Sharing the type of news you are unlikely to come across in the mainstream media.
Tuesday 31 May 2011
Monday 30 May 2011
Dairy farmers fight radiation with boron
By Britton & Shekinah
May 10, 2011
An open letter from organic dairy farmers in Hawaii shows how to reduce radiation in milk and veggies.
“Boron is widely recognized as extremely safe and can be used to capture radioactivity on our soils, gardens, orchards, etc. It also can be safely ingested by humans and animals. Boron will accept radiation and ionize it within our bodies,after which our bodies will safely excrement the boron and radioactivity.”
Dear Milk Share Members,
Our goal to offer high quality safe food to our community has recently been challenged in the reality of the radioactivity being released into our environment. In the past weeks radioactive levels have increased in Hawaii, with high spikes and a more current leveling off of radiation levels. Milk from the large dairies in Hamakua and Hawi has shown elevated levels of radiation, from 400 to 2400 times the recognized safe levels.
Why is milk contamination significant in the world of agriculture? Because milk represents the overall condition of the entire food chain, since cows consume grass and are exposed to the same elements as crops. So, when milk tests positive for radiation, it indicates the entire food chain is contaminated since cows eat grass. When grass is contaminated everything grown in the same soil is contaminated.
This has proposed a serious concern to us farmers, with us asking what can we do? After much consideration, research, and conversations with much appreciated experts in the field of biological farming and human & animal health, we have found some things which we are able to do to protect our soil, animals, and bodies.
Aside from the much recognized supplement potassium iodine as a protection against radioactive iodine, there are a number of ways we can help. We have remembered our friend, elemental boron and the position it plays on the earth. Boron is the only mineral capable of accepting and ionizing radiation that never changes the innards or the nucleus of the cell. Spoken simply, boron can take radiation and release it without upsetting its own very delicate balance.
Boron is used extensively in the nuclear industry. Sodium borate is regularly used for standby liquid control systems, in case of emergencies. It was used in Cheronbyl in 1986 mixed with sand to prevent further radiation leakage. It was also used in 1999 in Tokaimura, Japan, to absorb the massive amounts of radiation after an accident at a plant. Currently it is being dumped on fuel rods and in surrounding waters of the Fukushima plant. Boron is widely recognized as extremely safe and can be used to capture radioactivity on our soils, gardens, orchards, etc. It also can be safely ingested by humans and animals. Boron will accept radiation and ionize it within our bodies, after which our bodies will safely excrement the boron and radioactivity.
We have begun feeding our cows and goats sodium borate at milking times, as well as adding it to free choice kelp and water troughs. In the past years we have monitored boron and other minerals in the soil and have added as necessary to bring levels up to recognized healthy levels. As a safety measure we are planning to implement a boron dosage to all of our pastures, as well as neighboring pastures. For humans, boron can safely ingested at a dosage of 4-10 mg per day. Borax, 11% boron, can be used as a tea and sprayed on your gardens, or land surrounding your home, at a rate of 10# of Borax per acre, 1#, if using elemental boron. Borax can also be ingested at 1/8 tsp to 1 litre water for women, ¼ tsp to 1 litre water for men. Fortunately, red wine and coffee are significant sources of boron, as well as non-citrus fruits, red grapes, plums, pears, apples, avocados, legumes and nuts! Boron is known to be non-carcinogenic, non-mutagenic and has been used internally to protect the astronauts in space as they leave the earth’s protective magnetic field.
Other things we can do to protect our bodies are to consume zeolites, use potassium iodine, receive plenty of glutathione, the best source of which is whey!, eat plenty of supergreens, such as kale, but including chlorella and spirulina, maintain healthy mineral levels, and eat lots of good healthy fats, including raw butter, and coconuts, which offer a fantastic layer of protection for our cells. Baking soda has been known to diminish the severity of change produced by uranium to the kidneys, which are the first to show radiation damages of uranium. Dosage is 1 tsp to 8 oz water for adults and ¼ tsp in 4 oz water for children.
According to Cheryl McCoy, Aboutclay.com, Calcium Bentonite Clay acts as a magnet absorbing anything with a positive charge, i.e. radiation and toxicity.
She suggests washing all produce which may be considered radioactivein 1 part clay to 8 parts water in a non-metallic bowl, soaking for 10 minutes, then rinse and dry as usual.
Bentonite clay can be added to catchment tanks, drinking water or raw milk to isolate radioactivity, which will not be released once captured by clay. Also, the body cannot digest clay, but will rather release clay through excrement.
Clay can be added to milk or drinking water at a dosage of 1 oz liquid calcium bentonite to 1 gallon raw milk or drinking water.
Either allow to settle and pour off or mix and consume clay and liquid. 1-2 oz liquid bentonite clay can be safely consumed per day by an adult, with significant detox abilities.
In these tenuous times it is all we can do to be honestly informed of the situation at hand and act accordingly. We are doing our best to protect our soil, animals and bodies from the elevated levels of radioactivity, and hope that you will also. Our prayers and blessings are with the farmers and families closer to the source of radioactive pollution. We send them our love and hopes for a green, safe future for all on this earth.
Blessings,
Britton & Shekinah
Milk and Honey Farm
Pahoa, Big Island Hawaii
Magnesium and radiation protection
It is in a list of medicinals that prevent and treat
cancer that we find helpful substances that treat
and strengthen us against radiation contamination.
“In the years leading up to Chernobyl, some dairy farmers in Austria were using remineralization as a part of their operations. They added rock dust to liquid manure as well as combining it with compost, thereby removing odors and greatly increasing soil biota. As a result, cows had twice the normal lifespan and produced much more milk. Amazingly enough, after Chernobyl, the cheeses that were remineralized (as well as biodynamic cheeses) measured no radioactivity whatsoever. Austrians would stand in long lines in order to buy these safe, remineralized products,” writes Joanna Campe.
Iodine is obviously not the only substance that we should run to in the face of increasing radiation threats. Magnesium is a vital mineral whose lack leaves us open to not only radioactive damages but also those from heavy metals and thousands of chemicals,which we are commonly exposed to. Mercury and now a long list of radioactive particles are floating in the environment like invisible clouds that have spread out everywhere. They are raining down on us, damaging and damning our future. We can no longer be passive about building our defenses against the toxic onslaught.
Without sufficient magnesium, the body accumulates toxins
and acid residues, degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely.
Just about everyone who is writing protocols for radiation toxicity is forgetting about the importance of magnesium salts. Worse still are governments and the entire institution of medicine that are purposely ignorant about magnesium, so they cannot possibly be trusted for valuable health and medical information that will help us in our time of dire need. The need was dire before Fukushima but they did not want to admit that; they let the public get obsessed with CO2 emissions and said nothing about the mercury. Now with radioactive nuclides steadily building up in the background, we are in trouble than any of us care to admit. Today the situation has gone nuclear and there has never before been a need so great for detoxification and chelation.
Magnesium is a crucial factor in the natural self-cleansing and detoxification responses of the body. Magnesium is also necessary for effective chelation. It stimulates the sodium potassium pump on the cell wall and this initiates the cleansing process in part because the sodium-potassium-ATPase pump regulates intracellular and extracellular potassium levels. The healthy cell wall favors intake of nutrients and elimination of waste products.
The involvement of free radicals in tissue injury induced by magnesium deficiency [1]causes an accumulation of oxidative products in heart, liver, kidney, skeletal muscle tissues and in red blood cells, [2] leaving them more vulnerable to oxidative stress caused by radiation exposure. Both radiation exposure and heavy metals produce oxidative stress through the creation of increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS—oxygen free radicals, peroxides, and singlet oxygen). It is known that these increased levels of intracellular ROS are sufficient to trigger apoptosis (cell death).
Glutathione is Magnesium-Dependent
Glutathione protects the cells from oxidative-stress-induced apoptosis and glutathione levels are magnesium dependent! “Glutathione is a very important detoxifying agent, enabling the body to get rid of undesirable toxins and pollutants. It forms a soluble compound with the toxin that can then be excreted through the urine or the gut. The liver and kidneys contain high levels of glutathione as they have the greatest exposure to toxins. The lungs are also rich in glutathione partly for the same reason. Many cancer-producing chemicals, heavy metals, drug metabolites etc. are disposed of in this way,” says Dr. Patricia Kongshavn, former professor, department of medicine at McGill University.
Glutathione (glū'tə-thī'ōn') is a polypeptide,
C10H17N3O6S, of glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid.
Glutathione synthetase requires γ-glutamyl cysteine, glycine, ATP, and magnesium ions to form glutathione.[3] In magnesium deficiency, the ss y-glutamyltranspeptidase is lowered.[4] There is a direct relationship between cellular magnesium, GSH/GSSG ratios, and tissue glucose metabolism.[5] Magnesium deficiency causes glutathione loss and this is unwelcome as the clouds of radiation are touching down across the northern hemisphere. Magnesium deficiency causes glutathione loss, which is not at all healthy because glutathione helps to defend the body against damage from cigarette smoking, exposure to radiation, cancer chemotherapy, and toxins such as alcohol and just about everything else.
According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, low magnesium is associated with dramatic increases in free radical generation as well as glutathione depletion and this is vital since glutathione is one of the few antioxidant molecules known to neutralize mercury.[6] “For every molecule of pesticide that your body detoxifies, you throw away or use up forever a molecule of glutathione, magnesium and more,” says Dr. Sherry Rogers who goes on to say that, “Your body uses nutrients to make this glutathione and it uses up energy as well. Every time we detoxify a chemical, we use up, lose, throw away forever, a certain amount of nutrients.”
Mineral Deficiencies
Deficiencies in basic minerals like magnesium and selenium can make all the difference between health and disease, between being able to withstand chemical, heavy metal and radiation exposure. Dr. Rogers has indicated that there is as much as a 500-fold difference in the ability of individuals to detoxify the same chemicals and much of that will be true for radiation as well. A key marker of this difference is each individual’s magnesium level. Deficiencies in magnesium will wreak havoc with our body’s ability to detoxify and chelate heavy radioactive particles and explains much of the difference between one person withstanding radiation exposures and another person falling to radiation sickness.
Dr. Leslie Fisher has treated in excess of 35,000 patients where mineral therapy was prescribed as the sole form of medication. He has conducted research within his own clinics and the Department of Psychiatry, Austin Hospital, Melbourne. Mineral therapy is the foundation upon which chelation[7] treatments and protocols are built. Magnesium does protect cells from aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium and nickel, which explains why re-mineralization is so essential for heavy metal detoxification and chelation as well as radiation protection. Magnesium is essential for the survival of our cells but takes on further importance now where our bodies are being bombarded on a daily basis with heavy metals and radiation.
Radiation and Diabetes
No one is going to convince the public that the increasing radiation will have a general effect on our health that can be easily traced back to the source. Even before we get cancer from radiation we have a general down-spiraling of body functions because of all the oxidative stress. In my book, New Paradigms in Diabetes, I write extensively about the direct relationship between magnesium deficiency and the onset of diabetes.
Pancreatic beta cells are sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS) [8] attack when they are exposed to oxidative stress,[9] because of the relatively low expression of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and glutathione peroxidase.[10] Diabetes is typically accompanied by increased production of free radicals and/or impaired antioxidant defense capabilities, indicating a central contribution of reactive oxygen species. It is also a fact that ROS is one of the major factors that induce oxidative modification of DNA and gene mutation.[11]
The Chernobyl incident was a major disaster of humanity, which has resulted in a plethora of health problems that are still far from being fully recognized. Most studies analyzing the medical consequences of this catastrophe have so far focused on diseases such as thyroid cancer, leukemia, immune and autoimmune pathology[12],[13] even though an increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus, a disorder involving the immune system, was observed within the residential population of Hiroshima among survivors of the atom bomb detonation.[14] Studies have also shown that thymectomy and a sub-lethal dose of gamma radiation induces type 1 diabetes in rats.[15]
Researchers at the Pediatric Hospital A. Meyer, Florence, Italy studied this question by assessing the incidence of the disease in children in Gomel, Belarus in the years subsequent to the Chernobyl disaster. The results of the study seem to confirm the hypothesis that environmental pollution such as that subsequent to the Chernobyl accident can cause diabetes.[16]
Mass screening for diabetes mellitus has been conducted on 64,000-113,000 atomic bomb survivors residing in Hiroshima City since 1961. From 1971 to 1992 a 2.7-fold increase in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus was observed in males and a 3.2-fold increase in females.[17]
We have a significant and documented increase in the incidence of
type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents after Chernobyl in
the radioactively contaminated area of Gomel compared to Minsk.
Heinrich Heine University
When beginning to build a protocol against the radiation and heavy metal onslaught, we need to stick with the basics and they are magnesium, iodine, sodium bicarbonate, vitamin C, selenium, clay, THC (cannabis), as well as a natural chelator and superfoods. Properly filtered water also is essential. There is always more we can do but even affording these basics is a challenge to many.
Special Note: One of my readers wrote saying, “Thank you for the labor of love you've given to the inhabitants of the world. All the information about magnesium, iodine, baking soda, etc. is priceless and very much appreciated. I know we can't thank you enough for your generosity with the knowledge you've accumulated from all of your research. I know you've had your detractors--ignore them!” These basic medicines are not only the mainstay of emergency rooms and intensive care wards but are the backbone of a my new form of medicine called Natural Allopathic Medicine, which makes sense in the age of toxicity that we all have live in.
Dr. Mark Allan Sircus, Ac., OMD, DM (P)
Director International Medical Veritas Association
Doctor of Oriental and Pastoral Medicine
To read the references, please follow the link:
Dying to have known - The Gerson Therapy
Related post:
Interview with Charlotte Gerson
http://notsoconventionalnews.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-charlotte-gerson.html
Saturday 28 May 2011
Here2Grow - Water emergency in Sierra Leone
Every minute, 21 children under the age of 5 die, mainly from preventable causes, due to lack of access to clean water and sanitation.
(Source: UNICEF Millenium Development Goals).
Here2Grow
Our mission is to:
- Create awareness on the global water crisis in Africa.
- Generate funds for water testing, purification and developing clean water solutions benefiting communities in Africa.
- Organise fundraising events including, after-dinner speeches, music concerts and workshops.
- Empower local communities in Africa, so that they have access to clean water and sanitation.
- Reduce infant and child mortality deaths in Africa by ensuring access to clean water.
- Build strong relations with our donors and give regular feedback on the impact of their donations.
Make a long term impact in peoples lives by donating.
Your donations will be used to provide water filtration devices to children and their communities in Freetown, Sierra Leone, who are in desperate need for clean water. Water borne diseases like Malaria, E. Coli, Diarrhea, Cholera are still rampant in the country and lead to infant and maternal deaths.
We will give you updates on what your donations have achieved, so you can be sure that your assistance has had maximum impact.
Why do we need to test water?
Before you can purify water you must analyse it and confirm what it is contaminated with i.e. each country and region in Africa has different types and levels of water contamination. This helps us to determine the type of water purification system that will perform best under the specific conditions.
Why do we need to purify water?
In several developing countries, communities obtain their water for cooking, drinking and washing from unsafe water sources. Even when the water looks clear it can contain a string of water born diseases such as, diarrhoea, malaria and E.coli. Further contamination can come from chemicals such as, arsenic and heavy metals. These contaminants lead to serious illnesses or even death, especially in infants and can have long-term negative health effects. So it is important to ensure that these impurities are removed from the water before consumption.
To contact Here2grow, send an email to: brw@ah2gr.org
By post:
L'Association Here2Grow
17 Rue Du Presbytere
06560 Valbonne
France
Or visit their website at: http://www.ah2gr.org/
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Cancer now leading cause of death in China
By Janet Larsen
Earth Policy Institute
http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update96
Cancer is now the leading cause of death in China. Chinese Ministry of Health data implicate cancer in close to a quarter of all deaths countrywide. As is common with many countries as they industrialize, the usual plagues of poverty -- infectious diseases and high infant mortality -- have given way to diseases more often associated with affluence, such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
While this might be expected in China's richer cities, where bicycles are fast being traded in for cars and meat consumption is climbing, it also holds true in rural areas. In fact, reports from the countryside reveal a dangerous epidemic of "cancer villages" linked to pollution from some of the very industries propelling China's explosive economy. By pursuing economic growth above all else, China is sacrificing the health of its people, ultimately risking future prosperity.
Lung cancer is the most common cancer in China. Deaths from this typically fatal disease have shot up nearly fivefold since the 1970s. In China's rapidly growing cities, like Shanghai and Beijing, where particulates in the air are often four times higher than in New York City, nearly 30 percent of cancer deaths are from lung cancer. (See data at www.earth-policy.org.)
Dirty air is associated with not only a number of cancers, but also heart disease, stroke, and respiratory disease, which together account for over 80 percent of deaths countrywide. According to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the burning of coal is responsible for 70 percent of the emissions of soot that clouds out the sun in so much of China; 85 percent of sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain and smog; and 67 percent of nitrogen oxide, a precursor to harmful ground level ozone. Coal burning is also a major emitter of carcinogens and mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Coal ash, which contains radioactive material and heavy metals, including chromium, arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury, is China's number one source of solid industrial waste. The toxic ash that is not otherwise used in infrastructure or manufacturing is stored in impoundments, where it can be caught by air currents or leach contaminants into the groundwater.
Coal pollution combined with emissions from China's burgeoning industries and the exhaust of a fast-growing national vehicle fleet are plenty enough to impair breathing and jeopardize health. But that does not stop over half the men in China from smoking tobacco. Smoking is far less common among women; less than 3 percent light up. Still, about 1 in 10 of the estimated 1 million Chinese who die from smoking-related diseases each year are exposed to carcinogenic second hand smoke but do not smoke themselves.
In rural areas, liver, lung, and stomach cancers each accounts for close to 20 percent of cancer mortality. Liver cancer is more than three times as likely to kill a Chinese farmer as the average global citizen; for stomach cancer, rural Chinese have double the world death rate. These cancers are linked to water polluted by chemicals and sewage, along with other environmental contaminants.
As factories, plants, and mines discharge pollutants, rivers and lakes take on sickly hues. Even underground water sources become contaminated. Government data indicate that half of China's rivers and more than three out of every four lakes and reservoirs are too polluted for safe drinking, even after treatment. Nevertheless, they remain a primary source of water for many people.
More than 450 "cancer villages" have emerged across China in recent years, according to an analysis by geographer Lee Liu published in Environment magazine in 2010. These communities -- where an unusually high number of residents are struck by the same types of cancer -- tend to cluster in poorer areas along polluted waterways or downstream from industrial parks. Whereas much of China's early industrial development took place along the coast, factories more recently have been locating where labor is cheaper and environmental oversight is less strict, pushing the so-called "cancer belt" inland.
For villages once largely self-sufficient, the poisoning of their water and soil is devastating. The young and able-bodied often leave to seek income elsewhere. Those too old, too poor, or too sick to leave remain, struggling to work the poisoned land.
Liu notes that in some extreme cases, like in Huangmengying Village in Henan Province, "the death rate is higher than the birth rate and is rising rapidly," and not because of population aging. In this particular village, which gets blackened water from a tributary of the notoriously polluted Huai River, some 80 percent of the village's young people are chronically ill. Even one-year-olds are receiving cancer diagnoses. About half of all the village deaths between 1994 and 2004 were caused by liver, rectum, and stomach cancers. More recent data is not readily available because the government official who initially made the numbers public was accused of "leaking state secrets," was fired from his job as the village's Party secretary, and now is reluctant to speak out, according to reporting for the Global Times.
Because of the lag time before diagnosis or death, plus the lack of health care in many of the poorest, most polluted areas, the magnitude of China's cancer epidemic could be far greater than imagined. And not all the environmental burden is borne locally. The contamination spans geography -- as toxins in products and crops are spread through markets and trade or are literally carried across oceans by global air currents -- as well as generations.
China's youth, and therefore the country's future, are at risk. Birth defect rates have been climbing rapidly in recent years in the major cities and countrywide. Chinese family planning officials link this "alarming rise" to environmental contamination. The coal mining and processing areas of Shanxi Province are home to the world's highest birth defect rate: over 8.4 percent. Of the 1 million or so affected babies born each year in China, some 20 to 30 percent may be treated, but 40 percent will have permanent disabilities. The rest die shortly after birth.
Over the last several years, thousands of children living near lead mines, smelters, and battery plants have been poisoned. Deadly at excessive levels, lead in the blood is considered unsafe in any amount. Exposure can impair cognitive and nervous system development, stunt growth, hamper learning, and depress IQ. Heartbreaking news stories tell of the lost potential of children who lose their chance to go on to school or fail to thrive more generally due to their exposure to high environmental levels of lead.
For a country of one child families, it is no wonder to see more frequent "mass incidents" (the government's term for protests) sparked by the health fallout from pollution. In some cases, operations of the offending industries have been closed following protest; in others, the government has relocated entire communities to allow the polluters to continue operations. Yet in many situations, the contamination continues unabated.
It is easy to point a finger at unscrupulous industries and government officials willing to look the other way, but some responsibility for China's unhealthy environment originates outside the country's borders. Waste is frequently loaded up in container ships overseas and delivered directly to China. More insidiously, Western consumers lapping up artificially cheap "made in China" components and products have outsourced pollution to this factory for the world.
Earlier this year near the release of China's latest 5-year plan, the New York Times quoted Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's proclamation that "We must not any longer sacrifice the environment for the sake of rapid growth and reckless roll-outs." Yet while official rhetoric recognizes the importance of preserving the environment and the health of its people, the Chinese government still has a long way to go in bolstering transparency and enforcement of even the existing environmental regulations, not to mention strengthening protection. If it does not do so, the country's toxic burden threatens to stall or even reverse the dramatic health gains of the last 60 years, which raised average life expectancy from 45 to 74 years and slashed infant mortality from 122 deaths per 1,000 births down to 20. Economic gains could be lost as productivity wanes and massive health bills come due. Ultimately, a sick country can prosper only so long.
| Leading Causes of Death in Urban and Rural China, 2009 | ||
| | | |
| | Urban | Rural |
| | Deaths Per 100,000 | |
| | | |
| Malignant Tumor | 167.6 | 159.1 |
| Heart Diseases | 128.8 | 112.9 |
| Cerebrovascular Disease | 126.3 | 152.1 |
| Diseases of the Respiratory System | 65.4 | 98.2 |
| External Causes of Injury and Poison | 34.7 | 54.1 |
| Endocrine, Nutritional & Metabolic Diseases | 20.3 | 11.3 |
| Diseases of the Digestive System | 16.6 | 14.6 |
| Other Diseases | 10.7 | 7.7 |
| Diseases of the Genitourinary System | 7.3 | 7.2 |
| Diseases of the Nervous System | 6.9 | 5.1 |
| Infectious Disease (not including Respiratory Tuberculosis) | 4.4 | 5.0 |
| Undiagnosed Diseases | 4.1 | 2.8 |
| Mental Disorders | 3.6 | 3.1 |
| Congenital Malformations, Deformations and Chromosomal Abnormalities | 2.3 | 2.2 |
| Respiratory Tuberculosis | 1.9 | 2.3 |
| Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue | 1.8 | 1.3 |
| Diseases of the Blood and Blood-forming Organs and Immunodeficiency | 1.6 | 1.0 |
| Perinatal Diseases | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| Parasitic Disease | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Puerperium | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| | | |
| Source: Earth Policy Institute from National Bureau of Statistics of China | ||
Feel free to pass this information along to friends, family members, and colleagues!
Monday 23 May 2011
SSRIs "miss" up to 13 symptoms of depression
By WC Douglass MD
What do you call an antidepressant that leaves you sad? If you're in the drug industry, you call that "effective."
After all, you didn't kill yourself (not yet, anyway) -- and that's what passes for success these days.
A new analysis of data from the STAR*D trial finds that people who take SSRI antidepressants cope with at least three, often five, and up to 13 lingering symptoms of depression -- even while the drug is supposedly working.
The most common symptoms included insomnia (79 percent of patients), sadness (71 percent), concentration problems (70 percent), low energy (63 percent), and an even more severe form of insomnia (60 percent).
But the researchers behind this one are glass-half-full kinda guys -- they say the good news here is that the drugs worked "overall," and that suicidal thoughts were rare.
Hooray!
"Some people fear that antidepressant medication increases thoughts of suicide," study author Dr. Shawn McClintock said in a news release. "This provided counterevidence of that."
Call me Oscar the Grouch if you will, but I can't help but focus on the rest of the data in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology -- like the 75 percent of volunteers who had FIVE or more lingering symptoms of depression even after taking these meds... or the two-thirds of patients who took SSRIs and didn't go into remission.
That level of "success" is right in line with placebos, which often get a 30 percent response rate or more in depression trials.
Heck, at least half of all depressed people respond to nothing more than a little time -- it's a condition that usually goes away on its own, no drugs, therapy, or herbal remedies necessary.
If you do want to pop a pill, stick to something that really is proven to work and won't leave you sad and tired -- like St. John's wort. In a 2005 study, this ancient herbal remedy had a 50 percent remission rate in just six weeks, while paroxetine (aka Paxil) had the usual drug/placebo response: just 35 percent.
If time and St. John's wort won't do the trick, don't head for the pharmacy -- head for the butcher.
Many people -- especially vegans -- suffer depression and other mood-related issues when they're not getting enough of the vitamin B12 found in meats.
I don't know about you, but just the smell of steak on the grill is enough to lift my mood.
Libya: it's not about oil, it's about currency and loans
By John Perkins
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- World Bank President Robert Zoellick Thursday said he hopes the institution will have a role rebuilding Libya as it emerges from current unrest.
Zoellick at a panel discussion noted the bank’s early role in the reconstruction of France, Japan and other nations after World War II.
“Reconstruction now means (Ivory Coast), it means southern Sudan, it means Liberia, it means Sri Lanka, I hope it will mean Libya,” Zoellick said.
On Ivory Coast, Zoellick said he hoped that within “a couple weeks” the bank would move forward with “some hundred millions of dollars of emergency support.”( By Jeffrey Sparshott, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES –full article here – http://tinyurl.com/3hj8yyp .)
We listen to U.S. spokespeople try to explain why we’re suddenly now entangled in another Middle East war. Many of us find ourselves questioning the official justifications. We are aware that the true causes of our engagement are rarely discussed in the media or by our government.
While many of the rationalizations describe resources, especially oil, as the reasons why we should be in that country, there are also an increasing number of dissenting voices. For the most part, these revolve around Libya’s financial relationship with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and multinational corporations.
According to the IMF, Libya’s Central Bank is 100% state owned. The IMF estimates that the bank has nearly 144 tons of gold in its vaults. It is significant that in the months running up to the UN resolution that allowed the US and its allies to send troops into Libya, Muammar al-Qaddafi was openly advocating the creation of a new currency that would rival the dollar and the euro. In fact, he called upon African and Muslim nations to join an alliance that would make this new currency, the gold dinar, their primary form of money and foreign exchange. They would sell oil and other resources to the US and the rest of the world only for gold dinars.
The US, the other G-8 countries, the World Bank, IMF, BIS, and multinational corporations do not look kindly on leaders who threaten their dominance over world currency markets or who appear to be moving away from the international banking system that favors the corporatocracy. Saddam Hussein had advocated policies similar to those expressed by Qaddafi shortly before the US sent troops into Iraq.
In my talks, I often find it necessary to remind audiences of a point that seems obvious to me but is misunderstood by so many: that the World Bank is not really a world bank at all; it is, rather a U. S. bank. Ditto, its closest sibling, the IMF. In fact, if one looks at the World Bank and IMF executive boards and the votes each member of the board has, one sees that the United States controls about 16 percent of the votes in the World Bank – (Compared with Japan at about 7%, the second largest member, China at 4.5%, Germany with 4.00%, and the United Kingdom and France with about 3.8% each), nearly 17% of the IMFvotes (Compared with Japan and Germany at about 6% and UK and France at nearly 5%), and the US holds veto power over all major decisions. Furthermore, the United States President appoints the World Bank President.
So, we might ask ourselves: What happens when a “rogue” country threatens to bring the banking system that benefits the corporatocracy to its knees? What happens to an “empire” when it can no longer effectively be overtly imperialistic?
One definition of “Empire” (per my book The Secret History of the American Empire) states that an empire is a nation that dominates other nations by imposing its own currency on the lands under its control. The empire maintains a large standing military that is ready to protect the currency and the entire economic system that depends on it through extreme violence, if necessary. The ancient Romans did this. So did the Spanish and the British during their days of empire-building. Now, the US or, more to the point, the corporatocracy, is doing it and is determined to punish any individual who tries to stop them. Qaddafi is but the latest example.
Understanding the war against Quaddafi as a war in defense of empire is another step in the direction of helping us ask ourselves whether we want to continue along this path of empire-building. Or do we instead want to honor the democratic principles we are taught to believe are the foundations of our country?
History teaches that empires do not endure; they collapse or are overthrown. Wars ensue and another empire fills the vacuum. The past sends a compelling message. We must change. We cannot afford to watch history repeat itself.
Let us not allow this empire to collapse and be replaced by another. Instead, let us all vow to create a new consciousness. Let the grass-roots movements in the Middle East – fostered by the young who must live with the future and are fueled through social networks – inspire us to demand that our country, our financial institutions and the corporations that depend on us to buy their goods and services commit themselves to fashioning a world that is sustainable, just, peaceful, and prosperous for all.
We stand at the threshold. It is time for you and me to step across that threshold, to move out of the dark void of brutal exploitation and greed into the light of compassion and cooperation.
John Perkins
Twitter: @economic_hitman
Sunday 22 May 2011
Bolivia set to pass historic "Law of Mother Earth"
By Keph Senett
18 April 2011
With the cooperation of politicians and grassroots organizations, Bolivia is set to pass the Law of Mother Earth, which will grant nature the same rights and protections as humans. The piece of legislation, called la Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, is intended to encourage a radical shift in conservation attitudes and actions, to enforce new control measures on industry, and to reduce environmental destruction.
The law redefines natural resources as blessings and confers the same rights to nature as to human beings, including: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. Perhaps the most controversial point is the right "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".
In late 2005 Bolivia elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Morales is an outspoken champion for environmental protection, petitioning for substantive change within his country and at the United Nations. Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries, has long had to contend with the consequences of destructive industrial practices and climate change, but despite the best efforts of Morales and members of his administration, their concerns have largely been ignored at the UN.
Just last year, in 2010, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca expressed his distress "about the inadequacy of the greenhouse gas reduction commitments made by developed countries in the Copenhagen Accord." His remarks were punctuated by the claim that some experts forecasted a temperature increase "as high as four degrees above pre-industrial levels." "The situation is serious," Choquehuanca asserted. "An increase of temperature of more than one degree above pre-industrial levels would result in the disappearance of our glaciers in the Andes, and the flooding of various islands and coastal zones."
In 2009, directly following the resolution of the General Assembly to designate April 22 "International Mother Earth Day", Morales addressed the press, stating “If we want to safeguard mankind, then we need to safeguard the planet. That is the next major task of the United Nations”. A change to Bolivia's constitution in the same year resulted in an overhaul of the legal system - a shift from which this new law has sprung.
The Law of Mother Earth has as its foundation several of the tenets of indigenous belief, including that human are equal to all other entities. "Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family," Choquehuanca said. "We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values." The legislation will give the government new legal powers to monitor and control industry in the country.
"Existing laws are not strong enough," said Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5m-strong Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (a group that helped draft the law). "It will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional and local levels."
Bolivia will be establishing a Ministry of Mother Earth, but beyond that there are few details about how the legislation will be implemented. What is clear is that Bolivia will have to balance these environmental imperatives against industries - like mining - that contribute to the country's GDP.
Bolivia's successes or failures with implementation may well inform the policies of countries around the world. "It's going to have huge resonance around the world," said Canadian activist Maude Barlow. "It's going to start first with these southern countries trying to protect their land and their people from exploitation, but I think it will be grabbed onto by communities in our countries, for example, fighting the tarsands in Alberta."
Ecuador has enshrined similar aims in its Constitution, and is among the countries that have already shown support for the Bolivian initiative. Other include Nicaragua, Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.
National opposition to the law is not anticipated, as Morales' party - the Movement Towards Socialism - holds a majority in both houses of parliament. On April 20, two days before this year's "International Mother Earth Day", Morales will table a draft treaty with the UN, kicking off the debate with the international community.
Read the entire document (in Spanish) here.
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