The Benefits of Garlic

Posted on October 17, 2013 by marcia

How Garlic Can Save Your Life

17th October 2013

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Research on garlic indicates that it may provide an ideal low-cost and safe alternative to drugs and vaccines in reducing the three most common causes of death in the world.

In a world mesmerized by the false promises of pharmaceutical industry marketing copy, as well as inundated with aggressively marketed dietary supplements, many of which are manufactured by the same companies making a killing off patented chemicals (Bayer owns One A Day, Pfizer owns Centrum), it is reassuring to know that the kitchen pantry will never fail us…

Inexpensive, time-tested, safe and delicious, many spices are attaining recognition for being, quite literally, ‘life saving,’ which is likely one reason why, in ancient times, many were worth their weight in gold.

This time around, the health benefits of ancient ‘folk remedies’ like garlic are being confirmed by straight-laced men and women in lab coats. Which, when it comes to the conventional medical establishment, blighted as it is by the epistemological disease known as myopia, is considered the only valid way to ascertain the truth. Never mind the countless millions of people who, since the beginning of time, have used a different standard of proof: if it works and it is safe, then its true.

We all know that garlic is not shy to make its presence known. The smallest culinary dose is enough to suffuse the entire body with its aroma. Garlic also permeates the research literature: the biomedical database known as MEDLINE, provided by the National Library of Medicine, contains 4245 study abstracts on garlic, a number of which we have indexed and organized for your use on our site: Health Benefits of Garlic.

A cursory perusal of the literature there indicates that garlic has a significant role to play in preventing or treating well over 150 health conditions, ranging from cancer to diabetes, infection to plaque buildup in the arteries, DNA damage to mercury poisoning.

In fact, a strong argument can be made (pun intended) that expanding the availability of garlic around the world as both a food and a medicine could prevent millions of deaths annually. According to World Health Organization statistics, the populations of poorer countries die manly from causes directly connected to communicable infectious diseases, which incidentally are not caused by a lack of vaccines, rather, primarily through under-nutrition and malnourishment, lack of sanitation and hygiene, as well as the adverse physiological consequences of the depression and stress associated with poverty. The greater use and availability of garlic might provide a perfect alternative to global vaccine initiatives, the use of which are driven less by compelling scientific research, and more by political and economic forces. Garlic is easier to acquire and distribute, and can often be grown by the affected persons or communities affected, making it essentially free.

Garlic Versus #1 Cause of Death for the Poorest Countries

As far as the research goes, garlic has immensely powerful anti-infective properties, experimentally confirmed to kill the following:

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)[1], [2]
Thrush (Fungal overgrowth in oral cavity)[3]
Pseudomonas Aerigonosima, including drug-resistant strains.[4][5][6]
Cytomegalavirus Infections[7] [8] [9] [10]
Mycotoxin-associated aflatoxicosis[11] [12]
Helicobacter Pylori infection[13]
Candida (Yeast) infection[14] [15] [16]
Klebseilla infection[17] [18]
HIV-1 infection[19] [20]
Vibrio infection [21] [22]
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, multi-drug resistant[23]
Clostridium infections[24]
Viral Infections: Herpes Simplex 1 and 2, Parainfluenza virus type 3, vaccinia virus, vesicular stomatitis virus and human rhinovirus type 2.
Group B Streptococcus Infection[25] [26]

This is an impressive smattering of research, but it is likely only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to garlic’s ability to fight infection. Remember, a lack of scientific proof does imply a lack of efficacy. Given that conventional antibiotics are not only failing, but driving bacteria and viruses into greater lethality, we can’t wait around for the multi-billion dollar clinical trial-based drug approval process to turn its attention to a non-patentable natural substance. Such a profit-oriented approach would be highly unethical.

Garlic Versus the Developed World’s #1 and #2 Killers

The research on Greenmedinfo.com shows garlic has value in 167 health conditions or disease symptoms, but the greatest density of research indicates garlic’s role in preventing and/or treating Cardiovascular Disease and Cancers, the two primary causes of death within high-income countries.[27]

This is an interesting finding. The drug industry has been fantasizing about a so-called ‘polypill’ for quite some time, an idea involving mixing various patented medicines together for a condition like heart disease (e.g. blood pressure, cholesterol, blood thinner), but to no avail. Patented chemicals have far too many side effects, so when you mix them together, you only compound their multitudinous chemical toxicities. Natural substances, on the other hand, and especially those which play a role in culinary traditions as “spices,” appear to have the opposite karma. Namely, they have far more ‘side benefits’ than ‘side effects.’

Garlic’s cardioprotective effects include:

Retards progression of arterial plaque[28] [29] [30]
Beneficially decreases white adipose tissue, increases white adipose tissue around heart muscle.[31]
Protects against clotting[32] [33]
Positively modulates blood lipids[34],[35],[36]
Vasodilator[37]
Reduces blood pressure[38]
Antioxidant[39]
Endothelial Dysfunction[40] [41]
Vascular Inflammation[42]

Here is a quick review of the cancers that garlic has been found to kill:

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia[43]
Acute Myeloid Leukemia[44]
Basal Cell Carcinoma[45]
Breast Cancer[46],[47]
Cervical Cancer[48]
Colon Cancer[49]
Endometrial Cancer[50] [51]
Gastric Cancer[52] [53]
Leukemia: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)[54]
Liver Cancer[55] [56] [57] [58]
Lymphoma[59] [60]
Melanoma[61
Osteosarcoma[62]
Pancreatic Cancer[63]

Garlic, like so many other complex foods, contains a wide range of phytocompounds that articulate at least 150 distinct physiological responses in the mammalian body (see our 157 pharmacological actions list on the Garlic Research page).

How can this be so?

One explanation is that all foods contain not only physical building blocks, e.g. carbs, proteins, lipids, and are not only a source of energy (caloric content), but contain gene and epigene regulatory information. There are ‘packets’ of energy and information contained within the conformational state of the biomolecules found within these plant tissues. Our co-evolution with the plant kingdom for the past half a billion years has resulted in the very genetic/molecular fabric of our body depending on certain key compounds from plants in our diet, delivered in natural form, not irradiated, overly-cooked, petrochemically-farmed. Garlic’s ability to fit like a key, into many different types of locks (an impossible feat for monochemical ‘magic bullets’), reflects an likely infinitely complex intelligence in the relationship between plant and animal species. Which speaks to how important foods are not simply as ‘medicine,’ but that from which our bodily health grows organically, and without which disease is a natural consequence.

from: http://wakeup-world.com/2013/10/18/how-garlic-can-save-your-life/

Spiritual Lessons for WHoleness

Posted on October 16, 2013 by marcia

Ten Spiritual Lessons for a New World

Amidst intensely turbulent times, so many of us today are feeling the urgent call to make changes that will create a brighter future for us all. Yet, however much we may want to save the world or fix what’s wrong, the truth remains that we can only change the world by changing ourselves. Inner transformation is the key to outer change.

Essentially, the ten lessons are about taking responsibility for our own evolutionary growth because only an awakened being can bring light to the world and be an effective agent of change. As we stand on the brink of a monumentally pregnant moment in the history of humanity, my invitation is that you join the inner revolution that can give birth to a radically new you and a radically new world.

A brief outline of the ten spiritual lessons:

Lesson 1 – Responsibility

To recognize that we are solely responsible for both our happiness and our unhappiness transforms our internal paradigm from victim-consciousness to becoming a master of our inner world. The power to make a conscious choice in how we respond to life is the foundation for the flowering of a new consciousness.

Lesson 2 – Clarity

To recognize that the world we experience is a reflection of our inner world gives birth to awareness. Awareness has the power to dissolve all story-lines of blame, shame and pain and allows us to rest in the truth of what is really here. This clarity erases inner and outer conflict and sows the seeds for true peace in the world.

Lesson 3 – Relaxation

The more deeply we relax and allow life to unfold in its depth and breadth, the more we are nourished. Taking action from a place of deep relaxation is far more powerful than acting from inner resistance. The former leads to aliveness, the joy of being and a world of creative possibilities, the latter leads to stress, disharmony and disease.

Lesson 4 – Presence

The capacity to penetrate this moment with the depth of our presence cuts through ghosts of past-fear and fantasies of future-hope. In the discovery of what remains, we are granted the power of knowing ourselves as the eternal, infinite space within which everything else comes and goes. This knowing-ness is the key to our true power.

Lesson 5 – Totality

By opening wide to welcome every experience, however painful or challenging, we say YES and become a lover of life. To meet everything with totality offers the potential for deep intimacy that lifts us out of survival-based fear into the arms of unbounded love. This is the birth of compassion, both for ourselves and for the world.

Lesson 6 – Gratitude

Digging deep to find gratitude for even those things we would rather cast out from our lives sends an arrow of love right into the heart of darkness. It’s far more powerful than denial or hate. Gratitude shines a light on the true riches of our inner nature. What we’ve been looking for outside of ourselves has been right here in our hearts all along.

Lesson 7 – Forgiveness

Forgiveness isn’t about turning the other cheek and allowing abuse to continue. It’s about choosing to see through unconscious actions to the purity of essence at the core of every human being. Inherently, there is no evil: the darkness we perceive is only a reflection of where we have failed to illuminate the world with our love. Our capacity to forgive heals the wound of separation and returns us and the world to wholeness and holiness.

Lesson 8 – Nakedness

The courage to be seen, warts and all, allows authentic relationship to happen. In the willingness to be hurt, to face the fear and to experience honestly what lies beneath, we see that love is always here, whatever form it takes. A world built on authenticity is a convergence of hearts in which we herald in a radically new way of life.

Lesson 9 – Service

The new evolutionary impulse coming through humanity today demands that we make the transition from taking to giving. It’s not about doing good but it is about serving God. It’s the call to step beyond our comfort zone into our greatness so that we play our rightful role within Divine Plan. It’s about awakening to our essential love-nature and then serving the world with the fragrance of this love.

Lesson 10 – Resoluteness

The unwavering resolve to take one step at a time, whether we walk over mountain peaks or through valley lows, guarantees that our inner radiance is never extinguished. Action fuelled by the motivation to be a beacon of light unto ourselves and unto the world is the mark of a true agent of change.

Source: “10 Spiritual Lessons for a New World,” by Amoda Maa Jeevan, from watkinsbooks.com

from: http://theunboundedspirit.com/ten-spiritual-lessons-for-a-new-world/

What is the Strange LIght in the Western Sky?

Posted on October 16, 2013 by marcia

Unknown Glowing UFO In Evening Western Sky – Starship? Comet? Nibiru? Hercolubus?

Last updated on October 16, 2013 at 12:00 am EDT by in5d Alternative News

by Gregg Prescott, M.S.

For the past week or longer, there has been a strange, glowing UFO in the horizon of the western sky and according to SkEye and Stellarium, there are no stars or planets in that area.

If you are looking at the western sky in the early evening, you will see Arcturus glowing as well as Venus. You will also see a light to the left of Arcturus that is not defined by the skymap, SkEye.

You will see this bright light in the early evening in the western sky.

Unknown Glowing Light In Evening Western Sky - Starship? Comet? Nibiru? Hercolubus? | In5D.com SkEye is a free app for your cell phone that maps out the sky for you. With this app, you can see every known star, planet and constellation.

Similar to Venus, this light is not seen very high above the ecliptic plane of earth’s orbit.

While zooming in on it with my Canon 35x Powershot, the light would change from red to green to white. Even with a tripod, I had difficulty zooming in and focusing in on it but I will continue trying to get empirical video and photos of this anomaly.

My particular sighting came from the Gulf Coast of Florida but this sighting has also been reported from coast to coast in the United States as well as all around the world.

From New York City, “I noticed a star of unusual brightness. It seemed to be flickering from red, to blue to green to white.”

Unknown Glowing Light In Evening Western Sky - Starship? Comet? Nibiru? Hercolubus? | In5D.com From Virginia, “Incredible. I live in Virginia Beach and work in Norfolk. I’ve been noticing this object for about a month now, I just shrugged it off as Venus. I tried using Google Sky on my phone but no label came up for it – and I still convinced myself that its Venus and that my phone must just be buggy. I’m weirded out now and still can’t fathom this being a strange planetary object…”

From Massachusetts: “I’m in Massachusetts and I saw it Wednesday evening. The strange thing is, there were no other stars in the sky, none. My husband tried ti convince me that it was Venus, but I don’t think so. It was too big, too bright and like I said, there was not a single other star to be seen.”

From North Carolina: “I live on the foothills of the blue ridge Mts …. near Boone NC and I have been watching this “object” for a year. I remember last year on the way back from Charlotte my son noticed it after I had been watching it for a while. It has gotten allot brighter.”

From England: “Finaly I find soneone else who can see it. I see it also and when I looked in my telescope it made me feel ill. Its weird looks like a cell or germ it flickers red and blue. It changes shape and when I look Unknown Glowing Light In Evening Western Sky - Starship? Comet? Nibiru? Hercolubus? | In5D.com at it I get this creepy feeling like it knows im watching. Im in northeast england and it becomes visible just after sunset.”

From Spain, “we were travelling north on the Alicante-Valencia highway, close to Denia. It was after sunset and we were surprised to see a very bright star (the brightest star one can see in the sky) that pulsated with different colours.”

From Brazil, “First, I thought that it could be Jupiter, and then I tried to see it better using a telescope. I didn’t see the moons of Jupiter that normally appear when you are using the telescope, and I realized that the strange object was emitting light of its own, and not reflecting the light of the sun as a planet does. I enlarged the image several times using the telescope, and I realized that the object, although very bright, was rather small. The next day, using the Stellarium computer program, I realized that there was no object showing in the location that I saw.”

In Japan, a witness saw a ‘mysterious luminary object’ from their window in the western sky above the trees. ‘It was emitting light, shining brightly, changing colours, green, yellow, red and so on. It was moving vertically, up and down, while spinning.’

From New Zealand, “I was walking down the stairs to my car when I saw this really bright star shining. It kept changing colours from red to green in the western sky.”

From Scotland, ” During a recent trip to Italy, at the Pedra e Cupa campsite in Budoni, Sardinia, at 5am on Saturday 4 July a bright star was clearly seen in the western region of the sky and was the only star visible in the sky at this time. Was it the ‘star’?”

From Canada, “I see it to from Ottawa, Canada, here it more active around 20:30 pm, it flickers like crazy and the top part grows white then reduces to red weird star….”

Speculation has inferred that this could possibly be a very large comet or possibly an extraterrestrial mothership. It may even possibly be Hercolubus or Nibiru.

Carlos Muñoz Ferrada is an world renown astronomer who recently stated that Hercolubus will be making a visit near our planet.

At this point in time, it is unsure of the angle and trajectory of Hercolubus but it is said to have wiped out Atlantis and had caused the “great flood” in many religious texts.

If this light is a starship or mothership, it is of massive proportions for it to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.

If you know what this bright light may possibly be, then please comment below. Also, if you are able to take any pictures or videos, then please let me know and I’ll add them to this article.

If you have seen this anomaly, please comment below and tell us the state or country you live in. Thank you!

from: http://in5d.com/unknown-glowing-ufo-starship-comet-nibiru-hercolubus.html

Swimming With Dolphin Progams — Bad Idea

Posted on October 16, 2013 by marcia

The Alarming Truth About “Swim with the Dolphins” Programs

October 14, 2013

By Dr. Becker

Story at-a-glance

From the outside looking in, swim-with-the-dolphin (SWTD) programs appear to be a fun, safe opportunity for people to interact with one of the most appealing animals on the planet, the dolphin.
Upon closer inspection, however, like so many wild animal attractions designed by humans for humans, SWTD programs are bad news for dolphins (and they’re not all that safe for people, either). Dolphins are uniquely unsuited to captivity for a variety of reasons including their social structure and natural drive to swim long distances, dive down hundreds of feet, and spend most of their time underwater.
SWTD attractions in countries outside the U.S. pose an even bigger problem due to lack of regulation and poor conditions. Abuses include dolphins kept in small pools surrounded by jagged, rusty fences or near sewage outfalls, diets of rotten fish, disease, and starvation.
Wild SWTD programs are also a bad idea. Studies show that the presence of tourist boats and swimmers among wild dolphin populations is incredibly stressful for the animals, preventing them from resting, feeding, and caring for their young.
If you’re interested in the welfare of dolphins and want to help, avoid SWTD programs, and also consider avoiding resorts, cruise lines and other businesses that promote the exploitation of dolphins for entertainment purposes.

By Dr. Becker

In recent years, “swim-with-the-dolphin” adventures have become increasingly popular with resort-goers and vacationers visiting tropical ports aboard cruise ships.

If you don’t think too deeply about it, a swim-with-the-dolphin (SWTD) experience may seem like a unique, harmless way to get an up-close look at some of the world’s most intelligent, fun-loving sea mammals.

But what many people don’t know or haven’t considered is that most attractions designed to expose humans to wild creatures don’t enhance the lives of the animals involved. Sadly, this includes the SWTD industry. And not only are these programs bad for dolphins, they aren’t entirely safe for people, either.

Dolphins Are Exceptionally Incompatible with Captive Environments

Dolphins have evolved to live and thrive as wild sea mammals — not within the confines of an exhibition tank or a sea pen built into an artificial lagoon.

Dolphins in the wild live in large groups called pods, often in close family units. Social bonds are meaningful and long lasting — sometimes for a lifetime. Captive dolphins, on the other hand, spend their lives interacting with a handful of unfamiliar dolphins that appear and disappear at the whim of the humans running the show.

Wild dolphins often travel long distances each day. They may swim in a straight line for a hundred miles, move along a coastline for several miles and then swim back to their starting point, or they may spend several hours or days in a certain spot. Dolphins living in captivity swim in a circle around a tank or within the small confines of some other artificial habitat. Caged dolphins are often seen swimming around and around in their tanks, peering through the glass or other barricade, or floating listlessly on the water’s surface. These behaviors indicate boredom and psychological stress.

In the ocean, dolphins can dive down several hundred feet and can remain underwater for 15 minutes or more. They spend only a small amount of time – 10 to 20 percent – on the surface. Captive dolphins, sadly, spend up to 80 percent of their time at the surface of the water waiting for food or attention.

According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS):

“The sea is to dolphins much as the air is to birds—it is a three-dimensional environment, where they can move up and down and side to side. But dolphins don’t stop to perch. They never come to shore. Dolphins are always swimming, even when they “sleep.” They are always aware, and always moving.

Understanding this, it is difficult to imagine the tragedy of life in captivity for these ocean creatures.”

Imprisoning Wildlife for the ‘Benefit’ of Humans

There are from 14 to 18 swim-with-the-dolphin attractions in the U.S. The marketing of these programs promotes the experience as “eco-friendly” and “educational.”

There are also so-called “dolphin-assisted therapy” programs for children and adults with disorders like Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, head and spinal injuries, or cancer. In fact, there is no scientific data to indicate that interacting with dolphins has any greater therapeutic benefit than programs involving dogs, horses, or other domesticated animals. As the HSUS accurately points out, “There is no need to imprison wildlife to benefit humans.”

Swim-with-the-dolphins operations in other countries pose an even bigger problem due to lack of regulation and poor conditions. Abuses cited by the HSUS include overworked pregnant female dolphins; dolphins kept in small pools surrounded by jagged, rusty fences or near sewage outfalls; diets of rotten fish; disease; and starvation.

Most SWTD programs outside the U.S. capture their dolphins from the wild. Not only is this practice extremely traumatic for wild dolphins, often resulting in a life-threatening condition known as capture stress or capture myopathy, it can also have a negative impact on the pods from which the dolphins are taken.

SWTD Programs Pose Health Risks to Both Humans and Dolphins

Some captive dolphins will attempt to assimilate to their environment by looking to humans to take on the roles normally filled by other dolphins in the pod. Some of the behaviors noted include submission or sexual aggression around humans, as well as agitation and aggressive behavior resulting from the stress of forced interaction.

These behaviors can result in serious danger to swimmers, and in fact, SWTD programs have reported injuries to humans including tooth rakes, lacerations, broken bones, internal injuries and shock.

For the dolphins, unnatural exposure to people can result in human bacterial and viral infections, and stress-related conditions like ulcers.

Swimming with Wild Dolphins Is Also a Bad Idea

A study conducted in 2010 of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Tanzania¹ found that SWTD programs in the wild are also highly traumatic for the dolphins, preventing them from resting, feeding, and caring for their young. Tourists swimming very close and trying to touch the dolphins proved incredibly stressful for the animals.

to read more, go to: healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/10/14/swimming-with-dolphins.aspx?e_cid=20131014Z1_PetsNL_art_3&utm_source=petnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art3&utm_campaign=20131014Z1

People’s Initiative 522, GMO’s, & Food

Posted on October 16, 2013 by marcia

Ronnie Cummins on Turning the Tide Against Monsanto

October 13, 2013

By Dr. Mercola

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUDeKapnhVs

Story at-a-glance

Between October 18 and November 5, Washington State voters will mail in their ballots for the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.” Your support is urgently needed
Mounting peer-reviewed research reveals a wide variety of health hazards associated with consuming genetically engineered foods and the chemicals that accompany these crops
Part of the original industry rationale for using GE crops was that they could be sprayed with less toxic herbicides, such as Roundup—which was touted as harmless and biodegradable
Now, mounting research reveals that Roundup may actually be one of the most toxic chemicals ever to enter our food supply
49 percent of American farmers are now battling Roundup resistant weeds in their corn- and soy fields. In an effort to get rid of them, they’re resorting to ever-increasing amounts of Roundup and more toxic herbicides such as 2,4-D and Dicamba

Between October 18 and November 5 the next big GMO-labeling vote will take place in the United States; this time in Washington State, where citizens will cast their votes for the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.”

Initiative 522 (I-522) will require seeds, raw agricultural commodities, and processed foods to be labeled if they’re produced using genetic engineering.¹

The success of this ballot initiative is dependent on public donations, and we’re up against industry giants with very deep pockets, so please, help us win this key GMO labeling battle and continue to build momentum for GMO labeling in other states by making a donation to the Organic Consumers Fund (OCF) today.

The video above features Ronnie Cummins, the national director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and the Organic Consumers Fund—one of our allies in the movement to build a sustainable and healthy system of food and farming in the United States.

Part of this food movement is the Millions Against Monsanto campaign, and campaigns pushing for labeling of genetically engineered foods across the US.

The first March Against Monsanto, which took place in May, 2013 was really an extraordinary event that did not get the media attention it deserved. Some two million people in 450 cities and 50 countries took to the streets with the same message—that genetic engineering and Monsanto are out of control, and we need labeling and safety testing.

According to Cummins:

“We need to get these crops off the market or marginalized. That’s what worries Monsanto and the rest of the food industry. Last November, they came close to a disaster when the California ballot initiative Proposition 37 nearly passed. We got 48.5 percent of the vote. They beat us by one and a half percentage points. Well, Monsanto and their allies – Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, and the rest – they had to spend 50 million dollars to beat us in California.”

Why Are Chemical Companies in Charge of Our Food Supply?

For a long time, Monsanto appeared to be perched on top of the world, making enormous profits and wielding near unparalleled political clout. One of the most recent examples of their political power was the insertion of the “Monsanto Protection Act” rider into the appropriation bill, back in January, which basically eliminated the power of the federal judiciary to control genetically engineered crops. As explained by Cummins:

“Under this Monsanto rider to the appropriation bill, even if a federal court rules that a genetically engineered crop has been improperly approved—that it could harm the environment or public health, they can’t stop it. Monsanto’s chief cheerleader in the Senate, Roy Blunt from Missouri, was very proud of this rider, and it went through.

But in a sign of change, millions of people complained, emailed and called Congress, and caused the backers of the bill to back off and say that, ‘Well, it’ll expire on September 30 and then it won’t be part of the Farm Bill or continuing appropriations.’”

Thankfully, the rider, which was renewed by the House of Representatives, was finally voted down by the Senate, thanks to your overwhelming support and affirmative action. As of September 30, the “Monsanto Protection Act” expired. It just goes to show how critical it is that we unite and address these issues together. It’s the only way we will make positive change.

It’s worth remembering though that Monsanto is not alone in recklessly pushing genetically engineered (GE) crops and foods. The following five multi-national chemical companies are also major players:

DuPont

Dow

Bayer

Syngenta

BASF

All of these chemical companies have tried to reposition themselves as “life science” companies, but, as Cummins points out, “they’re still the same old companies whose bottom line depends on selling as many toxic herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides as possible.” Disturbingly, these chemical companies have also bought out most of the seed industry, worldwide, making it extremely difficult for farmers to buy non-GE seeds.

Monsanto’s Grip Slips as Americans Become Better Informed

to read more, go to: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/13/cummins-gmo-labeling.aspx?e_cid=20131013Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131013Z1

On Pharmaceuticals, Honesty, & Safety

Posted on October 16, 2013 by marcia

Pulling Back the Curtain on the Organized Crime Ring That Is the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel

October 16, 2013

By Dr. Mercola

Story at-a-glance

Nearly 20 percent of corporate crime is being committed by companies that make products for your health. Crimes committed by some of the top pharmaceutical companies include fabricated studies and hiding damaging research
A number of recent articles and books have delved into the practices of the drug industry, concluding it operates like an organized crime ring
Corruption of science is one of the most dangerous forms of corruption. Doctors rely on published studies to make treatment recommendations, and large numbers of patients can be harmed when false findings are published
A recent study concluded that a majority of American drug commercials—60 percent of prescription drug ads, and 80 percent of ads for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs—are either misleading or outright false
Warnings of adverse side effects in drug ads can backfire. While initially making viewers cautious, over the course of time people tend to ignore the warnings; some even see them as indications of honesty and trustworthiness

Even though the video above is a few years old now and bigger fines of $3 billion have been assessed to GlaxoSmithKline two years ago, it is a good summary of how the drug cartels operate.

Did you know that nearly 20 percent of corporate crime is being committed by companies that make products for your health?

Sad but true, no less than 19 pharmaceutical companies made AllBusiness.com’s Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s, and the trend has continued if not increased into the 21st Century. Crimes committed by some of the most well-known drug companies include:

Fabricated studies

Covering up serious problems with their drugs

False claims

Bribery, illegal kick-backs, and defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and even the FDA

Immoral threat and intimidation tactics (recall the international drug company Merck actually had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for criticizing the lethally dangerous painkiller Vioxx. “We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read in court.)

Pulling Back the Curtain on Organized Crime

Fortunately, organizations like the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,¹ the False Claims Act Legal Center,² and Politicol News³ have all started investigating and publicizing the criminal actions these companies have been getting away with for decades.

Most recently, the British Medical Journal’s blog featured an article⁴ by former BMJ editor and director of the United Health Group’s chronic disease initiative, Richard Smith, aptly titled: “Is the Pharmaceutical Industry Like the Mafia?”

The piece is also the foreword to the book, Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare, written by Peter Gøtzsche, head of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, which is considered the gold standard in terms of independent research reviews.

In related news, a recently published study concluded that most drug commercials are misleading or outright false.⁵ There’s a literal mountain of evidence proving that pharmaceutical companies are untrustworthy at best, and criminal at worst. And yet they’re the backbone of our modern “healthcare” system…

Even Forbes Magazine⁶ recently published an article with the provocative headline: “Is Big Pharma Addicted To Fraud?” and asked out loud “whether any aspect of the pharmaceutical business can be trusted.”

Is It Fair to Compare the Pharmaceutical Industry with the Mafia?

If you depend on conventional medical care to address your health problems, then you’re basically entrusting your health to organizations that clearly have far more interest in their bottom line than your health. In his article, Is the Pharmaceutical Industry Like the Mafia? Smith writes:⁷

“The characteristics of organized crime, racketeering, is defined in US law as the act of engaging repeatedly in certain types of offence, including extortion, fraud, federal drug offenses, bribery, embezzlement, obstruction of justice, obstruction of law enforcement, tampering with witnesses, and political corruption.

Peter [Gøtzsche] produces evidence, most of it detailed, to support his case that pharmaceutical companies are guilty of most of these offenses.

And he is not the first to compare the industry with the Mafia or mob. He quotes a former vice-president of Pfizer, who has said:

‘It is scary how many similarities there are between this industry and the mob. The mob makes obscene amounts of money, as does this industry. The side effects of organized crime are killings and deaths, and the side effects are the same in this industry. The mob bribes politicians and others, and so does the drug industry…’

Smith also notes that many more people are killed by the pharmaceutical industry than the mob. Prescription drugs also kill far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are on the incline.^8, ⁹

For example, prescription drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69.

Legal prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic, and is part of the reason why the modern American medical system has become one of the leading causes of death and injury in the United States.

An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the US every year. Merck’s painkiller Vioxx alone killed more than 60,000 people within a few years’ time before being withdrawn from the market.

“… [T]he benefits of drugs are exaggerated, often because of serious distortions of the evidence behind the drugs, a ‘crime’ that can be attributed confidently to the industry,” Smith writes.“The great doctor William Osler famously said that it would be good for humankind and bad for the fishes if all the drugs were thrown into the sea.

He was speaking before the therapeutic revolution in the middle of the 20th century that led to penicillin, other antibiotics, and many other effective drugs, but Peter comes close to agreeing with him and does speculate that we would be better off without most psychoactive drugs, where the benefits are small, the harms considerable, and the level of prescribing massive.”

‘Science-Based’ Medicine Has Fallen on Its Own Sword

There are many areas within which corruption can take root, and the drug industry has nurtured corruption in most if not all of them. It would require an entire book to begin to address them all, which is exactly what Peter Gøtzsche has done in his book, Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare.

One of the most dangerous forms of corruption is that which occurs within medical science. For example, according to data from Thomson Reuters,¹⁰ the number of retractions of scientific studies have increased more than 15-fold since 2001, and a review¹¹published just last year showed that nearly 75 percent of all retracted drug studies were attributed to “scientific misconduct,” which includes:

Data falsification or fabrication

Questionable veracity

Unethical author conduct

Plagiarism

Corruption of science is incredibly serious, as health care professionals rely on published studies to make treatment recommendations, and large numbers of patients can be harmed when false findings are published. The average lag time between publication of the study and the issuing of a retraction is 39 months. And that’s if the misconduct is ever caught at all. What’s worse, about 32 percent of retractions are never published,¹² leaving the readers completely in the dark about the inaccuracies in those studies!

to read more, go to: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/16/drug-commercials-misleading.aspx?e_cid=20131016Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131016Z1

Your Color Vibe for Tuesday, 10/15

Posted on October 15, 2013 by marcia

Tuesday, October 15: Banana Yellow

Things can be coming at you today fast and furiously. Your best defense is to get out of the way. This is a day for sitting back and just observing everything that is happening around you. You will see things align in new ways. There is no really settled energy about today, so it is not a good time for making large changes in your life. There is a question that has been plaguing you for some time, and you will have hints as to the best way to resolves it in the current energy. Emotions can run high; even the observer is affected by what is seen. Let them move through you. This is not a day for holding onto things, so take them as they come, react, let go, forgive, and be.

Your Color VIbe for Mondya, 10/14

Posted on October 14, 2013 by marcia

Monday, October 14: Blue-Green

If you are one of those who is easily distracted, then this can be a tough day for you. There are a lot of things swirling around in the energies today, and this is leading to many fits and starts. You can find yourself with a strong purpose going somewhere to do something, get something, and just in that instant forget completely what it was that you were thinking of doing. Conversations can be difficult as subject lines will blur and the gist will go off on incredible tangents. Notice when these things are happening, when you see the movement in the periphery of your vision. All of these things are indications of the direction in which things are going. Knowing what that is can assist you in moving forward.

Your Overall Weekly Chromoscope 10/13-19

Posted on October 13, 2013 by marcia

October 13-19:

The theme this week “Really! Who do you think you are”. So be ready to be surprised by things said and happening and be equally prepared to stand up for WHO you are. Oh, and this will be going on all over this week, personally, locally, statewide, countrywide, globally, and universally. Hang on, keep your eyes open, and look for the AHA’s!

Overall Color for the Week: Zephyr Blue

And yes, the winds will be blowing this week. Be alert as things shift and move around and through you. It is very, very important to start out each day grounded and centered this week, lest you find yourself blown away by what is presenting around you. There is much that you will be seeing this week. In terms of relationships, things can become clear and questions answered in regard to people with who you have been interacting yet always having that uncertainty about. This week you will get them, and you will need to be willing and able to take action upon what you are hearing, sensing, and seeing. Not everything is on the surface, so trust your intuition as you navigate your world. Listen to its hints and urgings. This can be critical in terms of potential situations that might not be the most positive for you. This is a week also for cloaking. This means that it is not well to say everything that you wish to. The time is not right for giving opinions. You will find much that you can lean much by paying attention to slips of the tongue and things you seeing that are out of context. This is a week that can challenge your sense of what is real and what is illusion. There can be some feelings tied to these, and it is best always to allow the emotions to pour forth when they arise. Stuffing them down can lead to a kind of emotional dyspepsia. This is not a week for making any large and/or life changing decisions. The energies are too erratic. There is not enough information that has been unveiled. Things can be rocky around you this week, but it is all to let you know that you have the power to get through what is happening, you have the vision to see things for what they are, and you have the choice as to what you will do about all of this. Be wise. Trust your inner knowing. Act from your core, and see with the eyes of the heart. Truth was never meant to be hidden.

On the larger scale, there will be a long of hot air blowing around. Some will be bluff, while some will be deadly serious. It will be interesting to see how the politicos and governmental types deal with all of this. It seems, unfortunately, that they are wanting to blame the people, the masses, if you will, for the problems that they have created. Because of this, there can be some really unsettling actions on the parts of various governments in relation to acts of the people, demonstrations. There can be some issues with something with air travel that can cause a general uproar. Meanwhile, the Earth, herself, will be shifting this week also. There can be some rather large storms developing unexpectedly out of small beginnings. There can be some unusual earth movements in places where they traditionally have not occurred. Centers of countries will be prime locations for these things. Also, it is good to take a look at the ley lines and the energetic portals on the Earth to get a sense of the patterning that is behind this. Patterns are falling into place more and more, and it is important to be aware of this right now. When one thing happens, and it is followed by another that seems somewhat oddly coincidental, this is the time to sit down and look at what and where things are happening. Time is shifting also, so expect deadlines and schedules to be skewed. There is a new kind of germ appearing right now which can affect many people. It is important to stay within and strong in your sense of WHO you are and listen to what your physicality is telling you. This is a time of choices, and many choices will be made this week. The time spiral is intersecting with a new dimensional ray. Things cannot be the same. The galactic energy is here, and will be evinced in some interesting celestial events. Look to the skies. There is much happening there, and not just those scary Blackhawk copters buzzing metropolitan areas. The skies hold a new kind of watcher, one that will become more obvious as the year winds down.

UUNICEF Targeting Vaccine/GMO Critics?

Posted on October 13, 2013 by marcia

Attacks on Health Reporters and Their Readers Are Escalating

September 18, 2013

By Dr. Mercola

Story at-a-glance

A new UNICEF report reveals that the organization is tracking the rise of online anti-vaccination sentiments in Central and Eastern Europe, and has identified the most important “anti-vaccine influencers” on the web
Instead of addressing the evidence of potential harm of vaccines, UNICEF is entering into ever-deepening partnerships with vaccine company giants like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline
UNICEF devises public relations schemes to convince you to ignore any science that raise safety questions
In the report, UNICEF infers that I and other vaccine-safety advocates are lying about the situation and therefore should be ignored
In 2009, it was revealed that Merck had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for voicing critical opinions about the pain killer Vioxx—a drug that ended up killing more than 60,000 people before it was pulled from the market
GSK spent more than 10 years covering up information that proved they knew about the serious health dangers of their blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, as it would adversely affect sales.

Truth becomes treason in an empire of lies. Attacks against health web sites like yours truly and others, and our readers—yes, that would be you—are rapidly escalating.

Thinly veiled threats are issued not just by industry spokespersons (many of whom hide their industry ties from their readers), but also international organizations like UNICEF. It’s become very evident, very quickly, that now more than ever, we need your support to counter the increasingly dirty tactics of these industry players.

Simply by reporting the scientific evidence—which is published in peer-reviewed journals, mind you—I’ve been labeled as a top “anti-vaccine influencer” for my pro-safety stance on vaccines, and a “media supporter of domestic eco-terrorists” for my reporting on the hazards of Roundup and genetically engineered foods.

Why Is UNICEF Accusing Health Journalists of Lying?

A recently published report¹ by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reveals that the organization is tracking “the rise of online pro-vaccine safety sentiments in Central and Eastern Europe,” and has identified the most influential pro-vaccine safety influencers” on the web.

UNICEF included me on the list, along with other independent health websites like GreenMedInfo.com, Mothering.com and NaturalNews.com, just to name a few. In their opening reference, they use a quote by Mark Twain that reads:

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Clearly, UNICEF is inferring that I and other vaccine-safety advocates are lying about the situation and therefore should be ignored. This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious.

Here we have an international organization supposedly dedicated to children’s health and wellbeing, and instead of addressing the ample scientific evidence showing the potential harm of vaccines, they’re entering into ever-deepening partnerships with vaccine company giants like Merck² and GlaxoSmithKline³ (GSK).

They spend precious time and resources on public relations schemes to convince you to ignore any science that raises questions about the wisdom of “carpet-bombing” infants’ and young children’s immune systems with potentially harmful vaccines.

UNICEF’s Bedfellows

This is especially disturbing because Merck has been involved in numerous criminal scandals and class-action lawsuits in recent years, including fraudulently marketing its deadly drug Vioxx; lying about the true efficacy of its mumps vaccine.

Additionally, they engaged in scientific fraud (a charge brought by its own scientists); and hiding critical side effects associated with its osteoporosis drug Fosamax, just to name a few of the most publicized.

Even more shocking, in 2009, it was revealed that Merck actually had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for voicing critical opinions about the pain killer Vioxx—a drug that indeed ended up killing more than 60,000 people before it was pulled from the market.

Two years later, in 2011, the company ended up pleading guilty to a criminal charge over the fraudulent marketing and sales of this deadly drug.⁴ But sure, let’s listen to UNICEF and trust the guys who go so far as to threaten the lives of those who question the safety of a very factually dangerous drug. Then there’s GSK, whose leadership among corporate criminals is illustrious indeed.

Not only was GSK found guilty in the largest health fraud settlement in US history just last year, for which they were fined $3 billion. A couple of months ago, Chinese authorities accused the company of bribery and illegal marketing schemes. Chinese police claim to possess evidence showing that bribery has been a “core part” of GSK China’s business model since 2007.

Doctors and government officials are said to have received perks such as travel, cash, and sexual favors that when combined, amounted to nearly $5 billion, according to some reports. The company allegedly used travel agencies as middlemen to carry out these illegal acts. Four Chinese GSK executives have so far been detained on charges of cash and sexual bribery.

GSK also spent more than 10 years covering up information that proved they knew about the serious health dangers of their blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, as it would adversely affect sales. While carousing with the true liars and criminals, UNICEF deems it fitting to paint me and other health journalists as the liars; the ones leading you astray.

Little does UNICEF realize that by publicizing a list of monitored “vaccine influencers”—the health reporters who stick pegs in the wheels of their crafty PR schemes by publishing all those studies the vaccine industry would rather see buried—they’ve basically given you a Who’s Who of real vaccine information.

Maybe we should thank them rather than rail against their poor judgment? As stated by Sayer Ji⁵ of Greenmedinfo.com, who was also targeted in the report:

“[W]hile the document purports to be analytical and descriptive, it has proscriptive and defamatory undertones, and only thinly conceals an agenda to discredit opposing views and voices. UNICEF’s derogatory stance.

This is all the more surprising considering that websites such as GreenMedinfo.com aggregate, disseminate and provide open access to peer-reviewed research on vaccine adverse effects and safety concerns extracted directly from the US National Library of Medicine, much of which comes from high-impact journals.”

GMO-Labeling Supporters Now Accused of Supporting Eco-Terrorism. What’s Next?

Another recent article, published in Forbes Magazine,⁶ really ups the ante of the attack on health journalists and their readers with the headline: “ Domestic Eco-Terrorism Has Deep Pockets. And Many Enablers.” The article, written by Jay Byme and Henry I.Miller, reads in part:

“In recent years, [eco]terrorists have attempted to gain sympathy and “justification” for their actions by means of disinformation campaigns that relentlessly smear the safety and utility of genetic engineering applied to agriculture… “Frankenfood” headlines may sell newspapers and organic food, but this kind of “black marketing” — enhancing the perceived value of your products by disparaging those of your competitors – can also encourage serious criminal acts.

…There exists in this country a vast, well-established, highly professional, protest industry fueled by special interest groups seeking to line their own pockets… Anti-genetic engineering campaigns are openly funded and promoted by mainstream organic food marketers like Gary Hirshberg, the chairman of Stonyfield Organic, and alternative health and food-supplement hucksters Joe Mercola and Mike Adams — all cynical fear-profiteers who benefit from increased consumer mistrust in their competitors’ products… The ultimate objective, of course, is to sell more overpriced, overrated organic food…

One result of the widely disseminated disinformation effort is an environment that provides encouragement to extremists who commit criminal acts. It comes from the Facebook and Twitter followers of the genetic engineering conspiracy theorists, organic marketers and “right to know” labeling activists… Against the backdrop of this fear-mongering, hate-speech and support for acts of terror toward legal, highly regulated, safe and societally valuable R&D, we should condemn not only the perpetrators themselves but also their corporate and media enablers.”

to read more, go to: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/18/unicef-attacks-health-advocates.aspx?e_cid=20130918Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130918Z1