Paul Fassa - CDC wants to go after all baby boomers with vaccines for a phantom virus

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is predicting an epidemic of hepatitis C (Hep-C) among baby boomers. So in order to preempt this epidemic, they have drafted a proposition to have everyone born between 1945 and 1965 tested for Hep-C in order to receive treatments and vaccinations (after diagnosis) with Hep-A and B vaccines.

That seems like a nasty proposition: two vaccinations that pretend to be designed for Hep-C. The Hep-B vaccine has an impressive track record of reported serious adverse reactions and deaths. They don't have a Hep-C vaccination. Could it be because there is no virus?

Dr. Michael Tierra and Sepp Hasslberger report how Chiron, a diagnostic department of Novartis Vaccines, spent years struggling to find a Hep-C virus. After lots of manipulation the came up with footprint of a shadow, or a phantom virus, that enabled them to create a blood screening test for Hep-C that has made them a lot of money.

Normally, when high liver enzyme counts are discovered in a blood test, a Hep-C test is ordered. The experts who debunk this test argue that the phantom virus does not pass the full criteria of an actual infectious virus.

Read More:

http://www.naturalnews.com/036021_CDC_hepatitis_baby_boomers.html

Children exposed to the common pollutant naphthalene show signs of chromosomal damage

According to a new study, children exposed to high levels of the common air pollutant naphthalene are at increased risk for chromosomal aberrations (CAs), which have been previously associated with cancer. These include chromosomal translocations, a potentially more harmful and long-lasting subtype of CAs.

Researchers from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report the new findings in Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Naphthalene is found in both outdoor and indoor urban air. It is present in automotive exhaust, tobacco smoke, and is the primary component of household mothball fumes. Classified as a possible carcinogen by the International Agency for Cancer Research, naphthalene belongs to a class of air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Prior research at the CCCEH has established a link between prenatal exposure to PAH and increased risk for childhood obesity, IQ deficits, and CAs. The new study is the first to present evidence in humans of CAs, including translocations, associated with exposure to one specific PAH—naphthalene—during childhood.

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/cums-cet052912.php

Knowing Genetic Makeup May Not Significantly Improve Disease Risk Prediction

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers have found that detailed knowledge about your genetic makeup - the interplay between genetic variants and other genetic variants, or between genetic variants and environmental risk factors - may only change your estimated disease prediction risk for three common diseases by a few percentage points, which is typically not enough to make a difference in prevention or treatment plans. It is the first study to revisit claims in previous research that including such information in risk models would eventually help doctors either prevent or treat diseases. 

"While identifying a synergistic effect between even a single genetic variant and another risk factor is known to be extremely challenging and requires studies with a very large number of individuals, the benefit of such discovery for risk prediction purpose might be very limited," said lead author Hugues Aschard, research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology. 

The study appears online May 24, 2012 and will appear in the June 8, 2012 print issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics. 

Read More:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245840.php

Marco Torres - Shrimp At Grocery Retailers Contains Antibiotics and Carcinogens Affecting DNA

Ron Kendall, director of The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech, said researchers tested only the muscle tissues consumed by people. When concluded, they found evidence of three antibiotics in 30 samples tested. 

Though the sample sizes were small, he said finding antibiotic residues at all is cause for concern. Todd Anderson, a professor of environmental toxicology, and instrument manager QingSong Cai conducted the shrimp analyses. 

"We estimate that at least 80% of all shrimp imported to grocery retailers comes from farmed sources with similar practices," said Graham Beaton, a head toxicologist and food inspector. 

"We know that 80% of all farmed shrimp comes from Asia, mostly from Thailand and China who are well known for producing 'dirty shrimp'." 

Shrimp farming has changed from traditional, small-scale businesses in Southeast Asia into a global industry whose primary motive is profit. Technological advances have led to growing shrimp at ever higher densities, and broodstock is shipped worldwide. 

Sodium Tripolyphosphate is in more than 90% of packaged shrimp and seafood, something of great concern, especially since it's also used in detergents, antifreeze and flame retardants. 

This controversial additive can make expired products appear firmer and glossier, and fool consumers into buying old or spoiled fish, shrimp and other seafood foods that could ultimately make people sick. Worse yet, exposure to the chemical itself could also be very harmful. 

Read More:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/245764-Shrimp-At-Grocery-Retailers-Contains-Antibiotics-and-Carcinogens-Affecting-DNA#.T71QTfVrQp8.email

Amy Coombs - Revenge of the Weeds

It’s a story suited for a Hollywood horror film, yet it’s also a tenet of evolutionary biology. Introduce a toxin to a system, and you inevitably select for resistant survivors. These few individuals gain a reproductive advantage and multiply; sometimes they can’t be stopped with even the most potent chemicals.

For years, this general plot line made headlines in the fields of antibiotic resistance and cancer research. More recently, plants have become a common protagonist. Weeds around the world are developing resistance to glyphosate—one of the most common herbicides on the market—and like bacteria and tumor cells, many plants can also withstand multiple other toxins, each with unique molecular targets.

In January, a hair-raising infestation of the kochia shrub was confirmed in Alberta, Canada. Originally introduced to desert climates as forage for cattle, the tenacious weed can now survive glyphosate, which targets an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of aromatic compounds. It can also withstand chemicals that inhibit the ALS enzyme, involved in the production of amino acids. At least 2,000 acres are now impacted, and “we expect more cases will be confirmed after a field survey this fall,” says Hugh Beckie of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the government department that manages farming policies.

The United States are also being taken by storm. Palmer amaranth recently developed resistance to the same two classes of chemicals in Tennessee. Since 2009, the tall, spindly weed has swept across 1 million acres of cropland, causing some farmers to abandon their fields. And in California, a plant named hairy fleabane recently crept into vineyards. It is now able to withstand both glyphosate and Paraquat—a chemical that hijacks photons from proteins involved in photosynthesis.

Read More:

http://the-scientist.com/2012/05/20/revenge-of-the-weeds/

Max Planck Gesellschaft - Rare neurons discovered in monkey brains

Max Planck scientists discover brain cells in monkeys that may be linked to self-awareness and empathy in humans

The anterior insular cortex is a small brain region that plays a crucial role in human self-awareness and in related neuropsychiatric disorders. A unique cell type – the von Economo neuron (VEN) – is located there. For a long time, the VEN was assumed to be unique to humans, great apes, whales and elephants. Henry Evrard, neuroanatomist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, now discovered that the VEN occurs also in the insula of macaque monkeys. The morphology, size and distribution of the monkey VEN suggest that it is at least a primal anatomical homolog of the human VEN. This finding offers new and much-needed opportunities to examine in detail the connections and functions of a cell and brain region that could have a key role in human self-awareness and in mental disorders including autism and specific forms of dementia.

The insular cortex, or simply insula, is a hidden cortical region folded and tucked away deep in the brain – an island within the cortex. Within the last decade, the insula has emerged from darkness as having a key role in diverse functions usually linked to our internal bodily states, to our emotions, to our self-awareness, and to our social interactions. The very anterior part of the insula in particular is where humans consciously sense subjective emotions, such as love, hate, resentment, self-confidence or embarrassment. In relation to these feelings, the anterior insula is involved in various psychopathologies. Damage of the insula leads to apathy, and to the inability to tell what feelings we or our conversational partner experience. These inabilities and alteration of the insula are also encountered in autism and other highly detrimental neuropsychiatric disorders including the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Read More:

http://www.mpg.de/5808445/von_economo_neurons

Rising Infertility And Cancer Rates Possibly Linked To Pharmaceuticals And Household Chemicals

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), household products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food all contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which may be causing significant increases in diabetes, obesity, cancers and increasing infertility. 

In recent decades, the incidence of many human diseases and disorders including diabetes, breast and prostate cancer, and male infertility has increased significantly and many scientists believe this is due to increasing levels of exposure to mixtures of some chemicals in widespread use.

The report also highlights that EDCs negatively effect early development of the brain, immune, reproduction and metabolic systems. These affects are often unnoticeable until several years or decades after exposure.

Jacqueline McGlade, EEA Executive Director explained:

"Scientific research gathered over the last few decades shows us that endocrine disruption is a real problem, with serious effects on wildlife, and possibly people. It would be prudent to take a precautionary approach to many of these chemicals until their effects are more fully understood."

Even though there is sufficient evidence of harm from EDCs in some wildlife species and in laboratory studies using rodent models for human health, it is difficult to demonstrate the effects of EDCs on humans due to the length, cost and methodological challenges with these types of studies.

Read More:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245485.php

Andrew W. Saul - Dispensing with Fluoride

Evidence-based medicine requires evidence before medicating. Fluoridation of water is not evidence-based. It has not been tested in well-controlled studies. Fluoridation of public water is a default medication, since you have to deliberately avoid it if you do not want to take it." ~ Andrew W. Saul

As a child, there was nothing I liked about going to the dental dispensary, with the possible exception of the large tropical fish aquarium in the waiting room. This was a distraction to what was coming: three hours in a vast hall containing a double line of black dental chairs and a matching double line of white-clad dental students. And that, as a six-year-old, is where I first met fluoride on a regular basis. After a free cleaning and checkup (the reason my cost-conscious parents had me go there, and the reason it literally took three hours to complete), fluoride was applied to my teeth with a swab.

I remember both the smell (acrid) and the taste (astringent). I actually looked forward to the fluoride treatment, simply because it was the last thing they did to me before I was allowed to leave. Did it work? Probably not. In addition to my regular topical fluoride treatments, I lived in a city with fluoridated water and was raised on fluoridated toothpaste. And I had a mouthful of amalgam by high-school graduation.

Read More:

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n16.shtml

Smoked cannabis reduces some symptoms of multiple sclerosis

A clinical study of 30 adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has shown that smoked cannabis may be an effective treatment for spasticity – a common and disabling symptom of this neurological disease.

The placebo-controlled trial also resulted in reduced perception of pain, although participants also reported short-term, adverse cognitive effects and increased fatigue. The study will be published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on May 14.

Principal investigator Jody Corey-Bloom, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at UC San Diego, and colleagues randomly assigned participants to either the intervention group (which smoked cannabis once daily for three days) or the control group (which smoked identical placebo cigarettes, also once a day for three days). After an 11-day interval, the participants crossed over to the other group.

"We found that smoked cannabis was superior to placebo in reducing symptoms and pain in patients with treatment-resistant spasticity, or excessive muscle contractions," said Corey-Bloom.

Earlier reports suggested that the active compounds of medical marijuana were potentially effective in treating neurologic conditions, but most studies focused on orally administered cannabinoids. There were also anecdotal reports of MS patients that endorsed smoking marijuana to relieve symptoms of spasticity.

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/uoc--scr050812.php

Martha Rosenberg - When Big Pharma Writes the Laws

Just like ALEC, Big Pharma is doing the job of elected officials by writing legislation-ready bills for no charge, says the New York Times.  The new bills seek to prevent health insurers from raising co-pay amounts to a price where patients are unable or unwilling to buy them, especially with expensive drugs. When co-pays rise too high, many people engage in what Pharma calls “prescription abandonment”–leaving the prescription at the pharmacy “altar” or not refilling future prescriptions.

Pharma is losing so much money from rising co-pays and prescription abandonment, it has launched cagey, public service announcement-sounding campaigns about “patients not taking the drugs they need,” as if it is a health and not revenue issue. Pharma has even instituted arrangements with some pharmacies to send visiting nurses to patients’ homes to ensure “compliance,” Big Brother overtones notwithstanding.

Prescription abandonment is an especially thorny issue for Pharma when the drugs are taken on faith, to reduce patients’ “risks” and patients do not necessarily feel them working. It is also a thorny issue when studies suggest the drugs being abandoned may not be necessary to begin with or working.

One such expensive placebo is the drug known by the brand name Risperdal. The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $717 million on the drug to treat posttraumatic stress disorder in Afghanistan and Iraq troops with PTSD over nine years, only to discover it worked no better than a sugar pill! Veterans Affairs doctors wrote more than 5 million prescriptions from 2000 through June 2010 for naught, says a 2011 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Read More:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/11/when-big-pharma-writes-the-laws/