Are you Cognitively Impaired or Vitamin Deficient?

By Irene A. Masiello
Certified: Holistic Counselor, Adult Educator & Stress Management Consultant

My book, Paradise Costs, A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, is a chronicle of my father’s deterioration into the abyss of severe cognitive impairment. This was the consequence of Alzheimer’s and resulted in his subsequent abuse and exploitation by neighbors in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Dad’s tragic decline took years. It was heartbreaking to see a robust and vibrant man once captivated by his love for animals and nature become apathetic, depressed and withdrawn.

Writing Paradise Costs took ten years to complete. It was a stressful marathon filled with agonizing memories, requiring intense focus while processing deep sorrow. Most of my time was spent indoors in front of my computer. I’ve attributed some health issues to the stress and, recently, I was diagnosed as a possible diabetic.

Over the course of this past year, I developed severe and crippling pain in my shoulder, rib cage, chest and foot. I felt weak and exhausted all the time no matter how much rest I got. I was unable to concentrate, was unsteady on my feet and unable to make decisions. I felt overwhelmed and anxious over slight matters and somewhat immobilized.

My internist, a wonderful man (and a consultant for Paradise Costs), was looking towards a diagnosis of diabetes, especially, since my Dad was insulin dependent. However, under his supervision, I went on a crash diet and lost over 20 lbs. Fortunately, he diagnosed me as glucose intolerant rather than diabetic.

My glucose numbers were not extremely high. But, rather, they jumped around with great sensitivity to what time I ate, how I slept, the amount of pain I had, stress, etc. The numbers did not follow a pattern and, ultimately, were low enough for my internist to conclude that I needed no medication for diabetes but rather very careful monitoring of carbohydrate and glucose consumption. Exercise was advised but that was tough for me because I was feeling so weak.

Because of a blood issue I have and my hematologist’s orders, I had stopped taking a multi-vitamin years ago. Though I recently asked her again about vitamins, she was adamant. My body is making too many red blood cells and its thought that vitamins would stimulate my bone marrow to produce even more of them.

However, with this new diagnosis of glucose intolerance limiting what I could eat, some vague yet alarming red flags were swirling around my head and I was struggling with them. While somewhat immobilized and beleaguered, I started to wonder if I could be properly nourished since I could not eat fruit, drink a glass of orange juice, have a white potato, etc. How could I consume enough vitamins and minerals to stay healthy now?

I started thinking about the trace minerals I was doing without. I wondered about Vitamin C and my immune system because it seemed that all this pain had started around Christmas last year when I came down with a fever and stayed sick for months. During this time, the symptoms mentioned earlier seemed to be getting worse.

I was struggling to string this together but really, cognitively, I was not sure I was the person I once was. I justified it saying, “Well, none of us are who we used to be.” A couple of my friends seemed to be saying the same things, too, and feeling somewhat like me. More justification came with our saying “we’re all aging.”

Then one friend reported that he had been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. Once a gal pal was diagnosed with the same shortly after, I hit the Internet running. What I saw online horrified me for I was described perfectly in the pages of symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. It explained so much. I called my internist who said, “Most people are D deficient so you probably will be too. We’ll check.”

He was shocked at the result and stated he never saw a vitamin D level so low. The normal range of vitamin D in the blood is 30-74. Mine was NINE! The Net said this level of vitamin D deficiency is dangerous.

Vitamin D deficiency is a contributing factor in diabetes and glucose intolerance. It’s thought to help safe guard us against breast, bladder and colon cancer. Deficiency of vitamin D causes body pain, weakness, cognitive impairment, confusion, brittle bones, exhaustion, more.

Vitamin D’s presence in the blood stream regulates the absorption of calcium (a lack of calcium causes osteoporosis, etc.) in the body and my doctor told me my calcium number was high.

The Net says calcium cannot be absorbed without vitamin D and that any slight deviance from the normal calcium range could change someone’s personality both emotionally and cognitively. It pointed out that magnesium was critical to the absorption of both vitamin D and calcium as well.

After only three and a-half weeks of vitamin D therapy, the pain I wrestled with for months was reduced by about 60%. The confusion and lethargy lifted somewhat, I felt more cognitively aware and I started to return to who I was. My glucose numbers came down, too. Finally, I was well enough to start walking without feeling faint.

On an outing with a childhood friend, I remarked, “Imagine what could have happened to me had I fallen and broken a hip, landed in a nursing home, and lost ability to make cogent decisions for myself all because of a vitamin deficiency.”

It’s too easy to look at the changes in oneself and dismiss them as simple aging. It’s more difficult to stay informed and active in the information loop. As we age, our nutritional needs change and, certainly, anyone who is bedridden or a shut-in needs more careful medical supervision and monitoring.

Your physician’s assistance and support is critical. Doctors know a lot but they don’t know everything and, usually, they’re the first ones to admit it. Certainly, mine did.

Our healthcare system has dramatically reduced the quality of medical care. Doctors spend too much of their very valuable time complying with insurance company mandates and doing paperwork rather than practicing the art and science of medicine which they love and have dedicated their lives to.

We, as patients, must remain pro-active and do our homework in partnering with our doctors. With the state of our health care system in shambles and it failing us all, both doctors and patients need to work together as a team.

Please find an informed advocate to help you navigate the system, if possible, and, remember, nutrition is a science. Please discuss your nutritional needs with your physician and ask him or her about consulting with a nutritionist. Many insurance companies will pay for this care.

Question….do you get 15 minutes of sunlight every single day? If not, please ask your doctor for the blood test as soon as possible for you may be vitamin D deficient.

Irene A. Masiello is the author of Paradise Costs, A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, www.ParadiseCosts.com, afterword by Bennett Blum, MD, www.BennettBlumMD.com, and proprietor of Kayla Grace Designs affordable handmade jewelry especially created for baby-boomers see: www.etsy.com/shop/kaylagracedesigns. PLEASE NOTE: The above article is not a replacement for the care of your licensed healthcare professional. Please consult your physician for all your healthcare needs. © Copyright, June 2011, Irene A. Masiello, All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission of the author. Reach her at irenemasiello@msn.com.

Japan Radiation Coming To The US

By Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

At this point in time, most of us can say “no” to vaccines, genetically modified (GM) food, fluoride, and Big Pharma drugs. But we can’t “just say no” to radiation in the air all around us coming from Japan, and through oceanic contamination resulting from the BP Gulf incident. So, the difficult question is not how do we avoid this contamination, but rather, how we mitigate our exposure.

Let’s face it. We are surrounded by radioactive contaminants in the air, water, soil, and in our food, which is grown outdoors. We cannot control the air, which contaminates the soil, water, and plants. So, if we cannot get away from the problem, then what do we do? We can start by making sure that we have the knowledge to do the right things and collect the right resources to lessen our exposure. The following is a collection of some of the materials and applications that can be used to mitigate radiation exposure.
Personal detoxifying – people and animals

Unless we live in a bubble, our bodies will be contaminated with radioactive particles, so don’t just wait until someone tells you that you have been exposed, do something about it now. There are certain materials that will help detoxify the body without ill effects whether or not you have been exposed to these harmful materials. Some of these are:

•Zeolite Clay
•French Green Clay
•Bentonite Clay
•Baking Soda
•Boron
•Certain foods

Read it all=>> Here

Please Support Alzheimer’s Association

• This year, the first wave of baby boomers are turning 65 – and with increased age comes increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
• Our new report, "Generation Alzheimer's: The Defining Disease of the Baby Boomers," sheds light on a crisis that is no longer emerging – but here.
• Many baby boomers will spend their retirement years either with Alzheimer's or caring for someone who has it.
• An estimated 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's.
• Starting this year, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65. As these baby boomers age, one of out of eight of them will develop Alzheimer’s – a devastating, costly, heartbreaking disease. Increasingly for these baby boomers, it will no longer be their grandparents and parents who have Alzheimer’s – it will be them.
• "Alzheimer’s is a tragic epidemic that has no survivors. Not a single one," said Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association. "It is as much a thief as a killer. Alzheimer’s will darken the long-awaited retirement years of the one out of eight baby boomers who will develop it. Those who will care for these loved ones will witness, day by day, the progressive and relentless realities of this fatal disease. But we can still change that if we act now."
• According to the new Alzheimer’s Association report, "Generation Alzheimer’s," it is expected that 10 million baby boomers will either die with or from Alzheimer’s, the only cause of death among the top 10 in America without a way to prevent, cure or even slow its progression. But, while Alzheimer’s kills, it does so only after taking everything away, slowly stripping an individual’s autonomy and independence. Even beyond the cruel impact Alzheimer’s has on the individuals with the disease, Generation Alzheimer’s also details the negative cascading effects the disease places on millions of caregivers. Caregivers and families go through the agony of losing a loved one twice: first to the ravaging effects of the disease and then, ultimately, to actual death.
• "Most people survive an average of four to six years after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, but many can live as long as 20 years with the disease. As the disease progresses, the person with dementia requires more and more assistance with everyday tasks like bathing, dressing, eating and household activities," said Beth Kallmyer, senior director of Constituent Relations for the Alzheimer’s Association. "This long duration often places increasingly intensive care demands on the nearly 15 million family members and friends who provide unpaid care, and it negatively affects their health, employment, income and financial security."
• In addition to the human toll, over the next 40 years Alzheimer’s will cost the nation $20 trillion, enough to pay off the national debt and still send a $20,000 check to every man, woman and child in America. And while every 69 seconds someone in America develops Alzheimer’s disease today, by 2050 someone will develop the disease every 33 seconds - unless the federal government commits to changing the Alzheimer’s trajectory.
• "Alzheimer’s – with its broad ranging impact on individuals, families, Medicare and Medicaid - has the power to bring the country to its financial knees," said Robert J. Egge, vice president of Public Policy of the Alzheimer’s Association. "But when the federal government has been focused, committed and willing to put the necessary resources to work to confront a disease that poses a real public health threat to the nation – there has been great success. In order to see the day where Alzheimer’s is no longer a death sentence, we need to see that type of commitment with Alzheimer’s."
  
• The full text of the Alzheimer’s Association’s "Generation Alzheimer’s" report can be viewed at www.alz.org/boomers.

The Alzheimer's Association is the world’s leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care, support and research.

Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.

For more information, visit: alz.org.

Detroit SWAT team assaults African American mom who refused to medicate her daughter with antipsychotic drugs

Dees Illustrations

Friday, April 15, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032089_antipsychotic_drugs_health_freedom.html#ixzz1JboOTJzI

The medical police state is alive and well in Detroit today, where Child Protective Services (CPS) called in the police to aid in their kidnapping of a 13-year-old daughter from an African American mother who refused to medicate her with dangerous psychiatric drugs. As this case is clearly showing, refusing to medicate your children with Big Pharma's mind-altering drugs is now being treated as a felony crime. Here are the facts of the case: • Maryanne Godboldo is an African American mother of a teenager daughter. She lives in Detroit.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/swat-attacks-home-school-mom-for-refusing-to-force-med-child.html) • Child Protective Services (CPS) personnel attempted to kidnap Maryanne's 13-year-old daughter. They accused her of not giving her child psychiatric medication prescribed by her doctor. • Maryanne says the medication caused side effects in her daughter and made her condition worse, which is why she refused to give her daughter the medication. • The medication was Risperdal, a neuroleptic antipsychotic medication known for causing serious side effects such as abdominal pain, vomiting, aggression, anxiety, dizziness and lack of coordination (http://www.risperdalsideeffects.com/).

Watch the true video of the shocking side effects of Risperdal here: http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3912681D06A644F74247C989CABDE086 See a complete list of side effects of psychiatric medications from CCHR: http://www.cchr.org/sites/default/files/The_Side_Effects_of_Common_Psychiatric_Drugs.pdf •

When Maryanne refused to let CPS take her daughter away, CPS personnel then called the police, who then smashed down her front door and attempted to raid her home to kidnap her daughter by force.

• The police did NOT have a warrant or any court documents whatsoever granting them any right to enter Maryanne's home, according to Godboldo's attorneys.

• Police say that after they smashed in the front door, Maryanne opened fire on them. (Who wouldn't open fire on a group of armed assailants trying to kidnap their daughter, by the way?)

• A SWAT team was then called in, carrying semiautomatic rifles and sniper gear. A 12-hour standoff ensued.

• Maryanne eventually surrendered to the SWAT team, and the state took her daughter to a psychiatric hospital where she is now being molested by the staff there, her mother says.

• Maryanne Godboldo now faces multiple felony charges: firing a weapon in a dwelling, felonious assault, resisting and obstructing an officer, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

• CPS lied about the child's father's ability to take care of her as a tactic to kidnap her from her mother.

• Community groups in Detroit are now rallying on behalf of the family there, shouting "Free Arianna" (the daughter).

Why Health Freedom is more important now than ever ?

What you are witnessing here with Maryanne Godboldo is the tyranny of the medical police state and the wicked criminality of Child Protective Services workers who are now front-line enforcers of Big Pharma's deadly agenda to drug our children.

Make no mistake: What's happening today is that the state is now breaking down the doors, assaulting, arresting and imprisoning parents who refuse to medicate their children.

This is being accomplished with the use of armed force against innocent victims. This unholy alliance between Big Pharma, CPS and the police has gone too far. It has become the weapon of medication compliance.

When medicine has become so dangerous, so forceful and so utterly harmful to the People that the state must use bullets and guns to force people to take it, you know it's all gone way too far.

It makes you wonder: What kind of system of medicine is so bad that prescriptions have to be enforced at gunpoint? That this is happening is not just an assault on Maryann Godboldo, but an assault on our rights and freedoms as sovereign human beings.

Do we not have the right to say NO to a medication we don't want our children to take? Do we not have the right to protect our children from kidnappers? Do we not have the right to use firearms in the defense and protection of our homes from armed invaders who are conspiring to kidnap our children? The real criminals in this case are the CPS workers.

They should be brought up on attempting kidnapping charges as well as a criminal conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The gun-toting cops who broke into Maryanne's home and attempted to kidnap her daughter should be arrested and brought up on charges of armed robbery, breaking and entering and conspiracy to commit the felony crime of kidnapping. And yet, instead, Maryanne is now facing multiple felony charges while the CPS criminals and cops who raided her home are charged with nothing.

Where is the justice in America today? How did medication become something to be enforced with bullets and SWAT teams? And more importantly, how far will this go before this tyranny ends?

Next, will they just line everybody up against a brick wall, and those who can't produce a receipt for medication get a bullet in their heads? Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032089_antipsychotic_drugs_health_freedom.html#ixzz1JbnPyLsr

Source=>>http://www.naturalnews.com/032089_antipsychotic_drugs_health_freedom.html

Japan radiation detected in at least 15 states and in milk samples in Washington state

by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer (NaturalNews) Radioactive isotopes unique to the Fukushima disaster are now being detected in at least 15 US states, according to recent reports from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/28/radiation.us/index.html). And the Associated Press (AP) has issued a report claiming that milk samples taken in Washington state have tested positive for low levels of the same radioactive component, Iodine-131, raising concerns about the true widespread effects of the Fukushima nuclear fallout (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/30/state/n145310D86.DTL&tsp=1). The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various state and local authorities continue to repeat the same empty reassurances that all detected levels of radiation -- whether they be in air, water, or food -- are far below levels of concern, and that people do not need to worry or do anything in response. But is this sound advice? Earlier in the week, several nuclear facilities in North and South Carolina, as well as in Florida, reportedly detected low levels of Iodine-131 in the air (http://www.naturalnews.com/031881_radiation_Fukushima.html). That same radiation has also been detected across the West Coast, as well as in northeastern states like Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, which clearly indicates that Fukushima radiation has made its way throughout the US, at least in very low levels. But now, reports have been issued claiming that milk samples from Washington state have also turned up contaminated with Iodine-131. The levels were allegedly far lower than the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concern limits for the radioactive particles, but they are not necessarily safe even at the levels being detected. According to the FDA "Radiation Safety" website, the Derived Intervention Level (DIL) for Iodine-131 is 170 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) (http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm247403.htm). A Wall Street Journal report of the milk incident explains that the Washington samples contained only 0.8 picocuries per liter (pCi/l), or 0.03 Bq/kg. That level is clearly far lower than the FDA's DIL for Iodine-131, but is any level of this radiation actually "safe"? And what about the other more serious types of radioactive particles being emitted from Fukushima that authorities appear to not even be looking for? Based on Japanese guidelines for radiation safety, Iodine-131 is the least of our worries. Cesium, uranium, and plutonium all have much lower maximum "concern" thresholds, with plutonium being the most serious. A Bloomberg report explains that just one Bq/kg of plutonium is enough to cause major concern if found in water or milk (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-21/japan-sets-safe-limits-for-consuming-radiation-contaminated-food-table-.html). Are authorities testing for plutonium and the other serious radioactive particles that we know have escaped from the Fukushima plant? The mainstream media has mostly abandoned the Fukushima incident in favor of the newly-instigated war in Libya. And yet reports are still continuing to trickle in -- though mostly without much fanfare -- concerning Japan radiation popping up across the US in air, water, and now food. But all the while, the EPA and others repeatedly dismiss the situation as being no big deal, despite the fact that conditions at Fukushima have basically reached a frightening dead end (http://www.naturalnews.com/031894_Fukushima_meltdown.html). As we keep saying here at NaturalNews, preparedness is key. And preparedness, of course, does not involve panic. It does, however, involve using your critical thinking skills to evaluate the seriousness of the situation, consider the anomalies surrounding the official US government position on it, and take appropriate steps to prepare you and your family for whatever may soon come as a result.

Get yours now , don't procrastinate on this! Ray Fernandez ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nukepills.com" <mhtml:%7B3244E316-74EC-42BD-B841-565B31FE966A%7Dmid://00001329/%21x-usc:mailto:info@nukepills.com> To: <mhtml:%7B3244E316-74EC-42BD-B841-565B31FE966A%7Dmid://00001329/%21x-usc:mailto:Ray@cyberray.com> Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 12:39 PM Subject: online order Dear Raul Fernandez , Thank you for your order on 4/1/2011. Your Order Number is: 16138 To view and print your order please visit this URL: https://www.nukepills.com/shop/ If have you any questions please call us at 1-866-283-3986 M-F 9-5pm EST (excluding holidays). Thank you, Nukepills.com Related:http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=604AB3FA803FF3647DF6E34EC5E8C8A0 http://www.naturalnews.com/ http://www.naturalnews.com/031909_radiation_milk.html

NaturalNews.com printable article

How to build a Bunker on a Budget

Originally published March 30 2011

Talk Doesn't Pay, So Psychiatry Turns To Drugs

Changes in insurance payments are driving the switch from couch to prescriptions.

By Gardiner Harris New York Times

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. Alone with his psychiatrist, the patient confided that his newborn had serious health problems, his distraught wife was screaming at him and he had started drinking again. With his life and second marriage falling apart, the man said he needed help.

But the psychiatrist, Dr. Donald Levin, stopped him and said: "Hold it. I'm not your therapist. I could adjust your medications, but I don't think that's appropriate."

Like many of the nation's 48,000 psychiatrists, Levin, in large part because of changes in how much insurance will pay, no longer provides talk therapy, popularized by Sigmund Freud. Instead, Levin prescribes medication, usually after a brief consultation with patients. So he sent the man away with a referral to a less costly therapist and a personal crisis unexplored and unresolved.

Medicine is rapidly changing in the United States from a cottage industry to one dominated by large hospital groups and corporations, but the new efficiencies can be accompanied by a telling loss of intimacy between doctors and patients. And no specialty has suffered this loss more profoundly than psychiatry.

Levin, 68, first established a private practice in 1972, when talk therapy was in its heyday.

Then, like many psychiatrists, Levin treated 50 to 60 patients in once- or twice-weekly talk-therapy sessions of 45 minutes each. Now, like many of his peers, he treats 1,200 people in mostly 15-minute visits for prescription adjustments that are sometimes months apart. Then, he knew his patients' inner lives better than he knew his wife's; now, he often cannot remember their names. Then, his goal was to help his patients become happy; now, it is just to keep them functional.

Levin has found the transition difficult. He now resists helping patients to manage their lives better. "I had to train myself not to get too interested in their problems," he said, "and not to get sidetracked trying to be a semi-therapist."

Brief consultations have become common in psychiatry, said Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein, a former president of the American Psychiatric Association and the president and chief executive of Sheppard Pratt Health System, Maryland's largest behavioral health system.

"It's a practice that's very reminiscent of primary care," he said. "They check up on people; they pull out the prescription pad; they order tests."

Levin's office, just above Dog Daze Canine Hair Designs in this suburb of Philadelphia, has no couch or daybed; Levin has neither the time nor the space for patients to lie down anymore.

"I miss the mystery and intrigue of psychotherapy," he said. "Now I feel like a good Volkswagen mechanic."

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/06/2114448/talk-doesnt-pay-so-psychiatry.html#ixzz1GIywcAUZ

Enviromental Abuse : A Year Later - People are Dying...

National and State Parks along the Gulf Coast have posted health warnings along the coast [Erika Blumenfeld/AJE]

"I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body," 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. "Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood test results and the nurse said she didn't know how I even got there."

Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010.

"I swam underwater, then found I had orange slick stuff all over me," Aguinaga said. "At that time I had no knowledge of what dispersants were, but within a few hours, we were drained of energy and not feeling good. I've been extremely sick ever since."

BP's oil disaster last summer gushed at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest accidental marine oil spill in history - and the largest environmental disaster in US history. Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons toxic dispersants, including one chemical that has been banned in the UK.

According to chemist Bob Naman, these chemicals create an even more toxic substance when mixed with crude oil. Naman, who works at the Analytical Chemical Testing Lab in Mobile, Alabama, has been carrying out studies to search for the chemical markers of the dispersants BP used to both sink and break up its oil.

Poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from this toxic mix are making people sick, Naman said. PAHs contain compounds that have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic.

"The dispersants are being added to the water and are causing chemical compounds to become water soluble, which is then given off into the air, so it is coming down as rain, in addition to being in the water and beaches of these areas of the Gulf," Naman told Al Jazeera.

"I'm scared of what I'm finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit [dispersants] and generate other cyclic compounds that aren't good. Many have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe."

Aguinaga's health has been in dramatic decline.

"I have terrible chest pain, at times I can’t seem to get enough oxygen, and I'm constantly tired with pains all over my body," Aguinaga explained, "At times I'm pissing blood, vomiting dark brown stuff, and every pore of my body is dispensing water."

And Aguinaga's friend Vallian is now dead.

"After we got back from our vacation in Florida, Merrick went to work for a company contracted by BP to clean up oil in Grand Isle, Louisiana," Aguinaga said of his 33-year-old physically fit friend.

"Aside from some gloves, BP provided no personal protection for them. He worked for them for two weeks and then died on August 23. He had just got his first paycheck, and it was in his wallet, uncashed, when he died."

National health crisis

Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal function, and irritation of the digestive tract. They have also caused lung damage, burning pain in the nose and throat, coughing, pulmonary edema, cancer, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, delayed reaction time and memory difficulties.

Further health problems include stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, hematological disorders, and death. Pathways of exposure to the chemicals are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact.

Al Jazeera has talked with scores of sick people across the Gulf Coast who attribute their illnesses to chemicals from BP's oil disaster.

Paul Doom, 22, from Navarre, Florida, was training in preparation to join the US Marines, until he became extremely ill from swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I stopped swimming in July because I started having severe headaches that wouldn’t go away," Doom told Al Jazeera. "But each time I went to the doctor they dismissed it."

In October, Doom began to have internal bleeding, but this too was dismissed by doctors. In November, when it worsened, he was given pain medications in the Emergency Room and was told it would pass. Less then three weeks after that, Doom collapsed with a seizure.

"Since then, I've had two blood tests for Volatile Organic Compounds [VOC's] which are in BP's oil and dispersants, and they both came back with alarmingly high levels," he said.

Since the onset of his symptoms, Doom has been dealing with ongoing internal bleeding, nose bleeds, bleeding from his ears, blood in his stool, headaches, severe diarrhea, two to five seizures per day, paralysis in his left leg and arm, and failing vision.

"A toxicologist that interpreted my blood VOC results told me they didn't know how I was alive," Doom explained. "My Hexane was off the charts, and I have 2 and 3 Methylpentane, Iso-octane, Ethylbenze, and mp-Xylene."

Wilma Subra, a MacArthur Fellow and chemist in Louisiana, has been testing the blood of BP cleanup workers and residents in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Subra tested Doom's blood and found high amounts of several VOC's.

"Ethylbenzene, mp-Xylene and Hexane are volatile organic chemicals that are present in the BP crude oil," Subra told Al Jazeera. "We're finding these in excess of the 95th percentile, which is the average for the entire nation. Sometimes we're finding amounts 5 to 10 times in excess of the 95th percentile."

Subra explained that there has been long enough exposure so as to create chronic impacts, that include "Liver damage, kidney damage, and damage to the nervous system. So the presence of these chemicals in the blood indicates exposure."

Testing by Subra has also revealed the chemicals are present "in coastal soil sediment, wetlands, and in crab, oyster and mussel tissues."

Staggering toll

Since January, at least 67 dead dolphins have washed ashore along the Gulf Coast, an event the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared as "an unusual mortality event". In the whole of 2010, 89 dolphin deaths were reported for the same area.

In January, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute chemist and colleagues reported that the toxic chemical dispersants BP used to sink its crude oil remained in the deep ocean in an oil and gas-laden plume that had still not degraded.

Also in January, Louisiana Senator AG Crowe wrote a letter to President Barack Obama expressing his deep concern about the toxic dispersants BP used, and according to Senator Crowe, continues to use along the Gulf Coast.

"Mr President, my concern is that this toxic and damaging chemical is still being used and it will compound the long-term damage to our state, our citizens, our eco-system, our economy, our seafood industry, our wildlife and our culture," the letter read.

"We will not be fooled in to believing that the oil and the toxins are gone. Because the toxic dispersants have been, and are still being used today, the oil is being forced downward in to the water columns and then carried endlessly around and about by the Gulf currents adversely affecting our environment."

Subra, the MacArthur Fellow, is alarmed by what she is finding in the people whose blood she is testing.

"Severe symptoms, lots of respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and skin lesions," she explained. "There is a lot of internal bleeding, and the chemicals cause this by disrupting the integrity of the red blood cells."

Subra said: "We’re seeing the chemicals in different classes of people. Cleanup workers employed by BP, clean-up workers no longer employed, and we’re seeing it in community members who come in contact with the crude by fishing or recreating in the Gulf."

Al Jazeera asked Subra what she thought the local, state and federal governments should be doing about the ongoing chemical exposures.

There is a lack of concern by the government agencies and the [oil] industry." She said, “There is a leaning towards wanting to say it's all fixed and let's move on, when it's not. The crude oil is continuing to come on shore in tar mats, balls, and strings."

Subra continued: "So the exposure continues. There is still a large amount of crude in the marshes and buried on the beaches. As long as that pathway is there for exposure, these problems will continue quite a long time into the future."

A bunch of guinea pigs

Jo Billups is an environmental activist who has taken it upon herself to assist in the funding, along with her friend Michelle Nix, in the blood testing being carried out by Subra.

Working with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and several doctors along the Gulf Coast, Billups and Nix have been holding workshops and helping sick people get their blood tested and find medical assistance.

"We have sick people from Apalachicola, Florida, to Grand Isle, Louisiana, and it's not stopping and that's what's disturbing," Billups said. "The levels we are seeing are not dropping, and we're seeing new chemicals now. We gave some of our blood test results to [EPA head] Lisa Jackson. They know what is going on, and they are not doing anything about it."

"The saddest part is the children," Billups added. "We’re seeing young children with extremely high levels of chemicals. We're altering our DNA and our bodies forever, We're a bunch of guinea pigs."

Jennifer Rexford, from Panama City, Florida, was an oil clean-up worker for BP.

"We were taken to clean up oil and tar balls with inadequate equipment," Rexford told Al Jazeera. "We regularly got oil all over us."

Rexford now has a staph infection that covers much of her body that she attributes to the chemicals in BP's oil she was cleaning up.

"Everyone I know of that I worked with are now having kidney problems, along with lots of other illnesses," Rexford, who has been to the hospital four times trying to find a solution to her infection, said. "My neighbor has a rash all over her body, and another clean-up worker I know found a lump in her breast a month ago. So when I started calling my co-workers, I realized that we’re all sick."

have documentation and images showing lesions in my brain," Paul Doom said. "Lesions that are the same as lesions on the brains of marine life from the Exxon Valdez spill from marine necropsies. This is a life and death situation and a race against time."

Doom said the water and food along the Gulf Coast are not safe, and he is angry at the Obama administration.

"I would ask them why have they allowed this to happen," he said, "How can you live with yourself knowing you allowed this to happen and continue?"

Aguinaga feels betrayed as well.

"I feel stabbed in the back by my own country," he said, "I feel we are being dictated to by a foreign power. Maybe our president is not strong enough to stand up against them. I know money buys people, but they couldn't offer me enough money for the loss of my friend, and the stuff we’re going through."

Aguinaga's prognosis for the future of Gulf Coast residents?

"We’re all lab rats and we didn’t even know it. We’re waiting to see how it’s going to turn out."

*Having family in Florida and the Gulf region we said that if people started dying we would re visit reporting on the Gulf spill and the handling thereof and for obvious reasons we turn to outside news sources because we have strong reason to believe that the Mass Media has been compromised, and will not tell the American public the truth when it comes to Government sponsored elder financial abuse,exploitation, and guardianship abuses , furthermore we believe the public is spoon fed news in a way that keeps the public numbed down and within their comfort level.

Letters From Readers - Legislators Don't Seem to Care About Out Elderly

Good morning:

Those of you who normally received notes from me know that my mother was a victim of guardian abuse and elder abuse. For those of you who don't know, I grew up on 156th Avenue SE, Renton. I believe this is in the 41st district.

On January 25 and 27, I visited Olympia to talk to my legislators about proposing legislation that would prevent guardian abuse and help prevent MRSA infections/viral infections in long-term care facilities -- like nursing homes. Mom lived in a nursing home the last 15 months of her life -- and died of a MRSA infection in 2007. There are currently no state laws that prevent MRSA infections in nursing homes.

Below is a note I sent to other groups about how my legislators don't seem to care about guardian abuse or MRSA infections in long-term care facilities. I am planning on driving to Oympia on Thursday to possibly testify before a senate committee about guardian abuse. So far, no bill has been filed by anyone regarding long-term care facilities.

I need your help. Please help spread the word that, at least, the legislators from the 41st district don't seem to care about out elderly. Just think, in a few short years, you could find yourself a guardian who breaks state law and forces you -- against your wishes -- into a care facility against your wishes. How do you protect yourself? There is a state guardian board -- but they don't care about guardians breaking state laws. Right now, our AG's office gets calls day after day about seniors being abused by their guardians. So far, I haven't seen any legislation from the AG's office that will protect our seniors.

If you are concerned, contact our state legislators and ask them to support bring a Court pilot program being currently being looked at in Spokane County to the west side of the state. Also let Sen. Litzow know that you care about how the elderly are treated in nursing homes.

On February 24 there will be a lobby day in Olympia to meet and greet our legislators and ask them to support bills that are of interest to seniors. Let me know if you are interested in attending as I will be driving down and we can do it together.

Please do what you can do to prevent guardian abuse and infectious diseases in long-term care facilities.

Have a good day. Feel free to pass this onto others.

Claudia Donnelly
nev123ada@yahoo.com

Drink This to Help Undo a Heavy Meal

By RealAge

When you overdo it and down a day's calories in one sitting, your body's inflammatory processes go into overdrive. But here's a way you might counter it: Drink orange juice.

In a recent study, people who had eaten a supersized fast-food breakfast experienced a much milder inflammatory response in their bodies when they drank OJ with the meal.

High-Calorie Catastrophe
Whatever you do, don't pair that overindulgence with a soda. When researchers compared the effects that three different beverages had on the way bodies process big, fatty, inflammation-triggering foods, sugar water was the worst of the bunch. It seemed to exacerbate the inflammatory response. Plain water faired somewhere in between orange juice and sugar water, but it has the added benefit of being calorie-free. (Find out why orange juice is good for your joints, too.)

The Flavonoid Fix
What makes orange juice so good at clamping down on the inflammation and oxidation that big, fatty meals cause? The heroes are likely two important flavonoids found in oranges -- naringenin and hesperidin. These powerful antioxidants help tamp down body processes that can damage blood vessels and lay the groundwork for big health problems, like atherosclerosis and heart disease. (Pulp or no pulp? Here's a great health reason to buy your juice with lots of bits.)

Need more reasons to drink your orange juice? Check out this small sampling of things it can do for your body:

• Cushion your creaky knees. Discover the flavonoid your joints crave.
• Protect against pounds. Here is the key citrus ingredient that helps keep unwanted weight away.

Sepsis: A deadly disorder you’ve never heard of

By Anya Martin, MarketWatch

Doctors say greater awareness, faster treatment will improve survival rates

DECATUR, Ga. (MarketWatch) — Sepsis is a leading cause of death in American hospitals, but ask most people what sepsis is, and they’ll give you a blank stare.

About 750,000 Americans get sepsis every year at a cost of $17 billion to the U.S. health-care system, and about 200,000 die from it, according to the Global Sepsis Alliance, a coalition of 250,000 intensive- and critical-care physicians.

Calgary weighs private options for health care
In Canada, rising health-care costs are prompting a call for changes to the country's popular public program. The Chamber of Commerce is making its case for a greater role for the private sector. MarketWatch's Kristen Gerencher reports from Calgary, Alberta.

But 60% of Americans are unfamiliar with sepsis, and 30% who have heard the word can’t define it, according to a recent poll commissioned by the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, N.Y.

Sepsis is a global medical emergency with 18 million cases internationally every year, according to 150 medical professionals, researchers and policymakers from 18 countries, who attended the Merinoff Symposium, an international sepsis conference, in September.

As a key first step to increasing public familiarity of sepsis, the group ratified a new definition of the disease. “It’s a major problem when the leading killer can’t even be described,” said Dr. Kevin J. Tracey, president of the Feinstein Institute, which hosted the symposium. “People need to know what it is in order to incite the response necessary to cure it.”

Tracey urges doctors, media and other stakeholders around the globe to use this definition routinely: “Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs.”

That is, you contract another disorder, such as flu, pneumonia, cancer, bladder infection, appendicitis, skin infection, trauma, or any other bacterial, viral or fungal infection, including MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections, but it’s the body’s severe protective reaction to that infection, not the infection itself, which may lead to septic shock, multiple organ failure and death.

Complicating and often delaying diagnosis, initial symptoms of septic patients resemble those for other disorders, including low blood pressure, fever or chills, trouble breathing and general weakness.

Surgical patients who develop an infection and then sepsis stay in the hospital almost 11 days longer, at a cost of $32,900, and one in five die, according to a study of 1998-2006 discharge records reported in the September 2010 issue of Infection Control Today.

At Ohio State University Medical Center, one third of the patients on the intensive care unit at any given time have sepsis, said James M. O’Brien, an ICU doctor at the Columbus hospital and a board member of the Global Sepsis Alliance. More public awareness of sepsis can only improve doctor-patient communication, he said.

“A big part of my job is giving people bad news and telling them that their loved one is dying or has died,” he said. “It’s difficult in all circumstances, but it’s even more difficult when their loved one is dying of something that the family has never heard of.”

Even the healthy are susceptible
Chances are someone you know has had sepsis, but even the patient may not know because many physicians avoid the term, O’Brien said.

A 2004 survey of 1,000 physicians in Europe and U.S. found agreement that sepsis is a leading cause of death in critical-care units and that similar symptoms to other conditions may lead to under-reporting. However, only 10% called the diagnosis “sepsis” when speaking to patients’ relatives, while 85% referred to sepsis as a “complication” of another condition.

You may be more susceptible to sepsis if you have a weakened immune system due to an illness such as cancer or AIDS or because of medical treatments such as chemotherapy, steroids or an organ transplant. Seniors and babies, whose immune systems are not fully developed, are also at greater risk.

But healthy people of all ages contract sepsis, O’Brien said. “In all honesty, we don’t know why when you take 10 people and expose them to an infectious agent, [such as] a bacteria, some of them never get the bacteria, some get the infection and get better, and some develop sepsis and die from it,” he said.

A year ago, Jennifer Ludwin, a 23-year-old Ohio State University graduate student, ran daily and was completely healthy. Then in October 2009, she developed a severe sore throat and high fever and began coughing up blood.

On her first emergency room visit, Ludwin received fluids and was sent home. A few days later, when her symptoms worsened, she returned and was admitted with H1N1 flu so severe her body triggered septic shock.

Ludwin remained hospitalized for 100 days. Her sepsis was so invasive and fast-spreading that to halt its progress, surgeons had to remove her gall bladder, perform a thoracotomy on her left lung, and amputate her legs below her knees, all her fingers on her left hand and partial digits on her right hand. She has had 18 surgeries to date with more to come.

“It’s a weird feeling because you realize you came so close to dying, but you have no memories of it,” Ludwin said. “In a way you don’t believe it. My parents even had to discuss funeral arrangements for me.”

Fast treatment crucial to survival
Research studies have found that hospital deaths from sepsis could be reduced significantly by the simple practice of administering antibiotics and fluids sooner, O’Brien said.

“With septic shock, delays of antibiotics by even 30 minutes can prevent someone from dying,” he said. “The chance of dying goes up 8% per hour of delayed antibiotics.”

At Ohio State University Medical Center, an investigation of antibiotic orders by emergency physicians found an up-to-four-hour delay between prescription and patient delivery. Now if a patient comes into the emergency room with low blood pressure, a key indicator for septic shock, antibiotic orders default to a high priority category for immediate dispensing, O’Brien said.

Attendees of the Merinoff Symposium issued a statement calling for initiating antibiotics, fluids and other emergency actions “within one hour of suspicion of sepsis.” Meanwhile several large U.S. health-care systems are speeding up procedures for patients with sepsis symptoms, including North Shore-LIJ, which operates 28 facilities and services in New York state.

North Shore-LIJ’s program launched last year and already the system saw its mortality rate for septic patients drop to about 19% in June 2010 from 26% in 2008, said Dr. Kenneth J. Abrams, the health system’s associate chief medical officer.

His dream is that soon early intervention for sepsis will be as routine as that for heart attacks. “Today, a patient feels chest pain, self-administers an aspirin at home, then oftentimes therapy begins with an EKG transmitted to the hospital from the ambulance,” Abrams said. “A team is waiting to care for the patient upon hospital arrival and he’s in the cath lab within 60 to 90 minutes.”

About $100 million in U.S. research dollars is spent on sepsis annually, compared to about $700 million for breast cancer and about $300 million for stroke or prostate cancer, according to National Institutes of Health data.

Anya Martin is a freelance writer, based in Decatur, Ga.

Extreme Warning: Your Water Might be Poisoned !

By *Mary Sparrowdancer

The Mosaic Company is one of the largest phosphate fertilizer mining operations on earth. From its phosphate fertilizer, Mosaic then "scrubs," removes and captures toxic fluorides along with other pollutants and radioactive wastes found in phosphate rock that has no use by the fertilizer industry. This gaseous slurry that contains fluoride is then distributed and sold throughout North America, largely by the Lucier Company. It is sold to our municipal waterworks companies to be used as "water fluoridation," which is another chemical experiment.

The production of "water fluoridation" from phosphate fertilizer waste materials is a highly profitable, very dependable, but relatively unknown branch of the phosphate fertilizer industry. Common sense will lead one to understand why this profitable and ever-expanding operation throughout theUS is not openly and proudly advertised: Many people are now aware of and opposed to the "fluoridation" lie, but have no voice. Further investigation of why Mosaic is keeping quiet reveals another chemical experiment now conducted on 70% of the US, who have no choice but to submit to their tap water.

An article written by George Glasser, who is a respected investigative environmental journalist, further explains. Although this slurry used in water fluoridation is referred to as "fluoride," it is actually much more. "The product is not 'fluorine' or 'fluoride' as proponents state," Mr. Glasser writes. "It is a pollution concentrate. Fluorine is only one captured pollutant comprising [about 19% to] 23% of the total product," Mr. Glasser writes. Included in the concentrate making up the remaining percentage is whatever else that is not desired by the fertilizer industry, including polonium and other deadly agents.
The municipal waterworks folks have been led to believe that fluorides became something suddenly needed by the human body after the Atomic Bomb Era when fluoride wastes became ubiquitous in the US. The municipalities then add this slurry into our drinking water. Various officials claim that we all need to drink this chemical to prevent cavities in our teeth whether we want it or not, or whether we even have teeth or are as edentulous (i.e., toothless) as the many "optimally fluoridated" people of Kentucky now are. The people of Kentucky have been "optimally fluoridated" at almost 100% for a long time. They have won government awards for being "optimally fluoridated," but those award-winning folks now have one of the highest rates of dental cavities and toothlessness in the US, perhaps because fluoride is known to cause and exacerbate periodontal disease. It has never been found to prevent cavities. Boiling fluoridated water increases the concentration of the fluoride; freezing it does nothing to remove the fluoride. Bathing in fluoridated water it results in dermal absorption.

It is unknown whether the municipal waterworks "officials" perform their own assays on each new shipment of pollutants they purchase from the phosphate fertilizer industry and distributors. Assays would be the only way of determining what else in addition to fluoride, including polonium, is in the tank before disposing of it on behalf of the fertilizer industry into our drinking water. Each shipment contains a unique percentage of pollutants and levels of radioactivity. Concerned lawyers reading this should note that if the municipal "authorities" are not performing individual assays on each shipment of "fluorides," then they can and should be held liable for breaking standing laws by deliberately contaminating public drinking water with unknown pollutants. This is now classified as an act of terrorism. It should also be known that testing should not be done by common Ion Specific Electrodes that only detect the presence of fluoride but cannot accurately report elevated levels. The far more sophisticated test is forensic Ion Chromatography, which gives accurate reading levels of fluoride. At this time, therefore, it is doubtful that most know what level of fluoride waste is being placed in our drinking water or how much is coming out of our taps.

Unlike other chemical pharmaceuticals, no physician will ever check the public citizen who is drinking deliberately contaminated water to see whether he or she is having any detrimental, allergic reactions to their "fluoride" treatment, because professional follow-up services were never a part of the national fluoride treatment plan. The individual and entire household never really received a prescription for their lifelong, daily dosing of fluoride in the first place. No physician would prescribe a life-long chemical pharmaceutical medication and then have no medical follow-up plans to make sure that the patient was doing well on their "medication."

We are being medicated by politicians, corporate presidents, directors, and CEOs whose main concern is making money. The CDC, which is a pharmaceutical propaganda mouthpiece, has pronounced water fluoridation as one of the "Ten Great Public Health Achievements" during the 1900s, which is true in a sinister sort of way. Those who are being forced to drink the fluoride wastes are not the ones benefiting from this "great achievement." Fluoridation is a "great achievement" for the corporations selling it, and then fluoridation becomes a "great achievement" for the pharmaceutical industry, which is the largest, most profitable industry in the US. The pharmaceutical industry reaps benefits from fluoridation by treating the resulting national symptoms.

Most physicians have no training regarding fluoride's systemic effects and symptoms. This is despite the fact that virtually all patients now are contaminated with fluoride toxins from water, air, processed foods, fluorinated drugs, dental retardation activities, teas, beverages, wine, grapes, raisins, household cleansers, floor wax, Scotchguard, Stainmaster, insecticides, pesticides, Teflon-coated pans, food packaging, plastics and toothpastes.

Fluoride has been known since the 1930s in Germany to block thyroid function. Some of the symptoms of fluoride poisoning include depression, behavioral problems, aggression, weight gain, aches, pains, tendon/muscle rupture, severe kidney problems, skeletal problems, erectile dysfunction, visual problems, muscle spasms and twitches, connective tissue damage, cancer, heart problems, lung problems, premature aging because of collagen breakdown, declining IQ, severe GERD, mental confusion, gum disease, tooth rot, and Barrett's esophagus, etc. It has been known for years that fluoride forms concretions in the pineal gland, located within the brain. It affects every part of the body because it is a systemic poison, not a nutrient as the propaganda mouthpieces continue to claim. The effect of fluoride on kidney patients is so severe that the use of water containing elevated fluoride levels during dialysis has resulted in patient deaths.

Despite the fact that the Mosaic company keeps a rather low profile, they have shown their own unconscionable activities carried out for money. According to the Miami Herald, St. Petersburg crabber Howard Curd's crab fishing grounds in Tampa Bay were "killed off when HurricaneFrances blew out a retaining wall at a phosphate pit that spewed acidic water into the bay. The fertilizer company, Mosaic, persuaded a trial court and an appeals court that Curd and other fishermen couldn't sue because they didn't own the seafood that was potentially killed, so they weren't technically damaged."

Curd said, "'Crabbing in the bay is bouncing back, but the BP spill is depressing seafood sales even though the oil is nowhere near the western coast of Florida.' He's prepared to sue BP, but harbors no illusions about facing a big corporation in court."
Curd further said, "They've got all the money, and all the attorneys and all the experts on retainer. It really doesn't cost them anything. It's like it's cheaper to pay their attorneys and fight in court than paying the money to people they hurt and doing the right thing."
Another director Nalco is J. Erik Fyrwald, Nalco's CEO, and President. According to Nalco, Mr. Fyrwald is also on the Board of Directors of Eli Lilly and Co., and was Group Vice President of DuPont's "Agriculture and Nutrition" division, a division name that might qualify as an oxymoron to anyone who knows anything about nutrition and the current state of the US petrochemical, agricultural industry.

Also among Nalco's board members is Richard Friedman. According to Bloomberg, Mr. Friedman is the head of Goldman Sachs, as well as on the board of trustees of New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, to which he recently gave $20 million for the creation of the Friedman Brain Institute, according to the Wall Street Journal. It should be noted that if one has acute fluoride poisoning in NYC, you cannot have your urine tested for fluoride anywhere in New York or surrounding areas. Your urine will have to be FedExed out of New York to a remote forensic lab for ion chromatography fluoride testing. (Perhaps the Friedman Brain Institute can look into those somewhat troubling pineal gland concretions.)

Also on the board of Nalco is Daniel Sanders. According to Forbes, Mr. Sanders is the former President of ExxonMobil Chemical Company.
Also onboard Nalco is Rodney Frank Chase. According to Bloomberg's BusinessWeek.com, Mr. Chase has been a senior advisor of Lehman Brothers, as well as former Deputy Group Chief Executive of BP, Managing Director, and CEO of BP Finance International.

Also among the list of directors on Nalco is Mary Margaret VanDeWeghe. According to various sources, Ms. VanDeWeghe has been a high-ranking executive with the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin emerged after a fusion between Lockheed and Martin Marietta. According to the Lockheed website the corporation is the world's "leading provider of safety-critical nuclear instrumentation & control (I&C) systems for commercial and DoD customers for over 50 years." It now owns several Superfund sites that were at some point contaminated with chemicals. One is near Columbine, where a massacre happened. Another is in Paducah, near another school massacre. We do not know what the chemicals are doing to us.

Also on Nalco's board is Carl M. Casale. Most of us have probably never heard of Carl Casale, but a closer look at corporate affiliations and a comparison of photos indicates that Mr. Carl M. Casale is also the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Monsanto.

In 2005, the EPA and DuPont settled a lawsuit in which the EPA charged DuPont with knowing about the dangers of C8 (perfluorooctanoic acid, another form of fluoride used in the production of Teflon), contaminating a town's drinking water with it and keeping quiet for approximately 20 years. According to the EWG, this hiding allowed "DuPont more than two decades of multi-hundred million dollar annual profits, while guaranteeing contamination of the entire planet with Teflon [fluoride] chemicals, now recognized as persistent global pollutants that nearly universally pollute human blood."

In 2006, BP announced that it was forming a partnership with DuPont in order to create new biofuels. In 2006, Monsanto announced it was going to create a genetically modified (GM) soybean that would have high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Health markets were newly and increasingly profitable for omega-3 products. The primary source of the omega-3 fatty acids had been the menhaden, but Monsanto warned that fish populations were being depleted, and that a more renewable, land-based source of omega-3 fatty acid was needed for our good health. Monsanto said their new GM omega-3 soybeans should be ready by about 2010 or 2011. Monsanto then partnered with Solae, which is primarily owned by DuPont, to bring about new GM soybeans.

"Soy beans represent a renewable, land-based source of omega-3s," said Jerry Steiner, Executive Vice President of Monsanto (Sustainability & Corporate Affairs).

According to a 2007 article in Food Navigator-USA.com, "Consumer awareness of the health benefits of omega-3 has sky-rocketed in recent years as the scientific evidence stacks up. Industry experts predict that the market for omega-3 products could be worth as much as $7bn by 2011. But concerns over the sustainability of fish sources, as well as the amount of fish oil available to the nutrition industry as demand for crude fish oil from the aquaculture industry increases." Indeed, this same article goes on to state, "The problem with plant sources like flax, however, is that they yield upALA, a shorter chain fatty acid which is less bioavailable for humans than DHA and EPA, of which fish is the best source. This was the spur for Monsanto and Solae/Dupont to embark on their respective R&D [Research and Development] projects."

At the end of May, 2010, an article in the Chemical and Engineering News carried the following headline: "Gulf Oil Spill Boosts Nalco Sales," and then stated, "Water treatment firm Nalco has told investors that it expects sales of dispersants used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will have reached $40 million by May 21."

In June, 2010, NutraIngredients-USA.com announced, "Omega-3 is 'among the most successful functional ingredients ever, with sales of omega-3 ingredients destined for processed foods undented by the global economic turndown,' according to Euromonitor." According to a Monsanto press release dated July 10, 2010, food companies are now testing a new product: "Soymega, the world's first SDA (stearidonic acid) soybean oil, is making it easier for food companies to incorporate more omega-3s into a variety of products." The press release also states, "SDA soybean oil is the result of a collaboration project between Solae and Monsanto Company." The downside of this is that many people feel that the consumption of GM foods, as well as r-BGH/r-BST dairy are more chemical experiments with end-results unknown. The "r" in rBST stands for "recombinant." Monsanto sold its bovine growth hormone to Eli Lilly in 2008, indicating perhaps that Monsanto was giving up on its long battle trying to convince the consumer that engineered dairy was "identical" to non-rBST dairy. The public literally was not buying it.

This tells us how powerful we, as consumers, actually are. We are more powerful than monopolies. Our first line of business at this moment is to call for a moratorium on all "menhaden reduction" fishing activities so that the menhaden can be allowed to replenish their population and act as the oceans' natural filters, and thus increase the world's declining oxygen levels. The earth, in fact, might depend on this act. If the government will not step up and realize it must regulate and protect this important fish, then we consumers can stand up and avoid all menhaden products until the little fish makes a powerful comeback. Then we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Choose another type of fatty fish for omega-3s. .

Our second line of business will require the help of lawyers. We need to sue the hell out of the municipal waterworks companies until they stop putting fluoride wastes and other unknown toxic pollutants into our drinking water. Those responsible for doing this should know they are going to be held criminally accountable for deliberately adding pollutants into drinking water. According to the Nuremberg Code, Directives for Human Experimentation, the first code states: "The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential." This has never happened. Number 10 states: "During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe . . . the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject." We now have probable cause.

*Mary Sparrowdancer is an investigative journalist and author of two best-selling books, English versions of which are currently sold-out. German and Japanese versions remain available. She is of Narragansett/Five Nations, Irish and Italian descent, and was born near Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. She and her children live in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. Her training was in laboratory sciences including bacteriology, microscopic analysis, veterinary sciences and ornithology.

Source: Original article

Related reference material:

Cdn Green Party Seeks Ban On Fluoridation
Teflon (Fluoride) Causing Health Problems
Fluoride Deaths, Lies, And Coverups
Fluoride And The Atomic Bomb
Fluoride Forms Hydrofluoric Acid In Stomach
47 Die From Fluoride Rat Poison Error
Water as a weapon

Enviromental Abuse? Mass Kill On the Water

Louisiana-Florida,Gulf Coast News

This isn't an asphalt road. It's a massive "fish kill" in a waterway in coastal Louisiana.

Because we are an independent blogger and not a News Organization we do not feel we are subject to the News Blackout on the Gulf with the threat of $40,000 fine for each infraction and the possibility of felony arrests.We have family,friends living in the Florida Panhandle and feel our obligation to pass on the reports coming out of the gulf through independent channels.

A few short years back we warned that time was short and that soon events would happen that would eclipse our efforts to reform Elder Control Protection Laws, I am afraid that those days are now here and because conventional news sources have to toe the line for political reasons many times under threats of heavy fines we feel compelled to report the news as they are reported to us.....

As you well know and have been informed by the major news organization the oil well has been capped, most of the oil has disappeared and seafood is safe to eat . We understand that reports of massive fish kills and people getting sick are purely coincidential and more testing is needed before coming to any conclusions.
----------------------
Methane is now streaming through the porous, rocky seabed at an accelerated rate and gushing from the borehole of the first relief well. The EPA is on record that Rig #1 is releasing methane, benzene, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic gases. Workers there now wear advanced protection including state-of-the-art, military-issued gas masks.

Reports, filtering through from oceanologists and salvage workers in the region, state that the upper level strata of the ocean floor is succumbing to greater and greater pressure. That pressure is causing a huge expanse of the seabed-estimated by some as spreading over thousands of square miles surrounding the BP wellhead-to bulge. Some claim the seabed in the region has risen an astounding 30 feet.

The fractured BP wellhead, site of the former Deepwater Horizon, has become the epicenter of frenetic attempts to quell the monstrous flow of methane.

The subterranean methane is pressurized at 100,000 pounds psi. According to Matt Simmons, an oil industry expert, the methane pressure at the wellhead has now skyrocketed to a terrifying 40,000 pounds psi.

Another well-respected expert, Dr. John Kessler of Texas A&M University has calculated that the ruptured well is spewing 60 percent oil and 40 percent methane. The normal methane amount that escapes from a compromised well is about 5 percent.

More evidence? A huge gash on the ocean floor—like a ragged wound hundreds of feet long—has been reported by the NOAA research ship, Thomas Jefferson. Before the curtain of the government enforced news blackout again descended abruptly, scientists aboard the ship voiced their concerns that the widening rift may go down miles into the earth.

That gash too is hemorrhaging oil and methane. It’s 10 miles away from the BP epicenter. Other, new fissures, have been spotted as far as 30 miles distant.

Measurements of the multiple oil plumes now appearing miles from the wellhead indicate that as much as a total of 124,000 barrels of oil are erupting into the Gulf waters daily-that’s about 5,208,000 gallons of oil per day.

Most disturbing of all: Methane levels in the water are now calculated as being almost one million times higher than normal. [7]

Mass death on the water

Some environmentalist experts are calling what’s pouring into the land, sea and air from the seabed breach ’a chemical cocktail of poisons.’

Areas of dead zones devoid of oxygen are driving species of fish into foreign waters, killing plankton and other tiny sea life that are the foundation for the entire food chain, and polluting the air with cancer-causing chemicals and poisonous rainfalls.

Reporter: “Entire communities where they’re vomiting blood” in Louisiana — “Very, very serious situation here” (VIDEO)

Ref=>>Helium.Com

Censored Gulf news: Gulf Coaster Trail of Tears. Evacuees flee for health and safety

Parents of little Briana Frye left their Pensacola, Florida home for their health and safety. The young family was taken into the home of a Nebraskan family. After seeing what heavy metal ladened rain did to their plants, Briana's parents, Rick and Lynne Frye researched, learned about the present Gulf poisons cumulative effects, and then knew that to protect their child, they needed to leave the Gulf Coast.

Source=>> Examiner.Com

Related=>>Censored Gulf alert: Entire La. communities vomiting blood

Americans Drowning in Prescription Drugs

By: Mike Adams as published in: Natural News

Nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis according to a CDC report that was just released (1). Nearly a third of Americans use two or more drugs, and more than one in ten use five or more prescription drugs regularly.

The report also revealed that one in five children are being regularly given prescription drugs, and nine out of ten seniors are on drugs.

All these drugs came at a cost of over $234 billion in 2008. The most commonly-used drugs were:

• Statin drugs for older people
• Asthma drugs for children
• Antidepressants for middle-aged people
• Amphetamine stimulants for children

America has become a nation of druggies. The seniors are being drugged for nearly every symptom a doctor can find, children are being doped up with (legalized) speed, and middle-aged soccer moms are popping suicide pills (antidepressants).

Prescription drug addictions are on the rise, too. Prescription drugs are so dangerous that now even the DEA is hosting "take back your pills" day allowing citizens to anonymously surrender their unused prescription painkillers to DEA agents. (http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1431852393/DEA-hosting-take-back-initiative-for-unused-pills)

Interestingly, DEA agents will only accept "legal" amphetamine drugs such as Ritalin but not "illegal" methamphetamine drugs. You're only off the hook if you paid monopoly prescription prices for your drugs.

And it's only going to get worse

The percentage of Americans taking prescription drugs is expected to rise even further as the health reform insurance regulations kick in. Much of the bill was specifically designed to favor pharmaceutical industry interests by putting even more people on medication. Expect to see more "screening" too -- a thinly disguised drug recruitment method that primarily seeks to ensnare new patients in a high-profit drug regimen.

The mass medication of American citizens has reached a disturbing tipping point where the future of the nation itself is at risk. That's because pharmaceuticals cause cognitive decline, and once you get to the point where over 50 percent of the voters can't think straight, you're trapped in a crumbling Democracy.

And that doesn't even take into consideration the financial cost of America's addiction to drugs: With nearly one out of every five dollars out of the entire U.S. economy now being spent on sickness and disease, America finds herself stuck in a cycle of high-cost drug treatments that cure no one.

That's right: No one gets healthier from taking prescription drugs. They don't cure anyone and they don't prevent disease. They only maintain patients in a kind of "pre-death stasis" where they're alive just enough to keep buying more medication. Drug companies don't want you dead because that would cut off their profits. But they don't want you healthy, either, because then they wouldn't have you as a customer. So their drugs are actually designed to keep you in a state of ongoing disease without curing your condition but also without killing you outright.

You sort of chemically limp along, shelling out dollars while your memory fades and your skin starts to show signs of severe toxicity. Big Pharma is not merely sapping the life out of you; it's also draining you financially.

Isn't it obvious that pharmaceuticals don't work?

If pharmaceuticals really worked to make people healthy, then the half of America currently taking pharmaceuticals would be the healthiest half, and the people who don't take pharmaceuticals would be unhealthy, right?

But in fact it's the other way around: People who take pharmaceuticals remain unhealthy and really never get cured of anything. Meanwhile, those who avoid taking pharmaceuticals are, by and large, far healthier individuals.

If America were running a grand experiment to determine whether pharmaceuticals really work -- and trust me, the country really is running precisely that experiment -- any reasonable observer would have to conclude that pharmaceuticals really don't improve the health of those who take them. The more pharmaceuticals you take, in fact, the sicker you will become. That's because drugs cause an imbalance in the body that soon leads to the emergence of other side effects.

At the same time, many of the drugs people take actually cause the very things they claim to prevent. Osteoporosis drugs cause hip fractures. Cancer drugs cause cancer. Antidepressants cause suicidal thoughts. The list goes on and on.

The people who are really, truly healthy in America are those who avoid pharmaceuticals. (http://www.naturalnews.com/028789_pharmacies_health_food_stores.html) They take care of their own health through regular exercise, time in nature, sensible sunshine exposure and healthy eating. They distrust the pharmaceutical industry and they don't let television advertising hypnotize them into making poor decisions like getting a flu shot (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_vaccines_junk_science.html).

Yet even though it is blatantly obvious that pharmaceuticals really don't work to improve the health of any population, the drug industry insists the only thing wrong with America's health is that not enough people are taking medication!

If we could only get 100% of the population on drugs instead of 50%, they seem to be saying, then we'd all be healthy!

The logic is absurd, of course. And that goal has nothing to do with actual health but everything to do with increasing drug company profits. While drug companies may not know much at all about health, they do know one thing: How to commit marketing fraud by making outrageous benefit claims for their drugs while whitewashing the very real dangerous side effects.

Big Pharma will bankrupt America

Mark my words: Big Pharma will bankrupt America. And quite possibly the UK as well. Any nation that hands over its health care system to the drug industry is committing financial suicide.
That's because Big Pharma absolutely will not halt its single-minded mission to extract as much money as possible from the population, corporations and governments. It will do anything and everything it can to accomplish this goal: Bribe researchers to commit research fraud, engage in false and fraudulent marketing, lie to the public, hide negative study results, conduct experiments on children in third-world countries, pollute the planet with drug factory runoff, influence legislators with campaign finance contributions, dominate the pages of medical journals with false and misleading advertising, submit "scientific" articles to the journals ghost-written by the drug companies themselves... this list never ends.

Drug companies will knowingly keep dangerous drugs on the market that kill tens of thousands of people. They will knowingly withhold research from the FDA if it might make their drugs look bad. They will knowingly distort clinical trial data to eliminate whatever outcome they don't want to see.

This is all "routine" in the drug industry. These aren't exceptions, mind you: They are the way the drug industry operates on a daily basis.

The worst part of it is that Big Government is now fully in bed with Big Pharma. I already exposed Sen Harry Reid's efforts to swing a sweet deal for Big Pharma in the recent health care reforms (http://www.naturalnews.com/029450_Harry_Reid_Big_Pharma.html). The FDA's collusion with drug companies, meanwhile, is legendary: There is hardly a decision made by the FDA that doesn't in some way protect drug company profits.

The med schools and science journals have been overrun by drug company influence. Drug companies are so large and powerful now that the U.S. government considers them "too big to nail." When Pfizer was recently found guilty of felony crimes, the government allowed it to create a shell company to take the hit so that Pfizer itself could remain in business and keep selling drugs to the government. (http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/02/pfizer.bextra/index.html)

A federal prosecutor actually went on the record saying, "If we prosecute Pfizer... a lot of people who work for the company who haven't engaged in criminal activity would get hurt."

Therefore, the logic goes, they have to let Pfizer off the hook.

And so it goes; Big Government protecting the criminals in the drug industry, making excuses for looking the other way when scientific fraud and marketing fraud is routinely being carried out right under their noses. The Dept of Justice isn't even interested in taking down criminal drug companies!

How this will end

So where does this medication madness ever end? It will end, I predict, with the economic downfall of the United States of America. When the nation is too broke, too medicated and too chemically compromised to stay afloat, it will suffer an enormous economic collapse.

Following the financial failure of big government, Big Pharma will implode virtually overnight. Without the government buying its products, Big Pharma will find few willing private customers. Ordinary people will seek out affordable and safer natural remedies, and the drug industry will collapse to perhaps 10% of its current size.

This will be a great day for the health of all Americans who have suffered under the chemical assault of Big Pharma. To live without the daily onslaught of Big Pharma's chemicals is to live a healthier life with improved brain function and awareness. Once people get off all their drugs, we might have hope to thoughtfully rebuild a nation based on nutrition rather than monopoly-priced medications.

I've said this at least a hundred times, and I'll say it again: No nation that ignores the nutritional health of its citizens has any real future. A successful long-term society MUST, at its core, invest in real nutrition and the holistic health education of its citizens. Without good nutrition, every society is ultimately doomed to fail.

Modern medicine, in other words, is destroying our country. And the "cure" for this disease is to throw out what doesn't work (pharmaceuticals) and start embracing the things that do work (nutrition and superfoods) to keep people healthy.