people with incidental findings on their brain scan,” Dr Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, a clinician scientist at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement to the media.

Unlike computed tomography (CT) scans, MRIs don’t use ionizing radiation so this point is often used in marketing campaigns encouraging healthy people to get these scans. But a lack of radiation exposure doesn’t mean they are completely safe.

Instead of radiation, MRIs use a powerful magnetic field to create images of the internal structure and function of the body. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) web site states: “To date, there have been no documented significant side effects of the magnetic fields and radio waves used on the human body.” However, because serious side effects of this test haven’t been documented so far doesn’t mean they don’t exist and won’t show up years down the road. In addition, when contrast dyes are used with MRIs, severe allergic reactions, although rare, can occur.

Click here for the full report.

New Research: Yoga Better Than Western Medicine for Back Pain

September 8, 2009

Natural News

By S.L. Baker

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), low back pain is an enormous health and economic problem in the U.S. In fact, Americans spend at least $50 billion annually on the condition. It’s the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work days.

Although most occurrences of low back pain go away within a few days, the NINDS web site states low back pain can become chronic and lead to more serious conditions. However, new research shows there’s natural, drug-free and effective help for those with chronic low back pain — the ancient practice of yoga.

A study just published in the journal Spine found that a group of low back pain sufferers who regularly practiced yoga postures had less pain, improved function, and a better mood. What’s more, they were far less likely to take drugs for their back problem than a matched group who received standard medical therapy.

“Proponents of yoga have long described its benefits in reducing back pain,” researcher Kimberly Williams, Ph.D., of West Virginia University’s Department of Community Medicine said in a statement to the media. “But not everybody was convinced. This is a much bigger, much more rigorous evaluation than had been done before.”

The $400,000 study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), covered three years and involved 90 people. All had mild to moderate functional disability from their back pain. Half were randomly assigned to study Iyengar style yoga and half received conventional medical therapy. Those practicing yoga took 90 minute classes two times a week for 24 weeks, working with postures targeted to relieve chronic low-back pain.

The classes were taught by certified instructors of Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga. One of the world’s most widely-practiced forms of yoga, Iyengar yoga emphasizes individualized asanas (postures) to build strength, stamina, balance and flexibility. Classes also typically end with a deeply relaxing asana.

The research team followed up on with the research participants both during the trial and six months after the medical therapy or yoga classes ended. The results were dramatic: the yoga group had far less pain, less functional disability and less depression when compared with the control group. “These were statistically significant and clinically important changes that were maintained six months after the intervention (yoga),” Dr. Williams stated.

The research team found that a significantly greater proportion of yoga subjects reported improvements in their conditions after both 12 and 24 weeks of taking yoga classes. When those in the yoga group did have pain, it was less intense. “There was also a clinically important trend for the yoga group to reduce their pain medication usage compared to the control group,” the authors of the study concluded.

The Spine study is another example of how mainstream Western medicine is finally taking a look — and validating — the health benefits of yoga. As NaturalNews previously reported, researchers have also already found yoga can help prevent middle-age weight gain, alleviate postpartum depression and treat post traumatic stress syndrome. A Wake Forest University study published earlier this year In Psycho-Oncology documented that yoga practice significantly reduced depression and increased feelings of peace and meaning in women with breast cancer, too.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Statins Cause Serious Structural Muscle Damage

August 27, 2009

Natural News

By S.L. Baker

If there is a super star in Big Pharma’s list of money making drugs, it may well be the group of medications known as statins. The New York Times reported last year that statins are, in fact, the biggest selling drugs in the world. Their names, like Lipitor and Crestor, are familiar from countless television and magazine ads and almost everyone knows someone taking a statin. Promoted widely as safe, they are actually known to cause a litany of potential side effects. For example, the National Institutes of Health web site notes that about one in 1,000 of those taking statins suffer from muscle pain. Usually, these aches go away. But not always. And now new research shows that in some people statins cause serious structural damage to muscles.

The study, just published in CMAJ (the Canadian Medical Association Journal) suggests that patients who are taking statins and who complain to their doctors about muscle tenderness or pain could well be describing severe muscle problems due to the drugs. Although muscle damage is usually associated with elevated levels of an enzyme called creatine phosphokinase, the CMAJ research shows that’s not always the case. And it may take muscle biopsies to show that underlying structural injury has occurred.

The study was conducted by scientists from the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The research team investigated muscle biopsies from 83 patients. Twenty of these had never taken statins. The results showed significant muscle injury only in people who had taken statin drugs. Perhaps what was most surprising is that several people who were no longer taking statins were found to still have significant structural muscle damage.

“Although in clinical practice, the majority of patients with muscle symptoms improve rapidly after cessation of therapy, our findings support that a subgroup of patients appears to be more susceptible to statin-associated myotoxicity, suffering persistent structural injury,” Dr. Annette Draeger from the University of Bern and her coauthors wrote in the CMAJ article.

The study did not address whether statins might cause other significant body-wide damage. However, it is interesting to note that the very organ statins are supposed to protect, the heart, is a muscle. And that raises troublesome questions about possible long term, not-yet-known side effects statin drugs may have on the heart itself.

The researchers did note in a statement to the media that there is “a need to evaluate alternative treatment strategies for patients with significant muscle symptoms.” As Natural News readers are well aware, there are already well-known natural health strategies that lower cholesterol levels safely, without any possibility of muscle damage. For example, previous research has shown certain foods, including tofu, almonds, cereal fiber and plant sterols, can lower total cholesterol and LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, better than statins. Weight loss, increased intake of Omega-3 fatty acids and exercise are also drug-free strategies that lower cholesterol safely.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Diseased African Monkeys Used to Make Swine Flu Vaccines; Private Military Contractor Holds Key Patents

August 5, 2009

Natural News

by:  Mike Adams

To most people, vaccines sound medically harmless. “They’re good for you!” say the doctors and drug companies, but they never really talk about what’s in those vaccines. There’s a good reason for that: If people knew what was really in those vaccines, they would never allow themselves to be injected with them.

Aside from the dangerous ingredients many people already know about (like squalene or thimerosal), one of the key ingredients used in flu vaccines (including the vaccines being prepared for the swine flu pandemic) is the diseased flesh of African Green Monkeys. This is revealed in U.S. patent No. 5911998 – Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line.

As this patent readily explains, ingredients used in the vaccine are derived from the kidneys of African Green Monkeys who are first infected with the virus, then allowed to fester the disease, and then are killed so that their diseased organs can be used make vaccine ingredients. This is done in a cruel, inhumane “flesh factory” environment where the monkeys are subjected to a process that includes “incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus.” Then: “harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and… (ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus.”

Aside from the outrageous cruelty taking place with all this (“incubating” the virus in the kidneys of living monkeys, for example), there’s another disturbing fact that has surfaced in all this: The patent for this process is held not just by the National Institutes of Health, but by another private corporation known as DynCorp.

This, of course, brings up the obvious question: Who is Dyncorp? And why do they hold a patent on live attenuated vaccine production using African Green Monkeys?

DynCorp, it turns out, is a one of the top private military contractors working for the U.S. government. In addition to allegedly trafficking in under-age sex slaves in Bosnia and poisoning rural farmers in Ecuador with its aerial spraying of Colombian coca crops , Dyncorp just happens to be paid big dollars by the U.S. government to patrol the U.S. / Mexico border, near where the H1N1 first swine flu virus was originally detected.

DynCorp also happens to be in a position to receive tremendous financial rewards from its patents covering attenuated live viral vaccine harvesting methods, as described in four key patents jointly held by DynCorp and the National Institutes of Health:

(6025182) Method for producing a virus from an African green monkey kidney cell line

(6117667) Method for producing an adapted virus population from an African green monkey kidney cell line

(5911998) Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line

(5646033) African green monkey kidney cell lines useful for maintaining viruses and for preparation of viral vaccines

One of the key inventors in these patents now held by DynCorp was Dr. Robert H. Purcell. Who is Dr. Robert Purcell? He’s one of the co-chiefs of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases operating under the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. government.

That office, located at 50 South Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, is less than 15 miles away from the headquarters of DynCorp.

It’s not too many more miles to Washington D.C., where U.S. government health authorities awarded over $1 billion in swine flu vaccine contracts to pharmaceutical companies. Can you guess which company received one of the largest vaccine manufacturing contracts? Baxter Pharmaceuticals, the very same company using ingredients derived from African Green Monkeys in precisely the way described in the patents held jointly by DynCorp and the NIH. Remember, Baxter is the company that was caught inserting live viruses into vaccine materials distributed to 18 different countries.

Are you following all this?

So far, we have the U.S. government awarding swine flu vaccine manufacturing contracts to a major U.S. vaccine manufacturer (Baxter) that uses vaccine ingredients from African Green Monkeys (sick!), derived from a process covered in a patent invented by U.S. government NIH researchers (Dr. Purcell and others) and now held jointly by the NIH and a private military contractor named DynCorp — the very same company that’s paid to monitor the U.S. / Mexico border where H1N1 swine flu first appeared.

And just today, there’s yet another development in all this: A Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu has just been discovered. Care to guess where? On the U.S.-Mexico border.

Once you understand all this, some obvious questions come to mind: Could H1N1 swine flu have been intentionally created and released into the wild (in Mexico) in order to create a windfall of vaccine profits that would financially benefit both the drug companies and the vaccine production patent holders? Because it certainly appears that a grand conspiracy between the NIH, the vaccine makers and private military contractors could have pulled this off.

But wait: Would a private military contractor really resort to such tactics just to make money?

Decide for yourself. Dyncorp has already been accused of crimes against humanity and genocide .

Click here for the full story from Natural News

Americans Spend $34 Billion a Year on Alternative Medicine

July 30, 2009

USA TODAY

By Liz Szabo

That’s a growth of more than 25% in the past decade, says an in-person survey of 23,000 Americans from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health.

 

Alternative therapies, which range from herbs to yoga classes, now account for 11% of the total amount that Americans spend out-of-pocket on all health care.

 

These unconventional approaches are popular with people of all ages: 38% of adults and 12% of children have used them in the past year, the study says.

But Americans don’t always use these treatments under a doctor’s guidance.

The bulk of these expenses, $22 billion, go to “self care,” or treatments such as homeopathic medications and fish oil capsules that people buy without a health practitioner’s advice, the study says.

But that doesn’t mean that these patient reject conventional medical treatment, says Linda Lee, director of the Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine & Digestive Center in Baltimore, who wasn’t involved in the new survey.

Many people combine conventional and “complementary” approaches, Lee says. For example, cancer patients may undergo chemotherapy at a hospital, but also use acupuncture for chronic pain, she says. And while natural approaches to health care may sound home-spun, they’ve also become a big business. Lee notes that supplements and alternative therapies have boomed in popularity partly due to savvy marketing.

The study shows that conventional doctors need to learn as much as possible about alternative therapies, Lee says, “not so they can necessarily prescribe or profit from them, but so they understand what it is their patients are hoping to gain and advise patients as to their appropriate use.”

The results also show why it’s important for researchers to conduct rigorous scientific studies of alternative therapies, says the NIH’s Josephine Briggs. Many alternative approaches have never been carefully tested for safety and effectiveness.

That’s starting to change.

In recent years, clinical trials presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, for example, have shown that ginseng relieves fatigue in cancer patients, ginger fights chemo-related nausea and flax seeds seem to slow the growth of prostate tumors. Other research presented at the oncology society show that shark cartilage has no effect on fighting lung cancer.

Lee says she’s concerned about patients who “self-prescribe” alternative therapies.

Many patients also fail to tell their doctors when they try alternative therapies for fear of ridicule, Lee says. Both practices can put patients at risk, however. Alternative therapies can have dangerous interactions — both with conventional or non-conventional medications — or may pose risks for patients with particular medical conditions.

For example, antioxidant supplements can interfere with the effects of radiation therapy and some forms of chemo, Lee says. High doses of vitamin E, which can thin the blood, could be harmful for people taking other blood-thinning drugs or those about to have surgery.

“An open dialogue with our patients only improves our ability to care for them,” Lee says.

Click here to read the full report from USA Today.

Ten Things You’re Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine

July 28, 2009

Natural News

by Mike Adams

Let’s not beat around the bush on this issue: The swine flu vaccines now being prepared for mass injection into infants, children, teens and adults have never been tested and won’t be tested before the injections begin. In Europe, where flu vaccines are typically tested on hundreds (or thousands) of people before being unleashed on the masses, the European Medicines Agency is allowing companies to skip the testing process entirely.

And yet, amazingly, people are lining up to take the vaccine, absent any safety testing whatsoever. When the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. announced a swine flu vaccine trial beginning in early August, it was inundated with phone calls and emails from people desperate to play the role of human guinea pigs. The power of fear to herd sheeple into vaccine injections is simply amazing…

Back in Europe, of course, everybody gets to be a guinea pig since no testing will be done on the vaccine at all. Even worse, the European vaccines will be using adjuvants — chemicals used to multiply the potency of the active ingredients in vaccines.

Notably, there is absolutely no safety data on the use of adjuvants in infants and expectant mothers — the two groups being most aggressively targeted by the swine flu vaccine pushers. The leads us to the disturbing conclusion that the swine flu vaccine could be a modern medical disaster. It’s untested and un-tried. Its ingredients are potentially quite dangerous, and the adjuvants being used in the European vaccines are suspected of causing neurological disorders.

I probably don’t need to remind you that in 1976, a failed swine flu vaccine caused irreparable damage to the nervous systems of hundreds of people, paralyzing many. Medical doctors gave the problem a name, of course, to make it sound like they knew what they were talking about: Guillain-Barre syndrome. (Notably, they never called it “Toxic Vaccine Syndrome” because that would be too informative.)

But the fact remains that doctors never knew how the vaccines caused these severe problems, and if the same event played out today, all the doctors and vaccine pushers would undoubtedly deny any link between the vaccines and paralysis altogether. (That’s what’s happening today with the debate over vaccines and autism: Complete denial.)

In fact, there are a whole lot of things you’ll never be told by health authorities about the upcoming swine flu vaccine. For your amusement, I’ve written down the ten most obvious ones and published them below.

Ten Things You’re Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine

(At least, not by anyone in authority…)

#1 – The vaccine production was “rushed” and the vaccine has never been tested on humans. Do you like to play guinea pig for Big Pharma? If so, line up for your swine flu vaccine this fall…

#2 – Swine flu vaccines contain dangerous adjuvants that cause an inflammatory response in the body. This is why they are suspected of causing autism and other neurological disorders.

Click here for the full list from NaturalNews.com

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