GM Crops Cause Liver & Kidney Damage Within 3 Months
March 17, 2010
Natural News
By: E. Huff
A report published in the International Journal of Microbiology has verified once again that Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) crops are causing severe health problems. A legal challenge issued against Monsanto forced the multi-national agriculture giant to release raw data revealing that animals fed its patented GM corn suffered liver and kidney damage within just three months.
Adding to the mounting evidence that GM crops are dangerous all around, this information provides a damning indictment against Monsanto which continually insists that its GM products are safe. Not only are GM crops proving disastrous for the environment, but study after study, including those conducted by Monsanto itself, is showing that GM foods are detrimental to health.
Monsanto’s data indicated that the company had conducted tests on three varieties of its GM corn, two of which contain the dangerous Bt protein, and one designed specifically to resist Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. All three are widely grown in the United States while only one is currently grown in Europe.
Dr. Gilles-Eric Seralini, a French researcher from the University of Caen, was tasked with examining the data and providing a review. While stopping short of declaring GM crops to be toxic, he did emphasize that chronic negative effects were apparent and that there were “statistically significant” indications of kidney and liver damage.
The specific effects observed in test rats included a buildup of hormones in the blood, indicating that their liver and kidneys were not functioning properly. One variety of the corn led to elevated blood sugar levels and increased triglyceride levels in female rats given it.
Dr. Seralini concluded that, because GM crops are foreign substances that have never been a part of a normal diet, there is no telling what the long-term effects of consumption will be on people. In animals, significant disruption of normal bodily function has been observed even in the short term.
Genetically manipulated food crops are not fit for human consumption and should not be classified as food. No legitimate study has ever proven them to be safe or nutritious. The burden of proof is on the producers of such crops to verify their safety and, to date, all data has revealed that they are unsafe. Claims that GM foods will end world hunger are baseless, propagated only by those that have a financial interest in converting the world’s food supply to their own patented varieties in order to control it.
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HIV/AIDS Rises Among Girls and Women
March 12, 2010
Top News
By Jason Ramsey
Women are encouraged to get tested for HIV/AIDS regularly —every six months — and participate in National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD).
NWGHAAD is celebrated with an aim to raise awareness of the rising effect of HIV/AIDS on women and girls.
Launched by the Office on Women’s Health (OWH), on March 10 of every year, organizations across the country extends support discuss and educate women and girls about prevention, the need for regular testing, and the way to lead a normal, healthy life instead of being infected in recognition of NWGHAAD.
The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services claims that a woman in the United States gets tested positive for HIV every 35 minutes and nearly 25% Americans surviving with HIV are women.
Also, less than 15 percent of new HIV infections in the U. S. were among females 13 and older in the mid 1980s, which boosted to about 27 percent by 2006.
The Global Fund is reported to meet in The Hague, Netherlands, on March 24 with a view to examine how it can fulfill its goals eradicating or reducing instances of the three diseases by 2015.
It estimates that between $13-20 billion are needed for the period 2011-2013.
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Canadian Dollar Likely to Trump US
March 11, 2010
Yahoo News
The Canadian dollar, or loonie as it is affectionately called here, is likely to soar above parity with the US greenback this year, experts at a Canadian bank said Wednesday.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) chief economist Avery Shenfeld said the Canadian dollar had already gained several cents in recent weeks as the market firms up expectations of an interest rate hike in July.
If as expected, the central bank “is out in front of the US Federal Reserve by a couple of quarters” in raising interest rates, the Canadian dollar could reach 1.02 dollars versus the US dollar by September, before dipping back to 0.97 dollars by year end,” Shenfeld said.
The Bank of Canada has maintained its key lending rate at a historic low of 0.25 percent since April 2009 to help bolster a fragile economic recovery, but is widely expected to review its position mid-year.
CIBC said other factors were also aligning to push up the value of Canada’s currency such as increased demand for oil, minerals and fertilizers; resurgent capital markets; and global debt fears.
“If the capital markets finally get an appetite for M&A (mergers and acquisitions) then Canada could be one of the first places to see the benefit of foreign inflows,” said CIBC analyst Zafar Bhatti.
Or “if the investing world starts looking for a place to park capital in the wake of deteriorating sovereign credits then Canada would look very attractive,” Bhatti said in a report.
Since the beginning of the year, the Canadian dollar has appreciated 2.5 percent against the US dollar and more than seven percent against the euro.
The loonie last achieved parity with the US greenback in 2008, and previously hit a record 1.10 dollars in 2007.
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U.S. To Determine Who Can Board Flights To Canada
March 4, 2010
Montreal Gazette
By Kevin Dougherty
Starting in December, some passengers on Canadian airlines flying to, from or even over the United States without ever landing there, will only be allowed to board the aircraft once the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has determined they are not terrorists.
Secure Flight, the newest weapon in the U.S. war on terrorism, gives the United States unprecedented power over who can board planes that fly over U.S. airspace.
Secure Flight applies to flights to, from or over the United States, from Canada to another country. Flights between two Canadian cities, that travel over U.S. airspace, are excluded, but about 80 per cent of Canadian flights to the Caribbean and other southern points and to Europe fly over the U.S.
The program, which is set to take effect globally in December 2010, was created as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, adopted by U.S. Congress in 2004.
Parliament never adopted or even discussed the Secure Flight program — even though Secure Flight transfers the authority of screening passengers, and their personal information, from domestic airlines to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
When asked about the program, Transport Canada, the federal department in charge of Canadian airlines, deferred to Public Safety Canada.
After refusing to comment on Secure Flight or the federal government’s position on the U.S. program, David Charbonneau, a Public Safety Canada spokesman, said “Canada works in partnership with the United States, as well as with other allies on aviation safety and security.
“Canada’s approach will continue to balance the privacy rights of travelers with the need to keep the public safe from terrorist and other threats to the air transportation system.”
Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, referred all questions on the Secure Flight program back to the office of Transport Minister John Baird, who oversees Transport Canada.
The European Parliament, on the other hand, has consistently voiced objections to the Secure Flight plan.
Canadian airlines already check their flight manifests against the U.S. no-fly list, which is compiled by the FBI and distributed to airlines around the world. It contains the names of about 16,000 people the U.S. government says are suspected of terrorism. The names and why they are on the list are not disclosed for reasons of “national security.”
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration says Secure Flight will reduce the number of false positives — people with the same name as someone on the no-fly list — who now are stopped at airports.
Under Secure Flight, the TSA, a branch of Homeland Security, will have access to all U.S. government databases.
As part of Secure Flight, Canadian airlines will transfer personal information of travellers to Homeland Security, preferably 72 hours before takeoff. Then, the TSA will use Infoglide, a package of 50 “identity resolution” algorithms and such complex mathematical formulas as search engines to extract and aggregate information from several sources, to check passenger identities.
“If necessary, the TSA analyst will check other classified and unclassified governmental terrorist, law enforcement, and intelligence databases — including databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defence, National Counter Terrorism Centre, and Federal Bureau of Investigation,” notes Secure Flight Final Rule, the U.S. government document that defines the program.
The General Accounting Office, an U.S. institution similar to Canada’s auditor general, is concerned this sweeping check could cause new problems.
“More individuals could be misidentified, law enforcement would be put in the position of detaining more individuals until their identities could be resolved, and administrative costs could increase, without knowing what measurable increase in security is achieved,” the GAO said in a January presentation to the U.S. House of Representatives committee on Homeland Security.
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Online Junk Food Ads Preying on Teens
February 15, 2010
Natural News
By David Gurierrez
Teenagers are strongly affected by Internet marketing in a way that has yet to be addressed by scientific research or government regulation, a group of scientists has warned in a review published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“As the media marketplace continues its rapid transformation, becoming a ubiquitous presence in young people’s lives, further academic research is needed to understand fully the nature, scope, and extent of interactive advertising’s impact on youth,” the researchers wrote.
According to the paper, the United States still regulates advertising to children and teenagers based on studies conducted in the 1970s on how television influences young minds. The authors said that the Internet is a fundamentally different medium than television, however.
“In the Internet era, children and teens are not passive viewers; they are active participants and content creators in an interactive digital environment that pervades their personal and social lives,” they wrote.
Advertisers have specifically targeted teenagers for Internet marketing, particularly of food and drink. Teenagers are significantly more impulsive in their purchasing than younger children or older adults, and spend an average of $46 online each month. They are significantly more likely to participate in online marketing campaigns than other age groups.
Self-imposed regulations by junk food and other manufacturers fall far short of what is needed, researchers said. They criticized these initiatives, in part, for being “narrowly focused” on children younger than 12.
“Although this model may have been appropriate when television was the primary advertising medium, it has limited utility for addressing the changing media and marketing landscape. Nor does it provide guidance for understanding the role of adolescents in the digital marketplace,” the scientists wrote.
The federal government recently made moves to address junk food marketing to teenagers when it created the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children. The mandate of this group includes all children through the age of 17.
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Michelle Obama Claims Obesity is a Threat to National Security
February 11, 2010 by Brandy
Filed under Government
February 9th, 2010
CNSNews.com
By Penny Starr
At a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States, an epidemic she said is costly and a threat to national security.
“A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.”
The ceremony, attended by many officials of President Barack Obama’s cabinet, followed the signing earlier in the day of a presidential memorandum establishing a task force to study the problem and make recommendations after 90 days.
Obama announced a long list of goals she said she hopes the “Let’s Move” campaign will accomplish, including many that can be done “in a generation.”
“This isn’t like a disease where we’re still waiting for a cure to be discovered – we know the cure for this,” Obama said. “This isn’t like putting a man on the moon or inventing the Internet. It doesn’t take some stroke of genius or feat of technology.
“We have everything we need, right now, to help our kids lead healthy lives,” Obama said.
Some of the goals include ending what Obama referred to as “food deserts” with a $400 million a year “Healthy Food Financing Initiative,” which will bring grocery stores to low-income neighborhoods and “help places like convenience stores carry healthier food options.”
Obama called for overhauling many federal laws and guidelines, including adding $10 billion over the next decade to “update” the Childhood Nutrition Act, which feeds 31 million children at school and would add funding to feed more children.
The federal food pyramid would also get a makeover through the campaign, and there would be new efforts to get manufacturers to add “family friendly front-of-package labeling” that discloses a product’s nutritional value.
The First Lady said a broad coalition of groups interested in children’s health are coming together to form the Partnership for a Healthier America, which will use professional athletes, members of the media, and state and local dignitaries to promote the “Let’s Move” campaign and its goals around the country.
Obama used anecdotal details from her own life to explain the challenges faced by overworked parents and children who spend too much time watching TV or playing video games because their neighborhoods are unsafe for playing outside.
“So many parents desperately want to do the right thing, but they feel like the deck is stacked against them,” Obama said. “They know their kids’ health is their responsibility but they feel like it’s out of their control.”
“They are bombarded by contradictory information at every turn, and they don’t know who to believe,” she said.
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Low Intelligence Among Top Heart Health Risks
February 10th, 2010
Reuters UK
By Kate Kelland
Intelligence comes second only to smoking as a predictor of heart disease, scientists said on Wednesday, suggesting public health campaigns may need to be designed for people with lower IQs if they are to work.
Research by Britain’s Medical Research Council (MRC) found that lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores were associated with higher rates of heart disease and death, and were more important indicators than any other risk factors except smoking.
Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women Europe, the United States and most industrialised countries.
According to the World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes accounted for 32 percent of all deaths around the world in 2005.
It is well known that people with poorer education and lower incomes often face higher risks of ill health and a range of diseases. Studies have pointed to many likely reasons, including limited access to healthcare and other resources, poorer living conditions, chronic stress and higher rates of lifestyle risk factors like smoking.
The MRC study, which analysed data from 1,145 men and women aged around 55 and followed up for 20 years, rated the top five heart disease risk factors as cigarette smoking, IQ, low income, high blood pressure, and low physical activity.
The researchers, led by David Batty of the MRC and Social and Public Health Science Unit in Glasgow, Scotland, said there were “a number of plausible mechanisms” which might explain why lower IQ scores could raise the risk of heart disease — in particular a person’s approach to “healthy behaviour.”
Those who ignored or failed to understand advice about the risks of smoking or benefits of good diet and exercise for heart health would be more likely to be at higher risk, they wrote in a study in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention.
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Cancer Rates of Immigrators on the Rise
February 9, 2010
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
Cancer rates among Hispanics rise following migration to the United States, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Miami.
“This study is [reminiscent] of studies from the late 1960s that looked at immigrants from China and Japan to the United States,” said Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society. “They raise risk of cancer by immigrating and raise rates for second generation Americans even more so.”
The researchers used data from the Florida cancer registry, International Agency for Research on Cancer, and 2000 U.S. census to compare the rates of various cancers among Hispanics of different national origins both in the United States and in their home countries, as well as rates among non-Hispanics in the United States, between 1999 and 2001. They found that cancer rates among Hispanics living in the United States are approximately 40 percent higher than rates in Latin America, although the specifics vary by national origin and cancer type. For example, rates of colorectal cancer practically double among Puerto Ricans moving to the mainland, while roughly tripling among Mexican and Cuban migrants.
Mexican immigrants had the lowest cancer rates overall, although rates of cancers associated with minorities, such as cervical, stomach and liver cancer, were high. “New Latinos,” which includes Hispanics from Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or Spain, also had high rates of “minority” cancers, as well as high rates of thyroid cancer and low rates of lung cancer.
The researchers attributed the rise in cancer rates among immigrants to the adoption of unhealthy lifestyle patterns prevalent in the United States, particularly dietary changes including a higher consumption of red meat. Lower levels of physical activity and higher tobacco and alcohol consumption are also likely culprits.
“For Hispanic populations, there are beneficial lifestyles associated with their origin that probably should be kept,” said lead author Paulo Pinheiro. “There are lifestyles that may be more prevalent in the United States that probably should be avoided.”
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Al Qaeda Leader Calls for Attacks on US Interests
February 8, 2010
Breitbart
By AFP
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula number two Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri called for attacks against US interests “everywhere,” in an audio message released Monday.
“American and Crusader interests are everywhere and their agents are moving everywhere,” Shahri said. “Attack them and eliminate as many enemies as you can.”
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Health Spending On the Rise
February 5, 2010
Reuters
By Donna Smith
Economists at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, said in a new report that the national healthcare spending will grow an average 6.1 percent a year over the decade to $4.5 trillion in 2019, about 1.7 percent faster than the overall economy. Healthcare will account for 19.3 percent of the economy in 2019, the report said.
Last year an estimated $2.5 trillion was spent on healthcare in the United States, accounting for about 17.3 percent of the economy, the report said.
The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country, even with about 46 million people lacking medical coverage. An effort by President Barack Obama to expand health coverage and rein in soaring costs stalled in the U.S. Congress after Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate following a special election in Massachusetts last month.
Democrats are weighing their options on how to advance the legislation in the face of solid Republican opposition.
The CMS report shows that medical spending and numbers of uninsured will continue to grow in the absence of reform.
“This report basically says nothing much has changed in that regard,” said CMS chief actuary Richard Foster.
“All that (rising medical costs and the uninsured) is still there, all that argues that some form of healthcare reform is still a good idea,” he added.
By 2019 the United States will spend about $13,387 per person per year on healthcare. That is up from about $8,047 in 2009 and a projected $8,290 per person in 2010, the report said.
The economic slump had a big impact on slowing the growth of private health spending as laid-off workers lost employer-sponsored coverage. At the same time, spending by the Medicaid government health program for the poor has gone up.
Public payments will account for half of all U.S. healthcare spending by 2012 and reach 52 percent by 2019 as baby boomers increasingly sign up for the Medicare health program for the elderly, the CMS economists said.
The report said spending on prescription drugs grew by an estimated 5.2 percent in 2009 due mostly to higher prices for brand name drugs. An improving economy will accelerate spending growth for prescription drugs to 5.6 percent by 2011, they said.
But growth in prescription drug spending will slow in 2012 and 2013 as patents expire on many top selling brand-name drugs sold by big pharmaceutical makers such as Pfizer and Merck, the report said.
After that, growth in drug spending will begin to accelerate again to 7.7 percent in 2019 because of rising drug prices and new drug approvals as well as an increasing share of more expensive specialty drugs, the report said.
