what internet

ONENESS, On truth connecting us all: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7421476B2

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

RFID chip

The RFID chip makers started looking for markets for their injectable chip as soon as it was invented. I've been following their info for years. Very scary, Orwellian even (as in 1984, the book). These guys sell human scanners that look just like the metal detectors used in libraries and department stores. These systems have been sold to South America dictators who have chipped prisoners in their prisons. This is very real, not an illusion and, in my opinion, if they could get their way, we will be chipped too. Animal shelters are chipping dogs & cats, NAIS is chipping farm animals. Many companies chip their products. I wonder how the animals feel and what they think about being made a part of the computerized Matrix, property of the machine world. Grosses me out completely. In our other group I've posted updates on RFID research and implementation a number of times, trying to alert folks to this insidious plan to track (and eventually control) everything. Pure evil. The new nano-electronic chips are far smaller than the grain of rice sized chips currently being injected into animals and human prisoners. They are small enough to be inhaled or swallowed in a drink without you even knowing it. If you get chipped you can fry the chip with high voltage static electricity (stun gun or electric fence). I hope people here don't think I'm "just being paranoid". Maybe it's best to simply provide my link collection on the topic. Some of these links are probably dead by now but others should still work. Unfortunately, due to a computer crash a couple of years back, I lost the links to the earlier research and implementation of the RFID chip, so all the detail is not presented:

http://cq.cx/ verichip. pl
http://www.greatdre ams.com/rfid. htm
http://www.epic. org/privacy/ rfid/
http://www.spychips .com/press- releases/ verichip- hacked.html
http://shop. toolsforhealing. com/Magnetic_ Pulser_MPG5_ p/st-mpg5. htm
http://www.rense. com/general69/ vfid.htm
http://www.spychips .com/
http://www.stopanim alid.org/ whatis.php
http://www.schneier .com/blog/ archives/ 2005/05/real_ id.html
http://www.epic. org/privacy/ id_cards/
http://www.unrealid .com/
http://writ. news.findlaw. com/leavitt/ 20050509. html
http://www.rense. com/general65/ realid.htm
http://arstechnica. com/news. ars/post/ 20060113- 5974.html
http://www.news10. net/storyfull2. aspx?storyid= 16091
http://blog. aclu.org/ index.php? /archives/ 22-Real-ID- Privacy-Nightmar es.html
http://www.spychips .com/press- releases/ verichip- immigration. html
http://globalguerri llas.typepad. com/globalguerri llas/2006/ 01/weapons_ the_rfi.html
http://rfidzapper. dyndns.org/ wiki/index. php/Hands_ On
http://www.dhbolton .com/articles/ diy-emp-generato r.html
http://www.smartcod ecorp.com/ newsroom/ 13-01-04. asp
http://www.globalre search.ca/ index.php? context=va& aid=10097
http://www.wethepeo plewillnotbechip ped.com/phpfusio n/news.php

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Strategy for Brain and Mental Health

Dr. Mark Hyman's "UltraMind" Strategy for Brain and Mental Health


Mental illness is on the rise, and conventional medicine cannot cure it. That's the message from Mark Hyman, MD, who offers an alternative answer in his new book, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First. He notes that an epidemic of "broken brains" affects millions of people worldwide, taking many forms -- anxiety, depression, dementia, addictions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, etc. The common model for addressing these disorders is drug therapy... but drugs alone fail to address the underlying causes of mental disease.


THE SHORTCOMINGS OF DRUG THERAPY

The real cure for brain disorders lies outside the brain, Dr. Hyman explains. If you suffer from depression, for example, you are not suffering from a "Prozac deficiency" in spite of the fact that doctors may prescribe it or other antidepressants. Mainstream medicine's approach is to make a diagnosis based on symptoms, then suppress those symptoms with a medication rather than identifying the cause and fixing that. For example, many cases of depression are actually rooted in nutritional deficiencies or imbalances, including vitamin D, B-12, an omega-3 fatty acid deficiency, or a problem with digestive function or some other biological deficit. And, just about all these can be corrected without antidepressants. In fact, Dr. Hyman points out that most people who take antidepressants find that they offer only partial relief, lose effectiveness over time or simply don't work. These drugs also cause side effects such as weight gain and loss of sex drive, and more than half of people who take them quit within months.


In reality, everything that affects the body affects the brain, since it is one of the most vital organs of the body, and everything that affects the brain affects the rest of the body. Simply taking an antidepressant for depression -- or Ritalin for ADHD, or an anti-anxiety medication and so forth -- fails to take this basic body-mind connection into account. In Dr. Hyman's opinion, a new paradigm for mental illness must take a wider view of a person, not merely focus on the brain, since there are myriad causes of mental illness. This view should replace the shortsighted approach to treatment where a doctor marks down a diagnostic code on a patient's chart and prescribes the corresponding pill.


DR. HYMAN'S ULTRAMIND SOLUTION

According to Dr. Hyman, there are seven key influences affecting your brain, your memory, attention, mood and behavior -- nutrition, hormones, inflammation, digestion, detoxification, energy metabolism and the mind-body connection. When one or more of these are thrown off-kilter, imbalances develop, which can manifest in mental and/or emotional illness. Identifying and addressing imbalances thusly enables the body's natural healing mechanisms to take over, bringing about dramatic improvements in mood, memory, attention, concentration, cognition and other brain functions.


Dr. Hyman recommends a three-pronged strategy for brain wellness: His book has quizzes to help identify which of your seven underlying systems isn't working... suggestions on how to fix the underlying problem causing the imbalance... and ways to nourish all these aspects so they can function optimally as an integrated system. We took a brief look at how each of the seven key systems affects mental health, and what you can do to help keep them in balance.

  • Are you eating right? Inadequate nutrition is at the root of many illnesses, both mental and physical. If your diet is loaded with fatty fast foods, processed foods and refined carbohydrates (e.g., white bread and pasta) you're not only missing the nutrients your brain requires to function properly, but also creating other chemical imbalances. To restore balance, eat a diet based on a variety of whole, unprocessed foods.
  • Is there a hormonal issue? Improper diet is among the factors that can lead to a hormone imbalance -- specifically, eating sugar and refined carbohydrates causes the body to pump out an overload of the hormone insulin into the bloodstream. Too much insulin can cause mood swings and behavior disturbances such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia. Other hormonal imbalances are caused by swings in sex hormones, which can be a natural result of aging, or an improperly functioning thyroid gland, etc. See your physician to identify and treat hormonal issues.
  • Do you need to cool down inflammation? If the body is inflamed, the brain is too. Brain inflammation is implicated in nearly every brain disease, from Alzheimer's to autism to depression to schizophrenia. Sources of inflammation include refined carbohydrates, food allergens, stress and anxiety -- but on the bright side, Dr. Hyman reminds us that these are all fixable problems. In addition to eating healthier whole foods, getting plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, and taking steps to control stress, you can also add anti-inflammatory herbs such as turmeric, ginger and rosemary to your diet.
  • Is there a digestive problem? One of the most powerful ways you can fix your brain is to fix your gut, says Dr. Hyman. For example, if your digestive enzymes malfunction, undigested gluten from wheat or casein from milk can harm brain function. Strategies to resolve digestive problems might include eliminating food allergens, considering digestive enzymes and taking probiotics to bring digestive colonies of microbes back into proper balance.
  • Do you need to detox? Toxic chemicals in the environment such as mercury and lead underlie many neurological diseases. Limit exposure to these toxins to the greatest degree possible. For example, do not eat (or rarely eat) large fish such as swordfish or tuna that is likely to contain higher levels of mercury. If you live in an older house, be sure the water and paint are not contaminated with lead.
  • How's your energy metabolism? Mitochondria are the miniature energy factories in your body's cells, including those in the brain. The single most important thing you can do to support your mitochondria and boost your energy is to exercise. For energy problems specifically related to stress, toxicity or aging, Dr. Hyman prescribes supplements such as Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Alpha-lipoic acid, Coenzyme Q10, magnesium, riboflavin and niacin.
  • Are you stressed out? Closely examine your life, Dr. Hyman urges. Stress robs you of energy, so take action to more effectively manage it. For instance, make a promise to yourself that this week you will eliminate one thing that causes anxiety and add one that helps you heal and thrive.

Drugs can provide a temporary fix for brain problems, says Dr. Hyman, but these are not the long-term solution. As usual, it takes more work than popping a pill, but in the long run a healthy mind and body are worth it.

Source(s):

Mark Hyman, MD, author of The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Scribner), UltraMetabolism (Atria) and The UltraSimple Diet (Pocket). Dr. Hyman is founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, and the former co-medical director at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts. Visit his Web sites at www.ultrawellness.com, www.ultrawellnesscenter.com and www.ultramind.com.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Hidden Link Between Factory Farms and Human Illness

The Hidden Link Between Factory Farms and Human Illness

By Laura Sayre

You may be familiar with many of the problems associated with concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. These “factory farm” operations are often criticized for the smell and water pollution caused by all that concentrated manure; the unnatural, grain-heavy diets the animals consume; and the stressful, unhealthy conditions in which the animals live. You may not be aware, however, of the threat such facilities hold for you and your family’s health — even if you never buy any of the meat produced in this manner.

Factory farms are breeding grounds for virulent disease, which can then spread to the wider community via many routes — not just in food, but also in water, the air, and the bodies of farmers, farm workers and their families. Once those microbes become widespread in the environment, it’s very difficult to get rid of them.

A 2008 report from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a joint project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, underscores those risks. The 111-page report, two years in the making, outlines the public health, environmental, animal welfare and rural livelihood consequences of what they call “industrial farm animal production.” Its conclusions couldn’t be clearer. Factory farm production is intensifying worldwide, and rates of new infectious diseases are rising. Of particular concern is the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant microbes, an inevitable consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics as feed additives in industrial livestock operations.

Scientists, medical personnel and public health officials have been sounding the alarm on these issues for some time. The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have recommended restrictions on agricultural uses of antibiotics; the American Public Health Association (APHA) proposed a moratorium on CAFOs back in 2003. All told, more than 350 professional organizations — including the APHA, American Medical Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — have called for greater regulation of antibiotic use in livestock. The Infectious Diseases Society of America has declared antibiotic-resistant infections an epidemic in the United States. The FAO recently warned that global industrial meat production poses a serious threat to human health.

The situation is akin to that surrounding global climate change four or five years ago: near-universal scientific consensus matched by government inaction and media inattention. Although the specter of pandemic flu — in which a virulent strain of the influenza virus recombines with a highly contagious strain to create a bug rivaling that responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic, thought to have killed as many as 50 million people — is the most dire scenario, antibiotic resistance is a clear and present danger, already killing thousands of people in the United States each year.

People, Animals and Microbes

From one perspective, picking up bugs from our domesticated animals is nothing new. Approximately two-thirds of the 1,400 known human pathogens are thought to have originated in animals: Scientists think tuberculosis and the common cold probably came to us from cattle; pertussis from pigs or sheep; leprosy from water buffalo; influenza from ducks.

Most of these ailments probably appeared relatively early in the 10,000-year-old history of animal domestication. Over time, some human populations developed immunity to these diseases; others were eventually controlled with vaccines.

Some continued to kill humans until the mid-20th century discovery of penicillin, a miracle drug that rendered formerly life-threatening infections relatively harmless. Other antibiotics followed, until by the 1960s leading researchers and public health officials were declaring that the war on infectious diseases had been won.

Beginning in the mid 1970s, however, the numbers of deaths from infectious diseases in the United States started to go back up. Some were from old nemeses, such as tuberculosis, newly resistant to standard antibiotic treatments; others were wholly novel.

“In recent decades,” writes Dr. Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States and author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, “previously unknown diseases have surfaced at a pace unheard of in the recorded annals of medicine: more than 30 newly identified human pathogens in 30 years, most of them newly discovered zoonotic viruses.” (Zoonotic viruses are those that can be passed from animals to humans.)

Why is this happening? There are many reasons, including the increased pace of international travel and human incursions into wild animals’ habitats. But one factor stands out: the rise of industrial farm animal production. “Factory farms represent the most significant change in the lives of animals in 10,000 years,” Greger writes. “This is not how animals were supposed to live.”

Chicken and pig production are particularly bad. In 1965, the total U.S. hog population numbered 53 million, spread over more than 1 million pig farms in the United States — most of them small family operations. Today, we have 65 million hogs on just 65,640 farms nationwide. Many of these “farms” — 2,538, to be exact — have upwards of 5,000 hogs on the premises at any given time. Broiler chicken production rose from 366 million in 1945 to 8,400 million in 2001, most of them in facilities housing tens of thousands of birds.

On a global scale, the situation is even worse. Fifty-five billion chickens are now reared each year worldwide. The global pig inventory is approaching 1 billion, an estimated half of which are raised in confinement. In China and Malaysia, it’s not unheard of for hog facilities to house 20,000 or even 50,000 animals.

The Mechanics of Resistance

“Concentrated animal feeding operations are comparable to poorly run hospitals, where everyone is given antibiotics, patients lie in unchanged beds, hygiene is nonexistent, infections and re-infections are rife, waste is thrown out the window, and visitors enter and leave at will,” write Johns Hopkins researchers Ellen Silbergeld, Jay Graham and Lance Price in the 2008 Annual Review of Public Health. By concentrating large numbers of animals together, factory farms are terrific incubators for disease. The stress of factory farm conditions weakens animals’ immune systems; ammonia from accumulated waste burns lungs and makes them more susceptible to infection; the lack of sunlight and fresh air — as well as the genetic uniformity of industrial farm animal populations — facilitates the spread of pathogens.

The addition of steady doses of antibiotics to this picture tips the balance from appalling to catastrophic. Poultry producers discovered by accident in the 1940s that feeding tetracycline fermentation byproducts accelerated chickens’ growth. Since then, the use of antibiotics as feed additives has become standard practice across much of the industry. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that non-therapeutic animal agriculture use (drugs given to animals even when they are not sick) accounts for 70 percent of total antibiotic consumption in the United States.

The medical community has been cautioning for years against irresponsible antibiotic use among people, but in terms of sheer numbers, livestock use is far more significant. It’s a simple scientific fact that the more antibiotics are used — especially prolonged use at low doses as in factory farms — the more antibiotic-resistant microbes will become. Bacteria and viruses are also notoriously promiscuous, swapping genes across species and even across genera, creating what the Johns Hopkins researchers call “reservoirs of resistance.” “In some pathogens, selection for resistance also results in increased virulence,” they note. In other cases, otherwise harmless microbes can transfer resistance genes to pathogenic species.

There also are indications that factory farm conditions make animals more likely to excrete pathogenic microbes — suggesting another mechanism by which conversion to more humane farming methods would offer greater protection for human health.

Routes of Transmission

Most so-called bio-containment procedures for confinement livestock operations are more concerned with protecting the crowded animals from disease outbreaks than from preventing human pathogens from escaping into the wider environment. As the report from the Pew Commission points out, every step in the industrial farm animal production system holds the potential for disease transmission, from transportation and manure handling, to meat processing and animal rendering.

The increasingly globalized nature of the farm animal production system means that live animals, as well as fresh and frozen meat, are constantly crossing international borders, ensuring that diseases present in one location will soon spread elsewhere. But the biggest transmission route is waste: Confined livestock operations in the United States produce three times as much waste each year as our country’s entire human population — and yet all that manure is much more loosely regulated and handled than human waste. Antibiotic-resistant microbes, as well as the antibiotics themselves, are now widely present as environmental contaminants, with unknown consequences for everything from soil microorganisms to people. Canada’s largest waterborne disease outbreak, which infected 1,346 people and killed six, was traced to runoff from livestock farms into a town’s water supply. The U.S. Geological Survey found antimicrobial residues in 48 percent of 139 streams tested nationwide from 1999 to 2000. Other studies have detected resistant bacteria in the air up to 30 meters upwind and 150 meters downwind of industrial hog facilities.

A wealth of evidence links industrial meat and poultry directly with foodborne illness. When dioxin-contaminated chicken feed led to the removal from the market of all chicken and eggs in Belgium for several weeks in June of 1999, doctors there noted a 40 percent decline in the number of human Campylobacter infections. Repeated studies have concluded that as much as 80 percent of retail supermarket chicken in the United States is contaminated with Campylobacter. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Salmonella-contaminated eggs caused 180,000 cases of sickness in the United States in 2000. E. coli O157:H7 is blamed for 73,000 illnesses in this country each year, including about 2,000 hospitalizations and 60 deaths.

Although thorough cooking and careful handling can minimize your risks, antibiotic resistance raises the stakes when someone gets ill: “One in two human cases of Campylobacter, and one in five cases of Salmonella are now antibiotic-resistant,” says Steve Roach, public health program director for the Food Animal Concerns Trust and a member of the executive committee for the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition. “And when you have antibiotic resistance, you have more complications, more blood infections, more mortality.”

In fact, public health experts are beginning to suspect that a whole host of infections not previously thought of as food-related may ultimately be linked to the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture. Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, for example, traced a multi-state outbreak of urinary tract infections among women in 1999 and 2000 to contamination with a single strain of drug-resistant E. coli found in cows. Dr. Lee Riley, lead author of a paper on the findings published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, cautioned that the findings indicated that “the problem of foodborne disease is much greater in scope than we had ever previously thought.”

And then there’s methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Previously confined largely to hospitals, MRSA is now killing more people in the United States each year than HIV/AIDS. A series of recent studies in Europe have demonstrated a strong causal link between MRSA and intensive pig farming in the Netherlands, Germany and France. Little or no data are available on MRSA in animals in the United States, but the bacterium is widely present on pig farms in Canada, which sells millions of live pigs to the United States annually, so it seems pretty likely it’s in U.S. pig factories, too.

All in all, the CDC reports that 2 million people in the United States now contract an infection each year while in the hospital. Of those, a staggering 90,000 die — a toll higher than that from diabetes. Numbers such as that are prompting some medical investigators to suggest that we may be entering a “post-antibiotic era,” one in which (as a paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2007 put it) “there would be no effective antibiotics available for treating many life-threatening infections in humans.”

Connections such as these aren’t always easy to prove, however, especially for drugs that have already been in widespread use for decades, which is one reason why regulations to reign in the non-therapeutic use of antimicrobials have so far been largely lacking in the United States. The pending approval of an antibiotic called cefquinome to treat respiratory diseases in cattle offered a recent test case. Cefquinome is similar to cefepime, a last-resort antibiotic used to treat serious infections in people. (Both are fourth-generation cephalosporins, one of the small number of new antibiotics developed in recent years.) The FDA’s Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association, recommended against approval, warning that using cefquinome for animals would almost certainly render cefepime less effective for humans. But the FDA has apparently caved to industry pressure, claiming it lacks the authority to deny the drug companies’ request.

The Way Forward

Fortunately, there is a better way. No one wants high-quality food to be unaffordable, but increasingly it appears that as a human species we need to strike a better balance between cheap food and safe food. Sweden and Denmark have led the way over the past two decades in the development of commercial farming methods that minimize antibiotic use. Alternative management strategies include improving animals’ diets, changing weaning practices for pigs, cleaning facilities thoroughly in between groups and being more careful about mixing animals coming from different locations.

Scandinavian producers weren’t necessarily happy when their countries’ ban on non-therapeutic uses of antibiotics was put in place, but they’ve come to realize that they can still run profitable operations without them. Researchers in this country have shown that the same is true here: In 2006, a team at Johns Hopkins used data from poultry giant Perdue to show that the small advantage in weight gain associated with non-therapeutic antibiotic use was canceled out by the cost of the drugs. Organic farmers in many parts of the world have also shown that livestock can be raised profitably and humanely without the use of antibiotics.

“This is not a necessary problem,” says Lance Price, scientific advisor for Johns Hopkins’ Center for a Livable Future. “If you look at all the stakeholders in this equation — you and me, the doctors and hospitals, the producers — everyone but the drug companies can entertain alternatives. The only group that stands to lose from a more responsible use of antibiotics is the drug companies.”

A bill introduced in Congress in 2007, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, was one attempt to address these issues. Sponsored by Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the only microbiologist in Congress, and Senate Health Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the bill would have withdrawn approvals for feed-additive use of seven classes of antibiotics of value to human medicine and required producers of agricultural antibiotics to provide data to public health officials on the usage of the drugs they sell.

The costs associated with continuing industrial farm animal production are enormous. If it’s allowed to continue, industrial production as currently practiced could eventually eliminate a lot of other farming options (in addition to making a lot of us sick). As one Midwestern organic farmer explained to me, it’s simply not possible to raise pigs organically if you live too close to a confinement facility: The pathogen pressure is too intense. “Iowa has become a sink for pig diseases,” he said. They’re just in the air, and you can’t avoid them.


5 Nasty Microbes Linked to Factory Farming

Campylobacter: This is the most common cause of foodborne diarrheal illness in the United States, causing an estimated 2 million cases each year. Most don’t require medical treatment, but a small number (approximately 50 per year) end in death. Chicken and turkey are the usual sources: Studies have shown that most conventional chicken is contaminated when it leaves the processing plant. Rising numbers of Campylobacter infections resistant to a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones led the FDA, in 2000, to seek to ban fluoroquinolone use in U.S. poultry production. The ban was held up in court by drug maker Bayer, but was finally put in place in 2005.

MRSA: Staphylococcus aureus is a bacteria widely present in our environment and usually harmless, but in susceptible individuals it can cause life-threatening infections. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA (pronounced “mir-sah”), used to be primarily a problem in hospitals, but these days, cases of MRSA are increasingly likely to be “community-acquired,” and evidence suggests that factory farms are a source. MRSA can be spread by human or animal carriers with no signs of illness; a recent study found that nearly half of Dutch pig farmers, and 39 percent of pigs in Dutch slaughterhouses, were carriers of MRSA.

Salmonella: This is another bacteria causing frequent and sometimes serious foodborne illness, with an estimated 1.4 million U.S. cases each year, including 18,000 hospitalizations and 600 deaths. Salmonella can contaminate beef, poultry, eggs and even vegetables. Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella is on the rise: One strain, known as DT104, is resistant to five major antibiotics used in humans.

E. coli O157:H7: Most Escherichia coli bacteria are harmless, but a few strains, including the notorious O157:H7, can be deadly. Ground beef is the most common contaminated food source for people, but as the spinach scare of 2006 showed, other foods can also be affected. The toxic strains are linked to conditions in beef feedlots.

Enterococcus: Enterococci are a widespread group of intestinal bacteria that can cause serious infections in other parts of the body. Antibiotic resistance is a major concern with Enterococcus faecium, the strain most commonly associated with illness in people. In Europe, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) is a widespread environmental contaminant, where its emergence has been linked to agricultural use of avoparcin, an antibiotic closely related to vancomycin. In the United States, VRE is more often found in hospitals, and doctors are running out of treatment options: About 4 percent of VRE patients no longer respond to the antibiotic Synercid, a last-defense drug which is unfortunately related to virginiamycin, widely used in U.S. animal agriculture.


What You Can Do

Reduce the amount of meat in your diet. Industrial farm animal production is driven by rising global demand for meat. Healthy protein alternatives include whole grains, beans, nuts and dairy products. Think of meat more as a seasoning (as in soups and stews), not an essential, three-meals-a-day main course.

When you do eat meat, buy from local farmers practicing humane, sustainable methods. Seek out meat and dairy products labeled as “raised without antibiotics,” and tell your local market manager you’d like to see more such products on store shelves.

Contact your Congressional delegation and ask them to support legislation to limit antibiotics in livestock feed, such as the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, introduced to Congress in 2007.

Friday, February 20, 2009

All tangled up | The Intention Experiment

All tangled up

February 20th, 2009 by Lynne McTaggart

The hardest thing to get your mind around with quantum physics is that the smallest units of the universe like electrons or photons aren’t a solid and stable thing, but a potential of any one of its future selves – or what is known by physicists as a ‘superposition’, or sum, of all probabilities. It’s all its possible selves – all at the same time.

At its most elemental, physical matter isn’t solid and stable – indeed, isn’t an anything yet.

Tangled by entanglement
Another strange feature of quantum physics is a feature called ‘non-locality’, also poetically referred to as ‘quantum entanglement’. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr discovered that once subatomic particles such as electrons or photons are in contact, they remain aware of and influenced by each other instantaneously over any distance forever, despite the absence of the usual things that physicists understand are responsible for influence, such as an exchange of force or energy.

When entangled, the actions – for instance, the magnetic orientation – of one will always influence the other in the same or the opposite direction, no matter how far they are separated.

Modern physicists have demonstrated decisively that once two subatomic particles have connected, the measurement of one photon instantaneously affected the position of the second photon. The two photons continued to talk to each other and whatever happened to one was identical to, or very opposite of, what happened to the other. Today, even the most conservative physicists accept non-locality as a strange feature of subatomic reality.

Although modern physicists now accept these effects as a given feature of the quantum world, they console themselves by maintaining that this strange, counter-intuitive property of the subatomic universe does not apply to anything bigger than a photon or an electron or to anything alive. The prevailing view is that quantum effects are only seen in laboratories with non-living systems at temperatures close to absolute zero.
Once things gets to the level of atoms and molecules, to the hot and wet world of the living organism — which in the world of physics is termed ‘macroscopic’ — the universe starts behaving itself again, according to predictable, measurable, Newtonian laws.

At the heart of biology
However, the latest evidence demonstrates that quantum effects like entanglement could be at the very heart of biological processes. A multi-center study carried out by the University of California at Berkeley. Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri and the Institute of Physics of Charles University in the Czech Republic, discovered that quantum processes inside of green sulfur bacteria drives the essential process of converting solar energy into oxygen and food.

The researchers tracked the workings of the protein network connecting the external solar collectors, or chlorosomes, to energy centers inside each cell by hitting these proteins with ultrafast laser pulses and following the trail of the light through the cell structure and into its reaction centers, where the conversion of light into oxygen and carbohydrates takes place.

To the amazement of the researchers, the light traveled in several directions at once – much as an electron does when travelling undetected in its superposition state. The researchers believe that this energy in a sense ‘tries out’ various pathways before finally choosing the most efficient.

This stunning finding suggests that the most basic and fundamental of all biological processes, responsible for most of life on earth in the form of oxygen supply and food source, is driven by a quantum process.

Quantum green tea
Another study by a group from the Autonomous University of Barcelona discovered that the antioxidant effects of green tea, which counteract the effects of free radicals, have to do with an effect in which, electrons in a molecule somehow are able to jump over and adhere to a second molecule, even though the laws of classical physics says that electrons are bound together too tightly ever to do such a thing.

This phenomenon of jumping ship from one molecule to the next is known as ‘quantum tunneling’. The Spanish researchers have discovered that electrons from the antioxidants, called catechins, in the tea engage in a mopping up exercise of free radicals, which produce an extra electron. The catechin electrons are able to tunnel to a free radical electron, binding it up and preventing it from damaging cells in the body.

In fact, entanglement is now easy to achieve in large ‘macroscopic’ systems in the lab. Physicist Vlatko Vedral of the University of Leeds, working with a team from Portugal and Austria, was able to show that photons from a laser can be entangled with the crystal lattice of a mirror and that this relationship would persist at high temperatures.

Tied up in the Canaries
In several flamboyant gestures, the famous Austrian quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger and his team have most recently entangled a pair of photons between two islands in the Canaries separated by 144 km metres of sea. Zeilinger and his co-workers have also transferred money securely between an Austrian Bank and Vienna City Hall using pairs of entangled photons produced by a laser and distributed via optical fibers. They even showed that non-local links could be established in space by bouncing laser pulses off a satellite to a receiving station on Earth.

The implications of these discoveries are staggering. They suggest that scientists must drastically modify their understanding of reality, particularly biological reality.

By accepting these quantum effects as a natural facet of nature we are acknowledging that two of the bedrocks on which our world view rests are wrong: that influence only occurs over time and distance, and that particles, and indeed the things that are made up of particles, only exist independently of each other.

They suggest that we have to ask ourselves a very fundamental question, perhaps the most fundamental of all: does anything exist before we perform a measurement on it? Or to put that another way, if quantum entities, which are so impossible to define before measurements are taken, drive all our basic life processes, does anything exist as an actual something independently of us?
Suddenly the idea that thoughts can affect the physical world doesn’t seem so strange.

Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence? -- Davis 44 (1): 15 -- HortScience

Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence? -- Davis 44 (1): 15 -- HortScience: "Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence?
Donald R. Davis1,2,3

Biochemical Institute, The University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712; and Bio-Communications Research Institute, 3100 North Hillside Avenue, Wichita, KS 67219

Three kinds of evidence point toward declines of some nutrients in fruits and vegetables available in the United States and the United Kingdom: 1) early studies of fertilization found inverse relationships between crop yield and mineral concentrations—the widely cited 'dilution effect'; 2) three recent studies of historical food composition data found apparent median declines of 5% to 40% or more in some minerals in groups of vegetables and perhaps fruits; one study also evaluated vitamins and protein with similar results; and 3) recent side-by-side plantings of low- and high-yield cultivars of broccoli and grains found consistently negative correlations between yield and concentrations of minerals and protein, a newly recognized genetic dilution effect. Studies of historical food composition data are inherently limited, but the other methods can focus on single crops of any kind,"

What Are NutriCircles?

What Are NutriCircles?: "NutriCircles were developed at the University of Texas, Austin by Donald R. Davis in collaboration with Roger J. Williams for his book, The Wonderful World Within You (1977, 1998). They show the nutritional quality of foods in a diagram that is far easier to grasp than a long list of numbers. They illustrate how Nature helps us get the nutrients we need, if we cooperate with her in our food choices. Similarly, they help us understand the value of limiting certain man-made foods that unfortunately dominate most Western diets.

NutriCircles are bar graphs bent into a circle so that the bars are like the petals on a flower. Each bar represents one nutrient in a food, and its length shows the amount of that nutrient. The amounts are expressed in amounts per calorie (known as nutrient density). This method shows the basic quality of a food, which does not depend on serving size."

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Chakra Chart: Chakras versus Endocrine Glands | Bright Eyes

Chakra Chart: Chakras versus Endocrine Glands

Here is an incredible chakra chart with endocrine glands shown along:

Chakra Chart

As you can see in it, chakras are shown to have very close proximity with the hormonal glands responsible for secreting hormones so essential to keep the vital body functions running in a smooth way keeping the two bright eyes intact on our face!

These are the associations:

  • The root chakra and the testes responsible for producing sperm (spermatozoa) male sex hormones including testosterone in the male body
  • The sacral chakra and the ovaries responsible for producing ovum in the female body
  • The solar plexus chakra and the pancreas plus adrenal glands responsible for producing insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin plus adrenaline respectively.
  • The heart chakra and the thymus gland responsible for producing T cell repertoire
  • The throat chakra and the thyroid gland responsible for producing thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3)
  • The third eye chakra and the pineal gland responsible for producing melatonin
  • The crown chakra and the pituitary gland responsible for producing oxytocin, antidiuretic hormone and melanocyte-stimulating hormone

We shall be able to draw important inferences from these associations in our posts to come.

Chakras and the Body Mind Interface:
What's a Chakra?

Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel, or vortex, and it refers to each of the seven energy centers of which our consciousness, our energy system, is composed.

These chakras, or energy centers, function as pumps or valves, regulating the flow of energy through our energy system. The functioning of the chakras reflects decisions we make concerning how we choose to respond to conditions in our life. We open and close these valves when we decide what to think, and what to feel, and through which perceptual filter we choose to experience the world around us.

The chakras are not physical. They are aspects of consciousness in the same way that the auras are aspects of consciousness. The chakras are more dense than the auras, but not as dense as the physical body. They interact with the physical body through two major vehicles, the endocrine system and the nervous system. Each of the seven chakras is associated with one of the seven endocrine glands, and also with a group of nerves called a plexus. Thus, each chakra can be associated with particular parts of the body and particular functions within the body controlled by that plexus or that endocrine gland associated with that chakra.

All of your senses, all of your perceptions, all of your possible states of awareness, everything it is possible for you to experience, can be divided into seven categories. Each category can be associated with a particular chakra. Thus, the chakras represent not only particular parts of your physical body, but also particular parts of your consciousness.

When you feel tension in your consciousness, you feel it in the chakra associated with that part of your consciousness experiencing the stress, and in the parts of the physical body associated with that chakra. Where you feel the stress depends upon why you feel the stress. The tension in the chakra is detected by the nerves of the plexus associated with that chakra, and transmitted to the parts of the body controlled by that plexus. When the tension continues over a period of time, or to a particular level of intensity, the person creates a symptom on the physical level.

The symptom speaks a language that reflects the idea that we each create our reality, and the metaphoric significance of the symptom becomes apparent when the symptom is described from that point of view. Thus, rather than saying, "I can't see," the person would describe it as keeping themselves from seeing something. "I can't walk," means the person has been keeping themselves from walking away from a situation in which they are unhappy. And so on.

The symptom served to communicate to the person through their body what they had been doing to themselves in their consciousness. When the person changes something about their way of being, getting the message communicated by the symptom, the symptom has no further reason for being, and it can be released, according to whatever the person allows themselves to believe is possible.

We believe everything is possible.

We believe that anything can be healed. It's just a question of how to do it.

Understanding the chakras allows you to understand the relationship between your consciousness and your body, and to thus see your body as a map of your consciousness. It gives you a better understanding of yourself and those around you.

What else is there?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Closing the Achievement Gap

"Dr. Donna Elam, a senior research associate at the University of South Florida and Barth presented the report of the study.

In their findings, Barth stated that there are diverse and deeply rooted reasons for the gap in test scores and graduation rates between white students and African Americans and Latino students, as well as between middle class and low-income students. Elam stressed that a multitude of problems exist in the education system because teachers lack cultural competence."

Project ELECT
Donna Elam, Ed.D.

Scientists stop the ageing process

Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says.

Published in today's online edition of * Nature
Medicine*<http://www.nature. com/nm>,
researchers at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine<http://www.aecom. yu.edu/>at Yeshiva
University <http://www.yu. edu/> in New York City also say the older organs
function as well as they did when the host animal was younger.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ's cells.

As people age their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein resulting in a build-up of toxic material that is especially pronounced in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative disorders.

The researchers say the findings suggest that therapies for boosting protein clearance might help stave off some of the declines in function that accompanies old age.

In experiments, livers in genetically modified mice 22 to 26 months old, the equivalent of octogenarians in human years, cleaned blood as efficiently as those in animals a quarter their age.

By contrast, the livers of normal mice in a control group began to fail.

The benefits of restoring the cleaning mechanisms found inside all cells could extend far beyond a single organ, says Cuervo.

"Our findings are particularly relevant for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, " she says. 'Misbehaving proteins'

"Many of these diseases are due to 'misbehaving' or damaged proteins that accumulate in neurons. By preventing this decline in protein clearance, we may be able to keep these people free of symptoms for a longer time."

If the body's ability to dispose of cell debris within the cell were enhanced across a wider range of tissues, she says, it could extend life as well.

In healthy organisms, a surveillance system inside cells called chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) locates, digests and destroys damaged proteins.

Specialised molecules, the "chaperones" , ferry the harmful material to membrane-bound sacs of enzymes within the cells known as lysosomes.

Once the cargo has been "docked", a receptor molecule transfers the protein into the sac, where it is rapidly digested.

With age, these receptors stop working as well, resulting in a dangerous build-up of faulty proteins that has been linked, in the liver, to insulin resistance as well as the inability to metabolise sugar, fats or alcohol.

The same breakdown of the cell's cleaning machinery can also impair the liver's ability to remove the toxic build-up of drugs at a stage in life when medication is often part of daily diet.

In genetically modified mice, Cuervo compensated for the loss of the receptors in the animals by adding extra copies.

"That was enough to maintain a clean liver and to prove that if you keep your cells clean they work better," she says. Settles debate

The study goes a long way towards settling a sharp debate in the field of ageing research.

Leading Australian ageing researcher David le Couteur, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney <http://www.usyd. edu.au/>, says the paper is a major breakthrough.

"She has single-handedly shown that lysosome function is a crucial part of the ageing process," he says.

Cuervo has also shown, he says, the critical role the lysosomal receptor molecules play in keeping the liver clean of damaged proteins.

While her paper does not show increased survival rates among the mice, le Couteur, who has advised her recently on the research, says Cuervo does have data on improved survival rates which she intends to publish.

He also says she is now working with pharmaceutical companies to identify drugs that will turn the receptors on, or make them more active.

Cuervo believes maintaining efficient protein clearance may improve longevity and function in all the body's tissues.

It is also possible that the same kind of "cellular clearance" can be achieved through diet, she says.

Research over the past decade has shown that restricted calorie intake in animals, including mammals, significantly enhances longevity.

"My ideal intervention in the future would be a better diet rather than a pill," she says.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Fw: What's Your Love Type? Take the Test

The Four Love Personalities
Helen Fisher, PhD
Rutgers University
W hen your spouse does things that mystify you or drive you crazy, you probably wish he/she would behave more reasonably. Yet your partner may not be "programmed" to behave any other way.

My research suggests that each of us has a "love personality" -- how we are naturally inclined to behave with a romantic partner -- that may depend on the particular chemicals dominant in one's brain. This research comes from my analysis of existing genetic and pharmaceutical studies, as well as from my work as chief scientific adviser to the Internet dating site Chemistry.com. I devised a series of questions to establish to what degree we express specific chemicals in the brain and collected data on 28,000 men and women.

I determined that love personalities can be divided into four main types, based on which brain chemicals -- serotonin, dopamine, estrogen and testosterone -- are predominant. Some people show characteristics of one type... others are a combination. The four types...


BUILDERS

Serotonin promotes orderly, cautious behavior and respect for authority. More than the other three types, Builders enjoy planning far ahead. They are literal and predictable, fastidious about their possessions, conscientious and dutiful. They tolerate routine well.

What the Builder brings to a relationship: Builders are good at forming strong networks and run businesses and households with great efficiency. A Builder will never keep you waiting, forget to fill the gas tank or write down the wrong flight departure time.

Sources of stress: Builders are stubborn -- if you helpfully suggest to a Builder a better way to mop the floor, you may find yourself in an argument. Builders can be moralistic and overly rule-bound. They are suspicious of new experiences and ideas -- in fact, they will be quick to point out all the reasons why an idea might not work.

Sex and fidelity: Builders are most likely to be attracted to other Builders. They are serious when they court. Sex may become routine, but Builders like routines, and two Builders will rarely fight about their life in the bedroom. Highly loyal, Builders are unlikely even to consider divorce.

Living with a Builder: Let the Builder do things his way, even if you're convinced there is a better way. If you crave more adventure than the Builder, map out a new experience beforehand so that it doesn't look like a risk... or let the Builder plan the details.


EXPLORERS

High dopamine activity is associated with curiosity, spontaneity, risk-taking, novelty-seeking, irreverence, mental flexibility and optimism.

What the Explorer brings to a relationship: Explorers are enthusiastic and full of energy. Charming and creative, Explorers don't like to be told what to do -- they chafe at rules, plans and schedules. They can be extravagant gift givers.

Sources of stress: The Explorer's impulsiveness can grate on someone who would like to know what time to be ready for dinner or who prefers to buy theater tickets in advance. An Explorer doesn't like repetitive tasks, so you shouldn't depend on an Explorer to take out the garbage every night.

Sex and fidelity: Explorers tend to be attracted to other Explorers, and they make exciting sex partners. Instead of discussing the deep meaning of a relationship, an Explorer would rather make love or go out together for a good time. Big fights may be followed by passionate lovemaking. It is important to have adventures with an Explorer, lest he decide to find someone else to share his experiences with.

Living with an Explorer: Don't try to keep an Explorer from doing what interests him. Instead of imposing rules, find parameters that the Explorer can live with.

Example: A Builder husband and Explorer wife had repeated showdowns over the Explorer's chronic lateness. They finally agreed that the Explorer would call her husband when she was running late... and that the Builder would go ahead with plans instead of waiting for his wife, who would join him later.


NEGOTIATORS

Men, as well as women, can have high estrogen activity in the brain, promoting connection-seeking.

What the Negotiator brings to a relationship: Negotiators are highly verbal, agreeable and good at reading people. They are skilled at coming up with the right thing to say to make others feel valued. Negotiators have rich imaginations and think holistically -- they see creative and unusual connections between disparate pieces of information. They are flexible and willing to change their minds.

Sources of stress: The ability to see many sides of an issue can make it difficult for Negotiators to reach decisions. They are so imaginative about possibilities that they may create constant anxiety for themselves. Because Negotiators want everyone to be happy, they don't always say clearly what they need or mean, leading to confusion and misunderstanding.

Sex and fidelity: Negotiators tend to be most attracted to Directors (see below). The Negotiator needs the Director's logic, forthrightness and decisiveness to get things done.

Negotiators seek deep intimacy with their partners -- they want a soul mate -- so they will be patient, forgiving and compassionate. But if a Negotiator feels that he won't ever "reach" you to share an intimate life together, he may eventually turn elsewhere for the romance he craves.

Living with a Negotiator: Recognize that what sounds to you like endless processing is a way for the Negotiator to address the needs of everyone involved. Don't rush the Negotiator's decision. Trust that once he has examined all the angles, the solution will make a lot of people happy, including you.


DIRECTORS

Both women and men can have high testosterone activity in the brain, leading them to be competitive, straight-forward, logical and pragmatic.

What the Director brings to a relationship: You don't have to second-guess Directors -- they say what they mean without nuance. Because of their ambition and competitiveness, they are dedicated to their work and typically well-paid. Directors like to focus very deeply on a few subjects and learn everything about them.

Sources of stress: Directors can alienate people with their bluntness, coming across as dictatorial and aloof. They get impatient when others are not as focused as they are or don't immediately grasp their ideas. They have a hard time leaving work behind -- at the beach, the Director is the one checking e-mail.

Sex and fidelity: Directors are most likely to be attracted to Negotiators. The Director relies on the Negotiator's people skills. Sex is a genuine form of intimacy for them. They tend to be loyal, but if they cannot get the physical connectedness they need, they will seek it elsewhere.

Living with a Director: Don't give a Director hints or make gentle requests -- the message will not get through. Instead of "Would you have time to... " say, "I need you to do this by Friday." During disagreements, appeal to logic ("This would be more efficient") rather than emotion ("This makes me frustrated").

To get Directors to relax outside work hours, encourage activities that are absorbing, challenging or competitive enough to distract them, such as joining a tennis league or a book club.


E-mail this Article

Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Helen Fisher, PhD, research professor of anthropology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and chief scientific adviser to the online dating site Chemistry.com. She is author of four books on human sexual and social behavior, including, most recently, Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love (Holt). She is working on a fifth book about why we fall in love with one person rather than another. www.helenfisher.com

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Fw: Brain or Mind Meditation?

In the spring of 1979 a 26 year old student at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom walked into the university doctor's office with complaints of a cold.

The doctor on staff noticed that the student, who held a first-class honors degree in mathematics, was rather normal except he had a slightly larger than average head. Curious, the doctor sent the student to James Lorber who was part of a world-leading spinal surgery team at Sheffield Children's Hospital.

What Dr. Lorber found was almost unbelievable!

The student, with a reported IQ of 126 had no signs of any mental deficiency. Yet, when Dr. Lorber X-rayed the student's head he discovered he had almost no brain tissue to speak of. His head was filled with fluid. What little brain matter he had was crushed against his spinal cord, a measly few millimeters thick rather than the typical CENTI-meters.

This condition is called hydrocephalus. It results when cerebral fluid expands and fills the brain causing the cortex to be squashed against the inside of the skull.

There have been many other reported cases where normal functioning people have been found to have virtually no brain matter.

In this particular case Lorber calculated the man's entire brain weighed about 100 grams compared to the average adult brain weighing 1500 grams. 100 grams is little more than the average weight of a dog's brain and this from an honors student in mathematics!

Let's pause and think about this for a moment. How many dogs do you know who have an honors degree in mathematics? Can't think of any? Neither can I. How was the student capable of functioning on the level that he was?

Lorber asked himself a similar question and it begged him to wonder whether the brain was even necessary at all. In 1980 the journal Science headlined with the discovery and the rest is history.

The history lesson may go back farther than you think. To ancient spiritual yogi's.

Many scientists have been quietly but steadily growing in suggesting the brain is more of a receiver than the total warehouse storing our consciousness. This leads to another unusual question. If the brain is a receiver what is sending the signals?

The answer is one we have been hearing from mystics for thousands of years.

You are not flesh. You are an energy being using a physical body to interpret and explore this reality.
By reflecting on that knowledge you have been given power because now you can work to affect your energy body. If you are not aware of it how can you help it?

Like your physical body, your energy body needs food. Albert Einstein said that energy can never be destroyed; only transformed. If you learn to absorb energy you will begin to awaken and strengthen your energy mind.

So, the question is when you meditate, reflect, make decisions… which 'mind' are you going to use to do these tasks? The slow, organic brain or the energy mind?

Well, listen to this next session for some answers…

www.dimensionalconsciousness.com/foundation2

Good Journeys,
Higher Balance

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Caroline Casey's Coyote Network News

Caroline Casey's Coyote Network News:

David Blume January 29, 2009 Show
Download : mp3 Streaming mp3 : Listen
Alcohol Can Be a Gas!

Caroline welcomes long-time permaculture bio-fuels teacher activist genie, David Blume, Executive Director of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture, dispelling objections with gleeful informed ingenuity, David opens the door for us all to go through into an ingenious and witty democratic community future (composting corporate tyranny as a bi-product)."

Friday, January 30, 2009

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury - washingtonpost.com

Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury - washingtonpost.com: "MONDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies"

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Presidential Climate Action Plan — PCAP

The Presidential Climate Action Plan — PCAP: "Climate Action by Topic


arrow icon Economic Policy
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arrow icon Zero Carbon Buildings
arrow icon Transportation & Mobility
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arrow icon State & Local Action
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Brian Swimme - The Universe Is A Green Dragon

According to Brian Swimme, we are at a point in human history where we recognize that humans are a geological force on the planet, and that what we decide as a species will determine whether we fade away, or emerge into a more integrated and mutually beneficial relationship with the planet.

Brian Swimme - The Universe Is A Green Dragon: "We are the self-reflexion of the universe. The universe is aware of itself through self- reflexive mind, which unfurls in the human. We allow the universe to know and feel itself. The creative work of the supernovas existed for billions of years without self-reflexive awareness. That star could not, by itself, become aware of its own beauty or sacrifice. But the star can, through us, reflect back on itself. In a sense, you are the star. Look at your hand - do you claim it as your own? Every element was forged in temperatures a million times hotter than molten rock, each atom fashioned in the blazing heat of the star. Your eyes, your brain, your bones, all of you is composed of the star's creations. You are that star, brought into a form of life that enables life to reflect on itself."

Monday, January 19, 2009

Preventing Alzheimer's

*Preventing Alzheimer's Disease with B3 *

Alzheimer's disease is becoming a modern day epidemic. Today, it affects roughly 26 million people worldwide. But by the year 2050, this number is expected to quadruple!

What has changed in the human experience over the last hundred years to make a 'new' disease like Alzheimer's spiral out of control? Is it faulty genes? Is it evolution? Is it bad Karma?

There's no simple answer, but drug makers have certainly tried their best to create a miracle drug that will cure this baffling disease. Unfortunately, the three major drugs on the market today don't offer much hope to families with loved ones suffering through 'the long goodbye.'

Thankfully, you don't have to wait for some miracle drug that will probably never appear. I'm convinced, now more than ever, that…

*Alzheimer's disease is directly related to our modern diet.*

While some genetic predisposition cannot be ignored, there are things you can do to counteract the effects of the modern diet and prevent this epidemic from ever crossing your doorstep. Here are a few proactive steps you can take right now to protect yourself:

*STEP #1: CUT OUT THE ALUMINUM*
In several studies since the 1980s, scientists have found a link between aluminum and Alzheimer's disease. It seems that aluminum builds up in our system over time and can contribute to the formation of plagues and tangles in the brain, two of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

In my opinion, you should avoid any kind of product containing aluminum.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it sounds. Aluminum is found in cooking utensils, antiperspirants, snack bags, baking powder, buffered aspirin, antacids, toothpaste, tap water, and—of course—soda cans.

If a senior is already showing signs of Alzheimer's, I would recommend getting a hair test. If the results come back high in aluminum, one detox remedy worth trying is homeopathic Ipecac. Take it at 6x the normal strength.

For the rest of us, stay away from aluminum personal care and consumable products. Avoid using antiperspirants. Check the ingredients in your toothpaste. And ban the soda cans from your house!

*STEP #2: TAKE YOUR VITAMINS, ESPECIALLY VITAMIN B*
Besides following a super-smart diet (rich in fruits and vegetables; low in refined sugar and flour; no processed foods or additives; organic meats only), adequate vitamin intake can give you added protection against Alzheimer's disease.

Start by choosing a high quality multivitamin. You also may want to consider adding a vitamin B complex to your regimen. In most cases, 25 mg of vitamin B is enough. (The B complex includes 8 different water-soluble vitamins that must get replenished daily.)

But if you're really concerned about Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests it may be essential to up your intake of B3.

*Common vitamin B3 prevents memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's*

B3 is a powerful vitamin. In my experience, I've seen great success in treating arthritis with B3.

Plus, a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed that vitamin B3 supplements boosted the cognitive function of mice with Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at the University of California at Irvine added nicotinamide (a form of vitamin B3) to the drinking water given to mice with Alzheimer's disease. They discovered that B3 lowered levels of a harmful protein that leads to the development of tangles, one of two brain lesions associated with Alzheimer's disease.

The vitamin also helped to keep neurons alive that carry information to the brain. In Alzheimer's patients, these neurons typically die and the patient experiences cognitive decline.

Scientists tested the rodents' short-term and long-term memory over time using mazes and object-recognition tasks. Following the B3 treatments, the Alzheimer's mice performed as well as normal mice on these tests. Untreated Alzheimer's mice experienced memory loss.

*Interestingly (though not surprisingly to us nutritionists) , normal mice not afflicted with Alzheimer's got a mental boost from the B3.*

According to Professor Frank LaFerla, a scientist for the study: "…Not only is it good for Alzheimer's disease, but if normal people take it, some aspects of their memory might improve."

Dr. LaFerla is right on target. But, once again—like most lab scientists—he's a little late coming to the party. Nutritionists have been talking about the B3-memory link for literally decades.

Pioneering nutritionists Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., talked about vitamin B's role in preventing Alzheimer's in the 1950s! Imagine if we as a culture had started taking his advice back then!

If you are going to add B3 to your regimen—and you should—be sure to consult first with your doctor for proper dosages. Too much of certain forms of B-3 can cause nausea and vomiting in sensitive individuals.

*STEP 3: DRINK MORE WATER*
In addition to upping B3, Dr. Hoffer taught us that drinking more water is a vital step in fighting Alzheimer's disease. It will help your body naturally flush away any unwanted aluminum and other toxins.

But all water isn't created equal.

Always strive to drink filtered water only. If you install a water purifier to filter your drinking water, make sure it's the highest quality possible. The best filters should remove nearly all the aluminum and fluoride.

If you must drink bottled water, look for natural spring water with the most milligrams (mg) of magnesium in it. This will indicate the water comes from a deep source in the ground. I obviously don't work for a water company, but I've found that Evian™ Spring Water is the purest. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most expensive.

Drinking plenty of water is sure to help flush toxins from any senior's system, but it's probably not enough. That leads me to STEP 4.

*STEP 4: DETOXIFY WITH VITAMIN C*
One simple way to start cleansing your system is to take more vitamin C. We all need more of it, and this is a gentle solution for seniors at risk for Alzheimer's.

Immediately start taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C (in capsule form) at least two times a day. This will help your body flush out toxins and repair any cell damage that's already occurred.

*So why isn't vitamin B, water, and a healthy diet prescribed for people with or at risk for Alzheimer's? *

One clear reason is the lack of knowledge. Most folks I talk to don't really know the facts about how to prevent diseases like Alzheimer's with good nutrition. Instead, they're duped into buying the garbage that Big Pharma puts out there. If it's on TV or in a magazine with a big glossy ad and the FDA approves the drug, it's got to work, right?

Wrong.

The top three Alzheimer's drugs on the market haven't been proven to slow the progression of this disease one iota. Not one iota!

In fact, one independent study in the UK showed that patients taking the drug Aricept had virtually the same timeline for decline as patients taking a placebo (43% taking Aricept ended up in an institution after 3 years, versus 44% taking the placebo).

I still scratch my head as to why doctors continue to prescribe those drugs. The better option is to prevent the disease altogether and take your health into your own hands.

As a final note, there's a new human clinical trial underway studying the effect of B3 for Alzheimer's patients at UC Irvine. If you or a family member is interested in learning more, call Beatriz Yanez at 949-824-5733 or visit http://www.uci.edu/uci/features/feature_nicotinamide_081104.php

http://www1.youreletters.com/t/1588880/30567224/1596257/0/

The Elements of Ageing and its Reversal

"Is it fair to say or assume that the body ages as negative thought patterns accumulate in the emotional body and the subtle body?"
Yes, but that is only a part of it.

As you know, genetics play a role because you inherit not only emotional aspects from your ancestors but you also inherit some of their patterns. It is that aspect that's contained in what science calls your "junk" DNA and they don't understand that yet, but there's more to genetics than the physical properties, so to speak - the colour of the hair, the eyes, the stature, the emotional makeup, longevity. That's understood by science. What is not understood by science are the things that a child inherits that have to do with the emotional aspects of past life history. So that plays a role in ageing. Those negative thoughts that you currently use, which of course, can be influenced genetically and the negative attitudes, belief systems, the mores from the years that your ancestors lived. You carry that also. Those aspects don't always show up in the younger years. They show up later.

Then nutrition plays a role? Exercise.
Very important - the attitudes of self-worth.
Love yourself - it's that simple. If you don't love yourself you will age faster.
The heart must sing. The soul must laugh. There must be joy.

If the heart is shut off to others, you age quicker. If you don't understand love and you feel unloved, you age quicker. If you feel you are cursed in some manner by another human being, you age faster and you wither.

And so, there are many aspects of ageing. And also, if you have a belief system that humanity is destined to age according to the number of years that you have lived, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. These are all aspects of ageing. And there is also the time that you carry these attitudes with you where it starts to involve other systems.

Reversing the ageing process

So to reverse ageing you can go through all of this clearing that you are talking about (karmic patterns from this life and past lives, belief systems, patterns within the DNA , etc), but the first step is to heal organs and you don't see those. All of the organs must be healed first so that the systems can perform at peak performance. The Peak. They can't be compromised in any way. Digestion, elimination, assimilation. These are all affecting organs that must be healed first.
So, even though you are clearing attitudes, past life trauma, if you start on this, say, in your '50s, you haven't started doing this until they have been in place for a very long time. You spoke about Atlantis. They did this every 5 years (at the Temple Beauty ) and so their clearing took place before it affected the organs. And once the organs are affected, it takes much longer in clearing.
"How long will it take for the organs to heal and in what timeframe would we expect to see visible change?"

All of those prerequisites that I've discussed take a lot of work. A person has to be very diligent in completing these things. If you are taking the proper nutrition, clear water, elimination, mental attitude and we're not talking about a disease here, but simply the outer results of ageing. It depends on how intensive a program is that one follows. If these systems are worked upon - and this is without a healer, because intervention by a healer would quicken the process, of course - it might take several years for a person to heal the organs. With the intervention of a healer, it could take a month or two. Healers will show that kind of results in a body because they are bringing down energies that the individual who is not working with a healer has a very difficult time to accomplish for themselves. So when two people work together in the healing process, the organs can be healed faster. Now if you have worked closely with a healer and the organs are healed at optimum, 2-3 months - that is optimum.

That means all the things that we've talked about have to be of the highest priority and besides water, the air quality is important also.

So another factor sits here and that is the toxins that have been accumulating in the body and that would be the toxins and also the amount of plaque that is in the veins. So we would add to that to clear the veins of the plaque, to clear the body of the toxins, to clear the colon - all of those things must be cleared before the youth and vitality return. And so you see, this really is an 'if' answer. Because it is based upon so many components and if all these are dealt with as a high priority of clearing and you worked with a healer, it might only take 3-4 months.

But to work to the point where the reversal of ageing process is noticed – but that's working at the optimum - you can see how intertwined the system is when it has been allowed to go on for many years. If you are only working with a 5 year period like in Atlantis, it would be much easier to clear this.

You see, what ageing is as far as organs are concerned is a loss of cells. They're not replicating like they should. And that means the entire organ now has to carry procedures that were meant for many other cells. So there has to be a rejuvenation of cells. And this takes time.
You're looking at least 9-12 months before you can start to demonstrate any kind of change in the outward appearance because that is one of the last places that reversal of ageing actually is demonstrated. But it can be done.

But you have to apply yourself in all these other areas. Greens are extremely important and if you are not eating enough quality greens, then drink your greens in a powdered form. Greens will heal in ways that you cannot understand because, even though there is a lot of talk of proteins, the human body was designed to exist on greens and fruits, with some nuts. So even though humanity is, as you've been talking about, 200,000 years old, the digestive system and the assimilation system really hasn't changed that much. But what humanity is eating has changed dramatically. In essence, the physical was designed to eat raw food. Raw fruits. Raw greens. Raw nuts. Berries.

And what is being consumed is animal fats, which clog up a lot of the systems, so it would be important to look at the amount of fats that are consumed - except for vegetable fats. An avocado has fat in it but that is a vegetable fat. And it is alkaline. And if you ate the ideal diet, the body would be alkaline. And it is the acetic body that is causing the toxins.

If the body isn't alkaline, even if you're working on clearing the toxins, the toxins still increase.
Jeshua

Jeshua through Carolyn Evers, carolyn@metatronminutes.net
Carolyn Evers, PO Box 1314 , Blackburn North, VIC 3130 Australia

Behavior Affected by Eating Toxin from GE Corn

Bee Learning Behavior Affected by Eating Toxin from GE Corn

* Bioscience Resource Project, December 2008

Concerns over bees, especially the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) have rarely been higher. Although there are few hard data there is a general consensus that both solitary and social bee populations are declining and that recently the still-mysterious colony collapse disorder (CCD) has dramatically worsened this situation. No definitive cause for CCD has yet been established but there is widespread agreement that CCD is caused by more than one factor (Calderone, 2008 ; Oldroyd, 2007).

One of the speculated contributors to this decline is transgenic crops and specifically those containing Bt proteins since these are insect-active toxins to which bees are exposed through various routes. In particular, bee larvae are exposed since they consume large quantities of pollen which they sometimes source from maize plants (Sabugosa-Madeira et al. 2007). Up to now however there has been no specific evidence that any Bt toxin has negative effects on bees, but equally such studies have been rare. Particularly lacking are studies on sub-lethal effects of Bt toxins on bees.

In the view of many, there is clear evidence from laboratory settings that Bt toxins can affect non-target organisms. Usually, but not always, affected organisms are closely related to intended targets (reviewed in Lovei and Arpaia 2005 and Hilbeck and Schmidt 2006). Typically, exposure is through the consumption of plant parts such as pollen or plant debris or through Bt ingested by their predatory food choices. Nevertheless, due to significant data gaps, the real-world consequences of Bt transgenics remains unclear.

Thus the lepidopteran-active Cry1Ab is, not unexpectedly, toxic to some butterflies (e.g. Losey et al 1999 and Lang and Vojtech 2006) while more distantly-related organisms affected by Cry1Ab are ladybird larvae, caddisflies and Daphnia Magna (Rosi-Marshall et al 2007; Bøhn et al 2008; Schmidt et al 2008). Other variants of Bt, such as Cry3Bb, are considered coleopteran-active but have been the subject of less research. Nevertheless, these may also affect non-target coleopterans such as ladybird larvae as well as more distantly related organisms such as lacewings (Hilbeck and Schmidt 2006; Schmidt et al 2008).

A recent paper adds to the non-target story by demonstrating that honey bees fed on the active form of purified Cry1Ab protein can be affected in the learning responses necessary to associate nectar sources with odourants (Ramirez-Romero et al 2008). This learning response is important in bee foraging behaviour and it has attracted the attention of CCD researchers since it is known to be inhibited by the insecticide imidacloprid (e.g. Decourtye et al 2004). In this latest study bees consuming artificial nectar containing 5000ppb of Cry1Ab continued to respond positively to a learned odour even in the absence of a food reward, while normal bee behaviour is to become discouraged and seek more abundant food sources.

Left unstudied by the authors however was the likely mode of action of this behavioural effect. This is of considerable interest since the principal means of Bt lethality, which is thought to be a receptor-mediated effect on gut integrity, fails to explain the observed behavioural modification. The new finding is therefore particularly interesting since it lends weight to a previous suggestion that Bt toxins may have other, non-lethal effects which become apparent only when the normal (i.e. lethal) effect is absent (Hilbeck and Schmidt 2006; Schmidt et al. 2008). If there were to be multiple modes of Bt action then many more non-target organisms would likely be at risk from Bt transgenics.

The authors propose that bees are unlikely to be exposed to the quantity of Cry1Ab that led to the defects in behaviour they observed. However, this conclusion seems premature since Bt concentrations in plants are highly variable (Lorch and Then 2007). It is also probable that in real situations bees may be exposed earlier in their development and over longer periods. Bt Researcher Angelika Hilbeck believes that experiments simulating real-world bee experiences are still lacking. "What really needs to be looked at are combinations of both the Bt toxin AND imidacloprid and not Bt toxin OR imidacloprid, and in a form that simulates the exposure routes in the field".

References

Bøhn T., Primicerio R., Hessen D.O., Traavik T. (2008) Reduced Fitness of Daphnia magna Fed a Bt-Transgenic Maize Variety. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 55:584-92

Decourtye A.; Armengaud C., Renouc M.; Devillers J.; Cluzeau S.; Gauthier M. and Pham-Delègue M-H. (2004) Imidacloprid impairs memory and brain metabolism in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 78: 83-92

Hilbeck A. and Schmidt J.E.U. (2006) Another View on Bt Proteins – How Specific are They and What Else Might They Do? Biopestic. Int. 2: 1-50

Lang A. and Vojtech E. (2006) The effects of pollen consumption of transgenic Bt maize on the common swallowtail, Papilio machaon L. (Lepidoptera, Papilioni). Basic and Applied Ecology 7: 296-306

Lövei G.L. and Arpaia S. (2005) The impact of transgenic plants on natural enemies: a critical review of laboratory studies. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 114: 1-14

Lorch A. and Then C. (2007) How much Bt toxin do MON810 plants actually Produce? www.greenpeace.de/fileadmin/gpd/user_upload/themen/gentec...

Losey J.E. Rayor L.S.; and Carter M.E. (1999)Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae Nature 399: 214

Oldroyd B. (2007) What's Killing American Honey Bees? PLoS Biol 5(6)

Ramirez-Romero R.; Desneux N.; Decourtye A.; Chaffiol A.; Pham-Delègue M.H. (2008)Does Cry1Ab protein affect learning performances of the honey bee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera, Apidae)? Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 70:327-33

Rosi-Marshall, E.J.; J. L. Tank; T. V. Royer; M. R. Whiles; M. Evans-White; C. Chambers; N. A. Griffiths; J. Pokelsek and M. L. Stephen (2007) Toxins in transgenic crop byproducts may affect headwater stream ecosystems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 16204–16208

Sabugosa-Madeira B.; Abreu I.; Ribeiro H. and Cunha M. (2007) Bt transgenic maize pollen and the silent poisoning of the hive Journal of Apicultural Research 46: 57-58

Schmidt J.E.; Braun C.U.; Whitehouse L.P.; Hilbeck A. Effects of Activated Bt Transgene Products (Cry1Ab, Cry3Bb) on Immature Stages of the Ladybird Adalia bipunctata in Laboratory Ecotoxicity Testing. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 2008 Aug 20

from: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16249.cfm