Podcast appearances and mentions of Gary Null

When food alters gene function   Helmholtz Zentrum München, January 30, 2022   As the study shows, a high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation leads to epigenetic* changes in the offspring. These changes affect metabolic pathways regulated by the gut hormone GIP**, whereby the adult offspring are more susceptible to obesity and insulin resistance, the precursor to type 2 diabetes. Similar mechanisms cannot be ruled out in humans, according to Pfeiffer. As scientists throughout the world observe, children of obese mothers have a higher risk of obesity and metabolic disorders. Recent findings suggest that diet-related epigenetic effects may also play a causal role in this.   (NEXT)   Probiotics Help with Morning Sickness   University of California at Davis, January 28, 2022   A study published by researchers from the University of California, Davis, has found that probiotics are a game changer for moms-to-be who find themselves green at the gills on the daily. After receiving a mix of 10 Lactobacillus probiotic strains and one Bifidobacterium strain over a 16-day period, the low-risk pregnant women in the study, who all had been experiencing nausea and other digestive system complaints, reported a 16% reduction in nausea and a 33% reduction in vomiting episodes.   (NEXT)   Higher dietary fiber intake in young women may reduce breast cancer risk   Harvard School of Public Health, January 31, 2022   Boston, MA – Women who eat more high-fiber foods during adolescence and young adulthood–especially lots of fruits and vegetables–may have significantly lower breast cancer risk than those who eat less dietary fiber when young. The researchers looked at a group of 90,534 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study II, a large long-running investigation of factors that influence women's health. The women–ages 27-44 at the time–filled out questionnaires about their food intake, and did so every four years after that. The researchers analyzed the women's fiber intake while adjusting for a number of other factors, such as race, family history of breast cancer, body mass index, weight change over time, menstruation history, alcohol use, and other dietary factors.   (NEXT)   Cocoa flavanols may use gut microbiota pathway to ease metabolic syndrome: Review   Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, January 29, 2022   Consuming cocoa flavanols may interact with the gut microbiota as a way of preventing metabolic syndrome or easing the condition's symptoms, a review has concluded. While flavanols from a variety of dietary sources appear promising, cocoa flavanols represent an emerging approach for intervention in metabolic syndrome. Flavanols are compounds found in a variety of plant-based foods and beverages, including tea, apples, grapes, cocoa and nuts. Cocoa is generally regarded as the most concentrated dietary source of flavanols with the strongest antioxidant potential.   (NEXT)   Cruciferous vegetables help the immune system to fight intestinal pathogens   Francis Crick Institute, January 28, 2022   A study in mice shows that eating cruciferous vegetables—including broccoli, kale and cauliflower – helps the immune system to fight intestinal pathogens. The research might have implications for people with inflammatory bowel diseases. A protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) plays a crucial role in protecting us from external pollutants, toxins and pathogens at barrier sites in our body such as the skin, lungs and gut. Studying the role of AhR in the gut, scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have discovered that another protein, known as Cyp1a1, regulates immunity in the gut by providing feedback on AhR signalling by degrading the molecules that activate AhR—known as AhR ligands However, too much Cyp1a1 can deplete AhR ligands altogether. This could result in susceptibility to bacteria like pathogenic E. Coli and might play a role in conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.   (VIDEO) Klaus Schwab referencing the global leaders groomed by WEF- at Harvard's JFK School of Government, 2017   Quit social media | Dr. Cal Newport | TEDxTysons Social Media – Why it Sickens the Self and Divides Society COVID-19: A Second Opinion (LETTER)   Letter to Joe Rogan   Dear Joe, I am writing in response to your recent clip about the controversy that has arisen over your coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have been a media host dealing primarily with medicine and health for 57 years and have been engaged in many media wars and even censorship for over four decades. One lesson I have learned is to never apologize when you are correct.  Although I have not watched all of your programs addressing pandemic-related topics, your guests who have questioned the official government narrative, notably Drs. McCullough and Malone, were correct and were far better prepared to provide supporting scientific references to their claims than were Drs. Gupta and Hotez. That should be evident to your regular viewers. I would like to offer a suggestion. Have your staff make transcripts of your interviews from your pro- and con- guests and send them respectively with a request to provide supporting scientific evidence to their statements. Follow this up by moderating an open dialogue with an invitation to the press and critics to ask questions specific to the actual science and supporting clinical evidence, including the positions of our federal health agencies and the World Health Organization.  This will enable your audience and the greater public to decide.  I can predict with strong confidence that individuals such as Gupta, Osterholm and Hotez will decline to dialogue with those who they have consistently ridiculed. For those in power and whom the dominant narrative protects, it is never in their best interest to publicly debate their critics. Nevertheless your very gesture to advance open debate will be an enormous boon for yourself and a growing audience. Already, Spotify has aligned with the pro-establishment fact checkers to serve as the final arbiters of the content and conversations you conduct henceforth. This new effort is thoroughly non-objective and biased. Now that you have apologized and have exposed a weakness, unless you remain firm with your integrity to weigh out the facts and evidence objectively, they will be certain to further erode your reputation and they will succeed. In the future, whatever you air that can be ruled as misinformation – rightly or wrongly — will be magnified across the media. And it will not cease until your opponents get you off the air. You are surely aware that the assault against your program and person is highly coordinated; however, it seems certain that Spotify also exerted some kind of pressure to have you acquiesce to some demands. You have a remarkable audience, it is my belief that the size of your audience comes from your honesty and integrity, an unflinching character to shout out truth to power. Now you are at the threshold of power shouting back.  Trust your audience, not your enemies. Because no apologies you make will be fully respected because you now represent a clear and present threat to their agenda. I hope you take my comments in solidarity with your courage to question many of the lingering uncertainties, contradictions and vagrant misleading statements that comprise the official Covid narrative. Gary Null, PhD   (OTHER NEWS) Tangled Tale of NATO Expansion at the Heart of Ukraine Crisis Joe Lauria, Consortium News, January 28, 2022   The end of the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Soviet Union two years later presented the United States with a choice: triumphalism or reconciliation. There was hope of a “peace dividend” because the fortune spent on armaments for so long could now be spent on domestic needs. The Warsaw Pact dissolved and there was hope that its counterpart, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, would also pass into history.  Rather its expansion has become a flashpoint in the current standoff over Ukraine. To assent to the reunification of Germany, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ultimately agreed to a proposal from then U.S. Secretary of State James Baker that a reunited Germany would be part of NATO but the military alliance would not move “one inch” to the east, that is, absorb any of the former Warsaw Pact nations into NATO. On Feb. 9, 1990, Baker said: “We consider that the consultations and discussions in the framework of the 2+4 mechanism should give a guarantee that the reunification of Germany will not lead to the enlargement of NATO's military organization to the East.” On the next day, then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said: ““We consider that NATO should not enlarge its sphere of activity.” Gorbachev's mistake was not to get it in writing as a legally-binding agreement.  For years it was believed there was no written record of the Baker-Gorbachev exchange at all, until the National Security Archive at George Washington University in December 2017 published a series of memos and cables about these assurances against NATO expansion eastward.  '” One Jan. 31, 1999 cable from the U.S. embassy in Bonn informed Washington that German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher's speech that day made clear “that the changes in Eastern Europe and the German unification process must not lead to an ‘impairment of Soviet security interests.' Therefore, NATO should rule out an ‘expansion of its territory towards the east, i.e. moving it closer to the Soviet borders.'” President Bill Clinton's administration investigated the matter and concluded that Yeltsin was wrong and that no NATO expansion eastward was ever promised. According to a 2014 article in Foreign Affairs: “'You say that NATO is not directed against us, that it is simply a security structure that is adapting to new realities,' Gorbachev told Baker in May, according to Soviet records. ‘Therefore, we propose to join NATO.' Baker refused to consider such a notion, replying dismissively, ‘Pan-European security is a dream.'” Since then NATO has held many military exercises Russia has found threatening. TASS reported in December that NATO holds 40 exercises a year near Russian territory. In 2016, a 10-day maneuver was carried out in Poland with 31,000 NATO troops from 24 nations and thousands of  tanks and other vehicles. That year NATO also installed a missile base in Romania that can strike Russia, claiming it was only “defensive” against incoming missiles from Iran, though the weapons can also be used offensively. A similar missile base, previously canceled, is slated to be operational in Poland later this year. Six years after NATO promised Ukraine would one day become a member, the U.S. led a coup in Kiev that overthrew a democratically-elected president who leaned towards Moscow. The U.S. move seemed to come from Brzezinski's playbook. In his 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, he wrote: “Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire. Russia without Ukraine can still strive for imperial status, but it would then become a predominantly Asian imperial state.” Thus U.S. “primacy,” or world dominance, which still drives Washington, is not possible without control of Eurasia, as Brzezinski argued, and that's not possible without control of Ukraine by pushing Russia out.  What Brzezinski and U.S. leaders still view as Russia's “imperial ambitions” are in Moscow seen as imperative defensive measures against an aggressive West.   (NEXT)   Sweden decides against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-11   Reuters, January 28, 2022   Sweden has decided against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-11, the Health Agency said on Thursday, arguing that the benefits did not outweigh the risks. “With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don't see any clear benefit with vaccinating them,” Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm told a news conference.

Black cumin's anti-inflammatory potential may have airways/asthma benefits: RCT   University College London, January 27, 2022   Supplements containing oil from black cumin (Nigella sativa) may improve asthma control and lung function, says a new study. The new study, published in Phytotherapy Research , found that one gram per day of the oil for four weeks led to significant improvements in scores of asthma control and a “remarkable reduction of peripheral blood eosinophil count,” wrote the authors “Eosinophil cell plays a major role in asthma inflammation, and blood eosinophil count is considered to be a vital biomarker in asthma trials. To our knowledge, this is the first [randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial] that showed a significant reduction of blood eosinophilia by [Nigella sativa oil (NSO)] among asthmatic patients.”   (NEXT)   Meat, multiple sclerosis and the microbiome   University of Connecticut, January 27, 2022   Eating more meat, having less of certain bacteria in the gut, and more of certain immune cells in the blood, all link with multiple sclerosis, reports a team of researchers led by UConn Health and Washington University School of Medicine. The work, published in the 27 January issue of EBioMedicine, teased out subtle connections that could lead to a better understanding of the causes of the disease. But teasing out the exact relationships between diet, immune response and MS has been difficult. MS is most obviously an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the insulation surrounding its nerves. When the insulation is damaged enough, the nerves begin to misfire and malfunction like wires with frayed insulation. But what triggers the body to attack the insulation in the nervous system in the first place is unknown.   (NEXT)   Flavonoids may reduce mortality risk for people with Parkinson's disease   Pennsylvania State University, January 27, 2022   People with Parkinson's disease who eat more flavonoids—compounds found in richly colored foods like berries, cocoa and red wine—may have a lower mortality risk than those who don't, according to a new study. Specifically, the researchers found that when people who had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) ate more flavonoids, they had a lower chance of dying during the 34-year study period than those who did not consume as many flavonoids. Additionally, they found that eating more flavonoids before being diagnosed with PD was associated with a lower risk of dying in men, but not in women.   (NEXT)   Team Links Social Media Use to Worse Physical Health   University of Buffalo, January 26, 2022   A new study finds a link between social media use and biological and psychological indicators associated with poor physical health among college students The researchers found participants who used social media excessively had higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biological marker of chronic inflammation that predicts serious illnesses, such as diabetes, certain cancers, and cardiovascular disease.   (NEXT)   Can A Lack of Sleep Make You Feel Older?   University of Exeter (UK), January 28, 2022   A study from the University of Exeter in the UK suggests that you are more likely to perceive yourself to be older than your biological age if you don't get enough sleep. Researchers looked at the aging and sleep patterns of nearly 4,500 adults aged 50 years and higher, asking them about sleep quality and sleep duration and giving them cognitive performance tests and lifestyle questionnaires. The participants were given the same questionnaire twice—once at baseline and again a year later. The result? Overall, those who reported sleeping poorly also had a higher awareness of negative age-related changes, while those who slept better tended to feel younger. "Our research suggests that poor sleepers feel older and have a more negative perception of aging," noted Serena Sabatini, the lead author of the study. One interesting finding of the study: middle-aged adults with healthy sleep habits tended to feel younger than their biological age, but those who had trouble sleeping felt every year of their actual age…or, more troubling, they felt older than they were. Why does this matter? If you feel like you are older than your actual age, it can have a lasting impact on your physical, mental and cognitive health.   (VIDEO)   Bill Maher Rant Against the Left - about 8 min Brussels - What Really Happened - 7:30 minutes Canadian Constitutional Crisis | Brian Peckford | The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast S4: E78 Mainstream Media Melts Down as National ‘Defeat the Mandates DC' Rally Overcomes Political Divides   (OTHER NEWS)   The Pressure Campaign on Spotify to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship   Glenn Greenwald, January 29, 2022   American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party). For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then demand that such “hateful” views be prohibited on that basis. For that reason, it is now common to hear Democrats assert, falsely, that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not protect “hate speech." Their political culture has long inculcated them to believe that they can comfortably silence whatever views they arbitrarily place into this category without being guilty of censorship. Constitutional illiteracy to the side, the “hate speech” framework for justifying censorship is now insufficient because liberals are eager to silence a much broader range of voices than those they can credibly accuse of being hateful. That is why the newest, and now most popular, censorship framework is to claim that their targets are guilty of spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation.” These terms, by design, have no clear or concise meaning. Like the term “terrorism,” it is their elasticity that makes them so useful. When liberals' favorite media outlets, from CNN and NBC to The New York Times and The Atlantic, spend four years disseminating one fabricated Russia story after the next — from the Kremlin hacking into Vermont's heating system and Putin's sexual blackmail over Trump to bounties on the heads of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, the Biden email archive being "Russian disinformation,” and a magical mystery weapon that injures American brains with cricket noises — none of that is "disinformation” that requires banishment. Nor are false claims that COVID's origin has proven to be zoonotic rather than a lab leak, the vastly overstated claim that vaccines prevent transmission of COVID, or that Julian Assange stole classified documents and caused people to die. Corporate outlets beloved by liberals are free to spout serious falsehoods without being deemed guilty of disinformation, and, because of that, do so routinely. This "disinformation" term is reserved for those who question liberal pieties, not for those devoted to affirming them. That is the real functional definition of “disinformation” and of its little cousin, “misinformation.” It is not possible to disagree with liberals or see the world differently than they see it. The only two choices are unthinking submission to their dogma or acting as an agent of "disinformation.” Dissent does not exist to them; any deviation from their worldview is inherently dangerous — to the point that it cannot be heard. The data proving a deeply radical authoritarian strain in Trump-era Democratic Party politics is ample and have been extensively reported here. Democrats overwhelmingly trust and love the FBI and CIA. Polls show they overwhelmingly favor censorship of the internet not only by Big Tech oligarchs but also by the state. Leading Democratic Party politicians have repeatedly subpoenaed social media executives and explicitly threatened them with legal and regulatory reprisals if they do not censor more aggressively — a likely violation of the First Amendment given decades of case law ruling that state officials are barred from coercing private actors to censor for them, in ways the Constitution prohibits them from doing directly. Democratic officials have used the pretexts of COVID, “the insurrection," and Russia to justify their censorship demands. Both Joe Biden and his Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, have "urged” Silicon Valley to censor more when asked about Joe Rogan and others who air what they call “disinformation” about COVID. They cheered the use of pro-prosecutor tactics against Michael Flynn and other Russiagate targets; made a hero out of the Capitol Hill Police officer who shot and killed the unarmed Ashli Babbitt; voted for an additional $2 billion to expand the functions of the Capitol Police; have demanded and obtained lengthy prison sentences and solitary confinement even for non-violent 1/6 defendants; and even seek to import the War on Terror onto domestic soil. Given the climate prevailing in the American liberal faction, this authoritarianism is anything but surprising. For those who convince themselves that they are not battling mere political opponents with a different ideology but a fascist movement led by a Hitler-like figure bent on imposing totalitarianism — a core, defining belief of modern-day Democratic Party politics — it is virtually inevitable that they will embrace authoritarianism. When a political movement is subsumed by fear — the Orange Hitler will put you in camps and end democracy if he wins again — then it is not only expected but even rational to embrace authoritarian tactics including censorship to stave off this existential threat. Fear always breeds authoritarianism, which is why manipulating and stimulating that human instinct is the favorite tactic of political demagogues. And when it comes to authoritarian tactics, censorship has become the liberals' North Star. Every week brings news of a newly banished heretic. Liberals cheered the news last week that Google's YouTube permanently banned the extremely popular video channel of conservative commentator Dan Bongino. His permanent ban was imposed for the crime of announcing that, moving forward, he would post all of his videos exclusively on the free speech video platform Rumble after he received a seven-day suspension from Google's overlords for spreading supposed COVID “disinformation.” What was Bongino's prohibited view that prompted that suspension? He claimed cloth masks do not work to stop the spread of COVID, a view shared by numerous experts and, at least in part, by the CDC. When Bongino disobeyed the seven-day suspension by using an alternative YouTube channel to announce his move to Rumble, liberals cheered Google's permanent ban because the only thing liberals hate more than platforms that allow diverse views are people failing to obey rules imposed by corporate authorities. It is not hyperbole to observe that there is now a concerted war on any platforms devoted to free discourse and which refuse to capitulate to the demands of Democratic politicians and liberal activists to censor. The spear of the attack are corporate media outlets, who demonize and try to render radioactive any platforms that allow free speech to flourish. When Rumble announced that a group of free speech advocates — including myself, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, comedian Bridget Phetasy, former Sanders campaign videographer Matt Orfalea and journalist Zaid Jilani — would produce video content for Rumble, The Washington Post immediately published a hit piece, relying exclusively on a Google-and-Facebook-aligned so-called "disinformation expert” to malign Rumble as "one of the main platforms for conspiracy communities and far-right communities in the U.S. and around the world” and a place “where conspiracies thrive," all caused by Rumble's "allowing such videos to remain on the site unmoderated.” (The narrative about Rumble is particularly bizarre since its Canadian founder and still-CEO, Chris Pavlovski created Rumble in 2013 with apolitical goals — to allow small content creators abandoned by YouTube to monetize their content — and is very far from an adherent to right-wing ideology). The same attack was launched, and is still underway, against Substack, also for the crime of refusing to ban writers deemed by liberal corporate outlets and activists to be hateful and/or fonts of disinformation. After the first wave of liberal attacks on Substack failed — that script was that it is a place for anti-trans animus and harassment — The Post returned this week for round two, with a paint-by-numbers hit piece virtually identical to the one it published last year about Rumble. “Newsletter company Substack is making millions off anti-vaccine content, according to estimates,” blared the sub-headline. “Prominent figures known for spreading misinformation, such as [Joseph] Mercola, have flocked to Substack, podcasting platforms and a growing number of right-wing social media networks over the past year after getting kicked off or restricted on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,” warned the Post. It is, evidently, extremely dangerous to society for voices to still be heard once Google decrees they should not be. This Post attack on Substack predictably provoked expressions of Serious Concern from good and responsible liberals. That included Chelsea Clinton, who lamented that Substack is profiting off a “grift.” Apparently, this political heiress — who is one of the world's richest individuals by virtue of winning the birth lottery of being born to rich and powerful parents, who in turn enriched themselves by cashing in on their political influence in exchange for $750,000 paychecks from Goldman Sachs for 45-minute speeches, and who herself somehow was showered with a $600,000 annual contract from NBC News despite no qualifications — believes she is in a position to accuse others of "grifting.” This Post-manufactured narrative about Substack instantly metastasized throughout the liberal sect of media. “Anti-vaxxers making ‘at least $2.5m' a year from publishing on Substack,” read the headline of The Guardian, the paper that in 2018 published the outright lie that Julian Assange met twice with Paul Manafort inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and refuses to this day to retract it (i.e., “disinformation"). Like The Post, the British paper cited one of the seemingly endless number of shady pro-censorship groups — this one calling itself the “Center for Countering Digital Hate” — to argue for greater censorship by Substack. “They could just say no,” said the group's director, who has apparently convinced himself he should be able to dictate what views should and should not be aired: “This isn't about freedom; this is about profiting from lies. . . . Substack should immediately stop profiting from medical misinformation that can seriously harm readers.” The emerging campaign to pressure Spotify to remove Joe Rogan from its platform is perhaps the most illustrative episode yet of both the dynamics at play and the desperation of liberals to ban anyone off-key. It was only a matter of time before this effort really galvanized in earnest. Rogan has simply become too influential, with too large of an audience of young people, for the liberal establishment to tolerate his continuing to act up. Prior efforts to coerce, cajole, or manipulate Rogan to fall into line were abject failures. On Tuesday, musician Neil Young demanded that Spotify either remove Rogan from its platform or cease featuring Young's music, claiming Rogan spreads COVID disinformation. Spotify predictably sided with Rogan, their most popular podcaster in whose show they invested $100 million, by removing Young's music and keeping Rogan. The pressure on Spotify mildly intensified on Friday when singer Joni Mitchell issued a similar demand. All sorts of censorship-mad liberals celebrated this effort to remove Rogan, then vowed to cancel their Spotify subscription in protest of Spotify's refusal to capitulate for now; a hashtag urging the deletion of Spotify's app trended for days. Many bizarrely urged that everyone buy music from Apple instead; apparently, handing over your cash to one of history's largest and richest corporations, repeatedly linked to the use of slave labor, is the liberal version of subversive social justice. Democrats are not only the dominant political faction in Washington, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, but liberals in particular are clearly the hegemonic culture force in key institutions: media, academia and Hollywood. That is why it is a mistake to assume that we are near the end of their orgy of censorship and de-platforming victories. It is far more likely that we are much closer to the beginning than the end. The power to silence others is intoxicating. Once one gets a taste of its power, they rarely stop on their own. Indeed, it was once assumed that Silicon Valley giants steeped in the libertarian ethos of a free internet would be immune to demands to engage in political censorship ("content moderation” is the more palatable euphemism which liberal corporate media outlets prefer). But when the still-formidable megaphones of The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, CNN and the rest of the liberal media axis unite to accuse Big Tech executives of having blood on their hands and being responsible for the destruction of American democracy, that is still an effective enforcement mechanism. Billionaires are, like all humans, social and political animals and instinctively avoid ostracization and societal scorn. Beyond the personal interest in avoiding vilification, corporate executives can be made to censor against their will and in violation of their political ideology out of self-interest. The corporate media still has the ability to render a company toxic, and the Democratic Party more now than ever has the power to abuse their lawmaking and regulatory powers to impose real punishment for disobedience, as it has repeatedly threatened to do. If Facebook or Spotify are deemed to be so toxic that no Good Liberals can use them without being attacked as complicit in fascism, white supremacy or anti-vax fanaticism, then that will severely limit, if not entirely sabotage, a company's future viability.

Study finds vitamin D supplements with or without Omega-3s decreased risk of autoimmune diseases   Brigham and Women's Hospital, January 27 2022   Autoimmune diseases (AD) such as rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, autoimmune thyroid disease and psoriasis, are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality as people age. Few effective treatments are available for AD, but some preclinical studies have hinted that supplements, including vitamin D and omega-3 (or n-3) fatty acids, may have beneficial effects. In a new study published in BMJ, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital evaluated whether taking vitamin D and/or omega fatty acid supplements could affect rates of AD. The team tested this in the large-scale vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL), a randomized study which followed participants for approximately five years. Investigators found the people who took vitamin D, or vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids had a significantly lower rate of AD than people who took a placebo.   (NEXT)   Blueberry extract outperforms radiation in killing cervical cancer cells, study reveals   University of Missouri, January 27, 2022   Recent research has focused on attempts to identify radiosensitizers – or non-toxic, natural substances that can make radiation more effective – and (you guessed it) blueberry extract is emerging at the forefront – with a new study showcasing its ability to work along with radiation to combat cervical cancer. In a study of human cancer cells conducted at the University of Missouri, researchers found that combining blueberry extract with radiation increased the treatment's effectiveness.   (NEXT)   Physical activity protects against type 2 diabetes by modifying metabolism   University of Eastern Finland, January 26, 2022   Regular physical activity significantly changes the body's metabolite profile, and many of these changes are associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. The study population included more than 7,000 men who were followed up for eight years. Men in the highest physical activity category had a 39% lower risk of type 2 diabetes than men who were physically inactive. Physical activity was associated with the levels of a total of 198 metabolites, i.e., compounds formed as a result of the body's metabolism, and increased physical activity had an impact on some of the same metabolites that have previously been associated with a health-promoting diet. In addition, the study showed that increased physical activity improves insulin secretion.   (NEXT)   Food as medicine   Mayo Clinic, January 26 2022.    The oft-heard adage “Let food be thy medicine” appears to be valid advice according to the results of a first of its kind study published on January 26, 2022 in the Journal of Nutrition. “Based on the outcomes seen in our study, using this type of food as medicine approach expands the options for medical professionals and patients,” first author Stephen Kopecky, MD, FACC, of the Mayo Clinic commented. “Many patients who are unwilling or unable to take statin drugs may be able to help manage their high cholesterol, or hyperlipidemia with a realistic food-based intervention.”   (NEXT)   Maternal consumption of soft drinks may be linked to ADHD symptoms in offspring   University of Bergen (Norway), January 27, 2022   Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch researchers examining a large Norwegian population-based cohort recently reported in European Journal of Nutrition that daily maternal intake of sweetened carbonated beverages (SCB) in pregnancy was associated with an increase in ADHD symptoms among offspring at eight years of age.   (VIDEO)   1. Barrister Una McGurk (Ireland) on pandemic and cancel culture – 6 minutes 2. VOICES PROFESSOR DOLORES CAHILL (2:56) 3. VOICES: ANNE MCCLOSKEY GP (3:48) 4. VOICES: DR PAT MORRISSEY (5:02) 5. VOICES: DR MARCUS DE BRUN (5:13)   (OTHER NEWS)   How 5G Puts Airplanes at Risk – An Electrical Engineer Explains   By Prasenjit Mitra, Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State. The Conversation, January 26, 2022   New high-speed cellphone services have raised concerns of interference with aircraft operations, particularly as aircraft are landing at airports. The Federal Aviation Administration has assured Americans that most commercial aircraft are safe, and AT&T and Verizon have agreed to hold off on installing their new cellphone antennas near airports for six months. But the problem has not been entirely resolved.   Concerns began when the U.S. government auctioned part of the C-band spectrum to wireless carriers in 2021 for US$81 billion. The carriers are using C-band spectrum to provide 5G service at full speed, 10 times the speed of 4G networks. The C-band spectrum is close to the frequencies used by key electronics that aircraft rely on to land safely. Here's why that can be a problem.   Wireless signals are carried by radio waves. The radio spectrum ranges from 3 hertz to 3,000 gigahertz and is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The portion of the radio spectrum that carries the signals from your phone and other wireless devices is 20 kilohertz to 300 gigahertz.   If two wireless signals in the same area use the same frequency, you get garbled noise.   Modern airplanes use altimeters, which calculate the time it takes for a signal to bounce back from the ground to determine a plane's altitude. These altimeters are a vital part of automatic landing systems that are especially useful in cases where there is low visibility.   So, if an altimeter interprets a signal from a wireless carrier as the rebounded signal from the ground, it may think that the ground is closer than it is and prematurely try to lower the landing gear and do the other maneuvers that are needed to land an aircraft. If interference with wireless carrier signals corrupts and garbles the altimeter's radio signals, the altimeter may not recognize the rebounded signal and thus be unable to figure out how close to the ground the plane is.   The portions of the radio frequency spectrum used by airplanes and cellphone carriers are different. The problem is that airplane altimeters use the 4.2 to 4.4 gigahertz range, while the recently sold – and previously unused – C-band spectrum for wireless carriers ranges from 3.7 to 3.98 gigahertz. It turns out the 0.22 gigahertz difference between the signals may not be quite enough to be absolutely sure that a cellphone carrier signal will not be mistaken for or corrupt an altimeter's signal.   (NEXT)   The Scientific Misconduct Story Behind Ivermectin   Joseph Mercola, January 26, 2022   STORY AT-A-GLANCE In mid-February 2021, Dr. Andrew Hill at Liverpool University published a scientific meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials involving the use of ivermectin. The review, funded by the World Health Organization and UNITAID, found the drug increased viral clearance and reduced COVID-19 deaths by 75%, yet the conclusion of the paper was dismissive In early April 2021, Hill was accused of scientific misconduct by the French civic group, Association BonSens. BonSens claims Hill manipulated data to downplay the usefulness of ivermectin. Hill admitted that the study sponsor had crafted the conclusion In early August 2021, Hill published a public notice stating one of the six studies included in his analysis had been withdrawn due to fraudulent data. A revised analysis excluding that study was published in November 2021 In the November revision, Hill included 23 randomized clinical trials, concluding ivermectin had no statistically significant effect on survival or hospitalizations Other meta-analyses of 13 to 24 studies have found reductions in death ranging from 62% to 91%. Recent research has also found a five-day course of ivermectin at a dose of 12 mg per day sped up viral clearance, reducing the duration of symptomatic illness by three days compared to placebo (9.7 days versus 12.7 days)

Large study links higher nutrient intake with lower risk of mortality during 9.3-year median period   University of Connecticut, January 25, 2022   A study that utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Education Survey (NHANES) found an association between having an adequate intake of vitamin E, iron, magnesium, potassium, EPA and DHA, essential amino acids and fiber and a lower risk of dying during a median follow-up period of 9.3 years. The study included 20,602 men and women enrolled in NHANES. During a median 9.3-year period, 3,539 participants died.  The participants who survived were more likely to have reported a higher intake of specific nutrients. Notably, compared to participants whose magnesium intake was among the lowest one-third, those whose intake was among the top third had a 22% lower adjusted risk of dying from any cause, a 35% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 29% lower risk of cancer death during follow-up. Magnesium wasn't the only nutrient linked to a lower risk of mortality during follow-up; the top consumers of vitamin E, iron, potassium and fiber had 19%, 15%, 18% and 16% lower respective risks of premature all-cause mortality.   (NEXT)   Active ingredient in cannabis protects aging brain cells   Salk researchers find cannabinol preserves mitochondrial function and prevents oxidative damage to cells Salk Institute, January 25, 2021   Decades of research on medical cannabis has focused on the compounds THC and CBD in clinical applications. But less is known about the therapeutic properties of cannabinol (CBN). Now, a new study by Salk scientists shows how CBN can protect nerve cells from oxidative damage, a major pathway to cell death. The findings, published online January 6, 2022, in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, suggest CBN has the potential for treating age-related neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's. “We've found that cannabinol protects neurons from oxidative stress and cell death, two of the major contributors to Alzheimer's,” says senior author Pamela Maher, a research professor and head of Salk's Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory. “This discovery could one day lead to the development of new therapeutics for treating this disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson's disease.”   (NEXT)   Apple polyphenols may slash inflammation marker levels, change gut microbiota   University of Auckland (New Zealand)   Polyphenols from apples may modify the bacterial populations in the gut, and reduce markers of inflammation, according a new study from New Zealand Data from a study indicated that adding extracts from genetically engineered apples with increased flavonoids led to 10-fold decrease in levels of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins than extracts from non-transformed apples. In addition, the total number of bacteria in the colons of animals fed a diet containing the transformed apple extracts was 6% higher than for mice fed the control diet, said the researchers in the Journal of Nutrition . “The findings here further demonstrate that apple consumption affects aspects of inflammatory pathways and the gut microbiota.   (NEXT)   Extra 10 minutes of daily activity could save 110,000 U.S. lives annually   National Cancer Institute, January 25, 2022   If everyone between 40 and 85 years of age were active just 10 minutes more a day, it could save more than 110,000 U.S. lives a year, a large study reports. "Our projections are based on an additional 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity," said lead researcher Pedro Saint-Maurice at the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. "If the walk is brisk, it counts." And added exercise benefits everyone—white, Black, Asian and Hispanic, men and women, the investigators found.   (NEXT)   Alzheimer's defense: omega-3s linked to larger brain volume   University of South Dakota, January 24, 2022   Among the myriad changes that accompany aging, shrinking brain volume can be a worrying one. A normal part of growing older, it can also be a sign of Alzheimer's disease. But the good news is that a recent study suggests people with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids have larger brain volumes in old age. The research, published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that the larger brain volumes associated with higher omega-3 levels are the equivalent to preserving up to 2 years of brain health.   (VIDEO)   Dr. Robert Malone | Senator Ron Johnson COVID-19: A Second Opinion   (OTHER NEWS)   Authoritarian Madness: The Slippery Slope from Lockdowns to Concentration Camps   By John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead, January 26, 2022   In the politically charged, polarizing tug-of-war that is the debate over COVID-19, we find ourselves buffeted by fear over a viral pandemic that continues to wreak havoc with lives and the economy, threats of vaccine mandates and financial penalties for noncompliance, and discord over how to legislate the public good without sacrificing individual liberty. The discord is getting more discordant by the day. Just recently, for instance, the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board suggested that government officials should mandate mass vaccinations and deploy the National Guard “to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.” In other words, lock up the unvaccinated and use the military to determine who gets to be “free.” In Italy, the unvaccinated are banned from restaurants, bars and public transportation, and could face suspensions from work and monthly fines. Similarly, France will ban the unvaccinated from most public venues. In Austria, anyone who has not complied with the vaccine mandate could face fines up to $4100. Police will be authorized to carry out routine checks and demand proof of vaccination, with penalties of as much as $685 for failure to do so. In China, which has adopted a zero tolerance, “zero COVID” strategy, whole cities—some with populations in the tens of millions—are being forced into home lockdowns for weeks on end, resulting in mass shortages of food and household supplies. Reports have surfaced of residents “trading cigarettes for cabbage, dishwashing liquid for apples and sanitary pads for a small pile of vegetables. One resident traded a Nintendo Switch console for a packet of instant noodles and two steamed buns.” For those unfortunate enough to contract COVID-19, China has constructed “quarantine camps” throughout the country: massive complexes boasting thousands of small, metal boxes containing little more than a bed and a toilet. Detainees—including children, pregnant women and the elderly— were reportedly ordered to leave their homes in the middle of the night, transported to the quarantine camps in buses and held in isolation. If this last scenario sounds chillingly familiar, it should. Eighty years ago, another authoritarian regime established more than 44,000 quarantine camps for those perceived as “enemies of the state”: racially inferior, politically unacceptable or simply noncompliant. While the majority of those imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, forced labor camps, incarceration sites and ghettos were Jews, there were also Polish nationals, gypsies, Russians, political dissidents, resistance fighters, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. You don't have to be unvaccinated or a conspiracy theorist or even anti-government to be worried about what lies ahead. You just have to recognize the truth in the warning: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is not about COVID-19. Nor is it about politics, populist movements, or any particular country. This is about what happens when good, generally decent people—distracted by manufactured crises, polarizing politics, and fighting that divides the populace into warring “us vs. them” camps—fail to take note of the looming danger that threatens to wipe freedom from the map and place us all in chains. It's about what happens when any government is empowered to adopt a comply-or-suffer-the-consequences mindset that is enforced through mandates, lockdowns, penalties, detention centers, martial law, and a disregard for the rights of the individual.   (NEXT)   95% Deceptive: COVID Vaccine Efficacy & Medical Betrayal   How statistical sleights of hand betrayed the heart and soul of medicine. Dr. Benjamin Kaplan-Singer, MD.   January 25, 2022   COVID Combat Zones We are in the midst of informational and narrative warfare. All things COVID are active combat zones. Within this, vaccines are the most polarizing, controversial, hot button issue. On one extreme are those who believe COVID vaccines should be mandatory whether that is accomplished by: applying censorship, public shaming, and cancel culture to stifle dissent; making employment, school enrollment, travel, and private/public event participation contingent on vaccination status; threatening to remove licenses from medical professionals; or even going door-to-door with armed enforcers. (Yes, I have heard this suggested on multiple occasions.) On the other extreme are those who believe COVID vaccines are a bioweapon being used for depopulation, soul-harvesting, and to socially engineer a technocratic, totalitarian, panopticon state. Most people are in the center, doing their best to make sense of the risks and benefits of vaccination and early treatment options in order to make informed choices for themselves and their families. On November 16, 2020 NIH announced “Promising Interim Results from Clinical Trial of NIH-Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine” reporting “the candidate was safe and well-tolerated and noted a vaccine efficacy rate of 94.5%.”1 The New England Journal of Medicine published the trial on February 4, 2021 where it reported “94.1% efficacy.”2 On December 10, 2020 Pfizer and BioNTech announced “Publication of Results from Landmark Phase 3 Trial of BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate in The New England Journal of Medicine,” reporting “the vaccine candidate was well tolerated and demonstrated 95% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in those without prior infection 7 days or more after the second dose.”3  The New England Journal of Medicine published the trial on December 31, 2020 reporting the vaccine was “95% effective in preventing Covid-19.”4 From “95% effective” it is a short cognitive leap to: When X% of the population vaccinates, COVID will (mostly) disappear When COVID (mostly) disappears life will return to normal(-ish) Vaccination protects the vulnerable People have a social responsibility to vaccinate The social contract means to participate in society you must vaccinate Trials showed the vaccines are safe, therefore the vaccines are safe The benefits of the vaccines clearly outweigh the risks The unvaccinated are overburdening hospitals If you do not vaccinate you are overburdening hospitals Overburdening hospitals kills innocent people The unvaccinated are the ones spreading COVID If you do not vaccinate you are killing someone's grandma or immunocompromised child Trust the science, trust the experts The unvaccinated are spreading misinformation The unvaccinated are anti-science, brainwashed, delusional conspiracy theorists, ignorant, selfish assh*les Anyone who questions vaccines should be shamed, censored, canceled, or penalized Relative Deception The “95% effective” frame comes from Pfizer-BioNTech's published trial and refers to a specific statistical measurement called relative risk reduction Of note, the trials did not look at: the effectiveness of the vaccine on hospitalizations, deaths, or transmission; on the effect of confirmed cases of COVID beyond 2 months post-vaccination; safety beyond 2 months; in addition, the control group did receive vaccination in what is called “crossover” which makes medium and longer term safety data very difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain. Furthermore, for trial results to translate to real world conditions we must make at least two assumptions: that the population being vaccinated is comparable to the population in the study and that the virus does not evolve in a way that reduces vaccine effectiveness. Keep in mind, the absolute risk reduction from these trials refers to the average decreased risk an individual has of getting a confirmed case of COVID (i.e. it does not confer information about hospitalization, death, transmission, nor “long COVID”) within a certain time window after vaccination. Absolute risk reduction is the best available measurement, but only conveys the average reduction in risk for the average individual in the trial. Pfizer-BioNTech's “95% effective” vaccine reduces risk on average by 0.84% Moderna-NIH's “94% effective” vaccine reduces risk on average by by 1.2% Gamaleya's “91% effective” vaccine reduces risk on average by 0.93% J&J's “67% effective” vaccine reduces risk on average by 1.2% AstraZeneca–Oxford's “67% effective” vaccine reduces risk on average by 1.3% As you can clearly see, there is no correlation between the espoused effectiveness of a vaccine based on its relative risk reduction, and how much the vaccine decreases your personal risk of a confirmed case of COVID based on absolute risk reduction. Given the COVID vaccines reduce an individual's risk of a confirmed case within a certain time window after vaccination by 0.84-1.3% – which some people will consider a marginal benefit – obvious questions ensue.

New study calls into question the importance of meat eating in shaping our evolution George Washington University, Jan. 24, 2022  Quintessential human traits such as large brains first appear in Homo erectus nearly 2 million years ago. This evolutionary transition towards human-like traits is often linked to a major dietary shift involving greater meat consumption. A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, calls into question the primacy of meat eating in early human evolution. While the archaeological evidence for meat eating increases dramatically after the appearance of Homo erectus, the study authors argue that this increase can largely be explained by greater research attention on this time period, effectively skewing the evidence in favor of the “meat made us human” hypothesis. Barr and his colleagues compiled published data from nine major research areas in eastern Africa, including 59 site levels dating between 2.6 and 1.2 million years ago. They used several metrics to track hominin carnivory: the number of zooarchaeological sites preserving animal bones that have cut marks made by stone tools, the total count of animal bones with cut marks across sites, and the number of separately reported stratigraphic levels. The researchers found that, when accounting for variation in sampling effort over time, there is no sustained increase in the relative amount of evidence for carnivory after the appearance of H. erectus.    New study shows aged garlic extract can reduce dangerous plaque buildup in arteries UCLA Medical Center, January 21, 2022   The supplement Aged Garlic Extract can reverse the buildup of deadly plaque in arteries and help prevent the progression of heart disease, according to a new study scheduled for publication in the Journal of Nutrition.   The research, conducted at LA BioMed, found a reduction in the amount of low-attenuation plaque, or "soft plaque," in the arteries of patients with metabolic syndrome who took Aged Garlic Extract. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by obesity, hypertension and other cardiac risk factors.   Following evaluation, the participants were given either a placebo or a dose of 2,400 milligrams of Aged Garlic Extract every day. A follow-up screening conducted a year after the initial screening found those who had taken Aged Garlic Extract had slowed total plaque accumulation by 80%, reduced soft plaque and demonstrated regression (less plaque on follow-up) for low-attenuation plaque.       Eating More Plants May Keep Dementia From Flourishing University of Barcelona (Spain), January 14, 2022   A recently published 12-year cohort study out of the University of Barcelona suggests that following a plant-based diet may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older age. Of the 800 participants, all aged 65 and up, those who consumed polyphenol-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables, as well as mushrooms, cocoa, coffee and red wine, had a lower risk of dementia compared to those who avoided these "superfoods." According to the study's authors, these findings shed light on the relationship between the body's metabolism, the gut's microbiome (which includes trillions of microorganisms) and cognitive impairment. "Studying this relationship is essential to develop preventive and therapeutic strategies that help take care of our cognitive health," the authors stated in the Molecular Nutrition & Food Research Journal.   Supplement urolithin A appears to boost muscle, mitochondria health University of Washington School of Medicine, January 22, 2022 An oral supplement intended to stimulate a natural body process appears to promote muscle endurance and mitochondrial health in humans. New research suggests that the supplement, urolithin A, may help improve or prolong muscle activity in people who are aging or who have diseases that make exercise difficult.  Urolithin A is a byproduct of a person's gut bacteria and a diet comprising polyphenols found in pomegranates, berries and nuts. Because diet, age, genetics and disease affect the makeup of the gut microbiome, people produce urolithin A at variable rates. The compound also is produced and sold by dietary supplement companies. Supplemental urolithin A has been shown in animal tests and molecular studies of humans to stimulate mitophagy, a process that Marcinek explained as “mitochondrial quality control.” “Even though we did not observe an effect of the supplement in whole body function (via six-minute measure and ATP production),” Marcinek said, “these results are still exciting because they demonstrate that just taking a supplement for a short duration actually improved muscle endurance. Fatigue resistance got better in the absence of exercise.”The study's funder, Amazentis, of Lausanne, Switzerland, manufactures the urolithin A supplement used in the trial.   Step Up: walking may reduce Type 2 Diabetes risk for adults 65 and older University of California at San Diego, January 22, 2022 Walking regularly and at greater intensity may help prevent Type 2 diabetes among 70 and 80 year olds, according to one of the first studies measuring steps and pace among this population. The more steps a person takes, and the more intense, the lower their risk for developing diabetes, report researchers in a study published in Diabetes Care. “A key figure from our study is that for every 1,000 steps per day, our results showed a 6% lower diabetes risk in this population. What that means is, if the average older adult were to take 2,000 more steps every day in addition to what they were already doing, they might expect a 12% reduction in diabetes risk,” said first author Alexis C. Garduno, a third-year student in the University of California San Diego and San Diego State University joint doctoral program in public health.     Fish oil, vitamin B12 supplementation associated with lower plasma homocystein Zhejiang University (China), January 25 2022    The Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the finding of researchers at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China of a reduction in plasma homocysteine levels following supplementation with vitamin B12 and/or fish oil.    "No study has reported the effect of vitamin B12 in combination with fish oil on plasma homocysteine, ferritin, CRP and other cardiovascular disease risk factors in Chinese," announce Duo Li and colleagues in their introduction to the article.    Thirty men and women were randomly assigned to receive 1000 micrograms (mcg) vitamin B12, 2 grams fish oil, or 2 grams fish oil plus 1000 mcg vitamin B12. Plasma vitamin B12, lipids, ferritin (a biomarker of iron status), C-reactive protein (CRP), total homocysteine and other factors were measured before treatment and after four and eight weeks of supplementation.    Among those who received fish oil alone or fish oil plus vitamin B12, triglycerides, CRP and ferritin significantly decreased after four and eight weeks of supplementation. Homocysteine was lowered by 22% in the vitamin B12 group, 19% in the fish oil group and 39% among those who received both supplements for eight weeks.       VIDEO   Nicole Sirotek (founder of America's Frontline Nurses) shares what she saw on the front lines Speaking at congressional hearing moderated by Sen Ron Johnson on Monday January 24 https://rumble.com/vt837j-registered-nurse-nicole-sirotek-shares-what-she-saw-on-the-front-lines-in-n.html   US Report Reveals 22 Years of Effort and Fluoridation Failed to Improve Oral Health New York -- January 24, 2022  Despite increases in public water fluoridation, dental visits, sealants, fluoride varnish applications, and significant financial, training, and program investments, oral health hasn't improved in 22 years, according to a National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) Oral Health in America Report (December 2021), reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. (NYSCOF). “America's shockingly poor dental system, poverty and poor diets are to blame,” says attorney Paul Beeber, NYSCOF President.  Millions of Americans can't access dental care, while 70% of US children and adolescents are fluoride-overdosed, afflicted with fluorosis (permanently discolored teeth).   For example, the NIDCR reports: The military continues to face challenges in meeting recruitment goals and military readiness because of oral health-related issues. Untreated cavities among the poor remain twice that of non-poor. Disparities persist by race/ethnicity status. Primary tooth decay increased in boys aged 6-11 and didn't change in adolescents' and adults' permanent teeth. Untreated decay in permanent teeth shows no progress.  In ages 2-11, decayed tooth surfaces increased with a greater impact on boys   Four out of 5 Americans aged 6 years and older experience cavities, irrespective of poverty or race/ethnicity status.   40% of children have eroded teeth.       China Builds 27 Empty New York Cities Epoch Times, January 20, 2022 As of 2016, China's empty apartment units could house New York City 27 times over. With that in mind, how could you afford to pay the construction mortgages on 70 million apartment units with no residents deeded to you by the evil genie? A challenging question. You would have to do some fast talking with the Chinese banks of the sort Trump managed with New York banks decades ago during the S&L crisis. Your only hope of avoiding being sucked into a black hole of debt defaults would be to hire some creative scoundrels disguised as accountants to help you persuade the banks to lend you additional billions (or more probably, trillions) to postpone the day of reckoning. Note that the extent to which you could succeed would only worsen the ultimate malinvestment problem. Your assets would not be enhanced in any way by being encumbered with additional debt. They would just become more costly. That is at least a $36.4 trillion question. Maybe a $45.9 trillion, or possibly even a $116.6 trillion question. The correct answer depends on China's actual debt level. Forbes reports the estimate of Professor Victor Shih of the University of California San Diego. Shih believes that Chinese official debt figures have proven woefully inadequate. In 2017, Shih put total Chinese debt at 328 percent of GDP (reported at $14 trillion), therefore $45.9 trillion. According to Shih, “total interest payments from June 2016 to June 2017 exceeded the incremental increase in nominal GDP by roughly 8 trillion RMB.” A collapse of China's asset bubble lies ahead. I doubt any Chinese tycoons are strolling the streets of Shanghai with their girlfriends, making jokes about street people being a trillion yuan richer than they are. That underscores a problem when the government of a country enlarges debt to magnitudes beyond the scale of assets held by even the wealthiest persons. That makes it all the more unlikely that mortgaged assets can be redeemed from hock while encumbered by anything like their current level of debt.   IMF sees cost of COVID pandemic rising beyond $12.5 trillion estimate  IMF/OECD News 21/01/2022   The International Monetary Fund expects to raise its forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic will cost the global economy $12.5 trillion through 2024, the head of the global lender said on Thursday. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told an event hosted by the Financial Times that supply chain disruptions, inflation and tighter monetary policy were “throwing cold water on the recovery everywhere.” She said huge gaps in COVID-19 vaccine rates and the overall widening divergence between rich and poor caused by the pandemic, along with learning losses and increased gender impacts, would cause more protests, tensions and insecurity.     Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19 Kory, Pierre MD, Marik, Paul E. MD American Journal of Therapeutics: May Jun 2021 - Volume 28 - Issue 3  Therapeutic Advances:  A large majority of randomized and observational controlled trials of ivermectin are reporting repeated, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes. Numerous prophylaxis trials demonstrate that regular ivermectin use leads to large reductions in transmission. Multiple, large “natural experiments” occurred in regions that initiated “ivermectin distribution” campaigns followed by tight, reproducible, temporally associated decreases in case counts and case fatality rates compared with nearby regions without such campaigns. Conclusions:  Meta-analyses based on 18 randomized controlled treatment trials of ivermectin in COVID-19 have found large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance. Furthermore, results from numerous controlled prophylaxis trials report significantly reduced risks of contracting COVID-19 with the regular use of ivermectin. Finally, the many examples of ivermectin distribution campaigns leading to rapid population-wide decreases in morbidity and mortality indicate that an oral agent effective in all phases of COVID-19 has been identified.     The media blackout on Fauci's damning emails They suggest something nefarious was up on the lab leak theory yet the press has refused to notice SPECTATOR WORLD, January 17, 2022  Last week saw another batch of emails drop from Anthony Fauci, and another media blackout as to their contents. The strategy by the press in cases like this has been pretty straightforward: ignore the story, wait for right-leaning media or Republicans to pick it up, then frame any attacks on the subject as tainted by partisanship. Last week, when confronted once again by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Fauci responded with more hyperbole and ad hominem. The media, meanwhile, framed the exchanges as “Rand Paul Attacks!” and “Anthony Fauci defends!” They refused to look at the information in the emails that Paul was asking about, refused to ask questions about them, refused to even report on them. They are interested in the bloodsport, not the truth. The reason for that is simple: the truth is becoming very problematic for the man who once conflated himself with science itself. The only reporting done on the emails by the New York Times, for instance, was a video clip from the Associated Press regarding the exchange with Senator Paul. What has not been covered with any sort of journalistic enthusiasm is the topic of the emails themselves, the most damning yet, which suggest that Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the NIH, purposefully downplayed the possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan, China, at the start of the pandemic because it might have damaged “international harmony” in the scientific community.   Alberta Canada Inadvertently Published (and Quickly Deleted) Health Data Exposing that More Than Half of Vaccinated Deaths Have Been Counted as Unvaccinated Gateway Pundit 23 January 2022 In yet another absolute bombshell revelation the government of Alberta, Canada exposed itself this week when it accidentally published damning evidence that exposes how the public health authorities have been manipulating the Covid-19 statistics. After seemingly realizing what it had just done, the corrupt Canadian province quickly scrambled to delete the incriminating data off their website, but, thanks to internet sleuths like Twitter user Metatron – and his substack post, we have the receipts. According to its latest Covid-19 update, the Alberta Government admitted to following the fraudulent standard that was in use by vaccine manufacturers during clinical trials – which is to ignore the adverse outcomes, including Covid infection, hospitalizations, and deaths, for fourteen days after vaccine administration – no matter how many doses they have had. But instead of just ignoring the cases like the vaccine manufacturers, the corrupt Alberta government has been lumping them in with the unvaxxed. In other words, anyone who was infected – was hospitalized – or even died, in the two weeks following their first, second, or even THIRD dose would be recorded as an unvaccinated case. And now, thanks to the now-deleted data, we can tell exactly how many cases have been fraudulently manipulated by inadvertently including the time from dose to infection for each of the events – and as it turns out, over half of the vaccinated deaths were added to the unvaccinated. Almost 56% of ‘recorded' Covid-related deaths among the vaccinated occurred within 14 days of vaccination – and almost 90% within 45 days, which is noteworthy because that is what's claimed to be the timeframe of the vaccine's effectiveness. As for hospitalizations, the numbers aren't that much better. Almost half of the severe cases among the vaccinated happened within the two-week window, meaning they were tallied as unvaccinated in the official record. 80% of which occurred within the first 45 days post-vaccination.   COVID testing firm piled unprocessed swabs in trash bags, billed feds $113M ARS TECHNICA  1/20/2022,  Federal and state investigations into a large national chain of COVID-19 testing sites have turned up tests that were never labeled with patients' names, tests piled into trash bags stored for long periods at room temperature, tests that were never processed, and test results that were clearly fake. Behind the testing sites are two Illinois-based companies: Center for COVID Control (CCC) and Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc., which is said to carry out COVID PCR testing for CCC. The two companies share the same address, though CCC is owned by Chicago-area couple Akbar Syed and Aleya Siyaj, while the clinical company is owned by Mohammed Shujauddin. Together, the companies claim to provide rapid and PCR testing for COVID-19, with fast turnaround times and no appointments necessary. So far, they have collected more than 400,000 samples from over 300 locations across the US. And they have billed the federal government over $113 million for running many of those tests. The companies are currently under investigation by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as multiple states. On Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit alleging numerous counts of deceptive or fraudulent practices by the pair. According to federal inspections reported by NBC News, CCC employees didn't even label some samples with patients' names. Inspection documents from federal investigators noted that "51 out of 51 patient specimen tubes contained in the box [they examined] were blank.”     Two Studies: COVID-19 Vaccines Trigger Autoimmune Graves' Disease  Sharyl Attkisson, The Vaccine Reaction, July 26, 2021   A recent published medical report out of Mexico details two cases of healthy, female health care workers who got COVID-19 vaccines and, three days later, developed “thyroid hyperactivity, suppressed thyroid-stimulating hormone, and elevated antithyroid antibodies.” They were both diagnosed with vaccine-induced Graves' disease. According to the authors who wrote up the cases, “autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by [vaccine] adjuvants  (ASIA), described for the first time a decade ago, is triggered by several adjuvants (a substance that enhances the antigen-specific immune response) and includes the following conditions: Gulf War syndrome, siliconosis, macrophagic myofasciitis syndrome, and postvaccination phenomena.” According to a summary, “Vaccines have been shown to trigger an immune response that leads to a broad spectrum of autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune thyroid disease. Our patients met the diagnostic criteria for ASIA [autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants]; they were exposed to an adjuvant (vaccine), and they developed clinical manifestations of thyroid hyperfunction within a few days, with the appearance of antithyroid antibodies, despite being healthy before vaccination.” The scientists write, “In addition, the spike glycoprotein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine shares a genetic similarity with a large heptapeptide human protein, so this is an additional factor that can trigger autoimmune disease (AID) after vaccination due to molecular mimicry.”     Antibodies from original strain COVID-19 infection don't bind to variants University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign People infected with the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 early in the pandemic produced a consistent antibody response, making two main groups of antibodies to bind to the spike protein on the virus's outer surface. However, those antibodies don't bind well to newer variants, a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found. The researchers mined published papers about COVID-19 patients for data about the sequence of the antibodies they produced. They focused on antibodies against the spike protein, the part of the virus that binds to receptors on human cells to infect them. The spike protein is the target of most vaccines. They found that many antibody sequences converged into two main groups, indicating a consistent human immune response to the virus, said graduate student Timothy Tan, the first author of the study. Even though this antibody response is very common with the original strain, it doesn't really interact with variants," Wu said. "That, of course, raises the concern of the virus evolving to escape the body's main antibody response. Some antibodies should still be effective—the body makes antibodies to many parts of the virus, not only the spike protein—but the particular groups of antibodies that we saw in this study will not be as effective."atients who have been infected with variants, understanding the difference in the immune response is one of the directions that we would like to pursue."   Why shoplifting is soaring across the US — and will only get worse NEW YORK POST. January 22, 2022   Retail crime has been rising throughout the US for the past five years, with organized criminal rings targeting stores everywhere from Woonsocket (Rhode Island) to Greensboro (North Carolina) to Grafton (Wisconsin). The National Retail Federation reported that store losses mounted from $453,940 per $1 billion in sales in 2015 to $719,458 in 2020.  The biggest increase over that period happened not during the pandemic but in 2019, when total losses from shoplifting surged to $61 billion, up from $50 billion the previous year. The COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and early 2021 moderated losses, largely because stores were closed or had curtailed operating hours. Now that retailing has resumed, crime has spiked again. Shoplifting no longer fits its traditional mold as a nonviolent crime perpetrated mostly by teens or substance-abusing adults. Nearly two-thirds of the retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation said that violence associated with store thefts has risen, led by organized gangs that resell the goods they steal. Like retailers, top law-enforcement officials place some of the blame for the crime surge on a widespread lessening of penalties for shoplifting.  California's recent headline-making “flash mob” shoplifting sprees have brought widespread attention to Proposition 47 — a 2014 state ballot initiative, supported by a range of left-leaning and libertarian groups, which, among other things, boosted the felony threshold for shoplifting from $450 of merchandise to $950. Soon after it passed, retailers in California began reporting a sharp uptick in retail theft, often in plain view of helpless store personnel and distressed customers.  What has received far less attention, however, is the fact that California's Prop. 47 was not an outlier among states. In the past 10 years, nearly half of all states have boosted their thresholds for retail felony theft. Thirty-eight states now don't consider shoplifting a felony unless $1,000 or more of merchandise gets stolen. A 2020 National Retail Federation report on organized retail crime found that two-thirds of retailers in states that had raised their felony shoplifting minimums reported growing retail theft.   The Significance of the Nuremberg Code: The Universal Right of Informed Consent to Medical Interventions By Alliance for Human Research Protection Global Research, September 20, 2021 The universal right of Informed Consent to medical interventions has been recognized in US law since at least 1914. That year, the New York Court of Appeals established the right to informed consent to medical intervention in a case involving non-consensual surgery. Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital 105 N.E. 92, 93 N.Y. (1914) Justice Benjamin Cardozo articulated the court's reasoning:   Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient's consent commits an assault for which he is liable in damages.” The 1947 Nuremberg Code is the most important legal document in the history of medical research ethics. It established 10 foundational principles of ethical clinical research. The first and foremost principle is unequivocal: “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential”. It prohibits research to be conducted on human beings without the informed consent of the individual. The first US Supreme Court decision in which the Nuremberg Code was invoked was in 1987.  The plaintiff was a Sergeant in the US Army who sought compensation — having been a victim in a covert CIA-sponsored, LSD mind-control experiment. In 1994, the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments was tasked with investigating and documenting the scope of unethical US government human radiation experiments. The (ACHRE) Report(1995) includes CIA mind-control experiments and devotes two chapters to the Nuremberg Code, and describes the growing influence that the Nuremberg Doctors Trial and the Nuremberg Code had on the American medical establishment. In 2001, the Maryland Court of Appeal explicitly cited the Nuremberg Code as a source of legally enforceable ethical standardsin the case against the Kennedy Krieger Institute. The case involved a government lead abatement experiment that exposed inner city Black toddlers to lead paint. The purpose was to record the damaging effects of lead. The parents were not informed about the purpose or the risks.  The case involved Pfizer which conducted an unapproved, trial of its experimental antibiotic, Trovan on children in Nigeria. The court found Pfizer guilty. Rabi Abdullahi, et al. v. Pfizer, Inc., 562 F.3d (2d Cir. 2009) “Among the nonconsensual experiments that the tribunal cited as a basis for their convictions were the testing of drugs for immunization against malaria, epidemic jaundice, typhus, smallpox and cholera. Seven of the convicted doctors were sentenced to death and the remaining eight were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. The American tribunal's conclusion that action that contravened the Code's first principle constituted a crime against humanity is a lucid indication of the international legal significance of the prohibition on nonconsensual medical experimentation.” Telford Taylor explained,“Nuernberg was based on enduring [legal] principles and not on temporary political expedients, and this fundamental point is apparent from the reaffirmation of the Nuernberg principles in Control Council Law No. 10, and their application and refinement in the 12 judgments rendered under that law during the 3-year period, 1947 to 1949.”   On March 7th an Israeli citizens group filed a a petition to the International Criminal Court charging the Israeli Government with violating the Nuremberg Code with its mandatory Vaccination policy Anshe Ha-Emet (People of the Truth) a fellowship, composed of Israeli doctors, lawyers and citizens, filed a complaint against the government national “medical experiment” without the informed consent of the citizens. Attorneys Ruth Makhachovsky and Aryeh Suchowolski filed the complaint stating: “When the heads of the Ministry of Health as well as the prime minister presented the vaccine in Israel and began the vaccination of Israeli residents, the vaccinated were not advised, that, in practice, they are taking part in a medical experiment and that their consent is required for this under the Nuremberg Code”.

Broccoli compound induces cell death, offers research path for cancer treatment    Hiroshima University (Japan), January 24, 2022 Broccoli may contain advantages beyond nutrition. A molecule found in broccoli, cabbage and more digests down into DIM, a compound with brighter benefits than the name implies, such as inducing cell death in breast, prostate and colon cancer. Now, researchers are beginning to understand the mechanism underpinning this molecular behavior — information that could help elucidate future anti-cancer treatments. In a report published oin PLOS One, Hiroshima University researchers summarize their finding that DIM, or 3,3'-Diindolylmethane, also triggers controlled whole-cell death and recycling of cellular components.   (NEXT)   Late-life exercise shows rejuvenating effects on cellular level University of Arkansas, January 24, 2022   For people who hate exercising, here comes some more bad news: it may also keep you younger. Not just looking younger, but actually younger, on an epigenetic level. By now, the benefits of exercise have been well established, including increased strength of bones and muscles, improved mobility and endurance, and lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. But younger? A study recently published in Aging Cell, "Late-life exercise mitigates skeletal muscle epigenetic aging," suggests this could be the case.   (NEXT)   Fish oil users have lower risk of liver cancer   Ningbo University (China) & Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US), January 24 2022. Findings from a study published in Frontiers in Nutrition revealed a significantly lower risk of liver cancer among people who supplemented with fish oil compared to nonusers. The study included 434,584 middle-aged and older men and women enrolled in the UK Biobank who were free of cancer upon enrollment. Participants were queried concerning fish oil use in questionnaires completed at the beginning of the study. Cancer registry data reported cases diagnosed during a median follow-up period of 7.8 years.   (NEXT)   Vitamin K could offer protection against severe COVID-19, study show   Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital (Netherlands), January 21, 2022 Proper nutrition can make a difference when it comes to many health problems, and COVID-19 is no exception. While zinc, Vitamin C and Vitamin D have been getting a lot of attention when it comes to COVID-19, researchers are now pointing to another useful nutrient: vitamin K. This fat-soluble vitamin is already well-known for its role in blood clotting, and that's why it could have a protective effect against COVID-19 given the virus's ability to cause blood clotting degradation of elastic fibers in the lungs. In a Preprint study, Dutch researchers suggested that people with severe COVID-19 may have low levels of vitamin K. They wrote: “Coagulation is an intricate balance between clot promoting and dissolving processes in which vitamin K plays a well-known role.”   (NEXT)   Olive oil could slash your chance of bone fractures in half, study says   Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea (Spain), January 24, 2022 Eating more extra virgin olive oil could cut your risk of osteoporosis related fractures, says a new study. The phenolic compounds found in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) have a potential benefit on bone health, lowering the risk of fractures by 51%, if consumed regularly. After looking at data of 870 people, a positive role of EVOO consumption on bone-related markers was found, despite there being no significant positive effects on bone fractures in subjects allocated to an EVOO diet.   (NEXT)   Red pigment in red peppers and oranges linked to a lower risk of lung cancer   Tufts University, January 20, 2022 Xiang-Dong Wang, a cancer researcher at Tufts, has spent a long time trying to figure out why carotenoids, the main pigments providing colors that range from yellow and pink to deep orange and red in most fruits and vegetables, seem to keep chronic diseases at bay. When a 2004 study by other researchers showed that eating foods containing beta-cryptoxanthin (BCX)—a red pigment abundant in sweet red peppers, paprika, winter and butternut squash, oranges. and tangerines, among other foods—was associated with a lower risk of lung cancer in people who smoke, he made BCX a focus of his research.   (OTHER NEWS NEXT)   US Report Reveals 22 Years of Effort and Fluoridation Failed to Improve Oral Health   New York -- January 24, 2022 Despite increases in public water fluoridation, dental visits, sealants, fluoride varnish applications, and significant financial, training, and program investments, oral health hasn't improved in 22 years, according to a National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) Oral Health in America Report (December 2021), reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. (NYSCOF). “America's shockingly poor dental system, poverty and poor diets are to blame,” says attorney Paul Beeber, NYSCOF President. Millions of Americans can't access dental care, while 70% of US children and adolescents are fluoride-overdosed, afflicted with fluorosis (permanently discolored teeth). For example, the NIDCR reports: ·  The military continues to face challenges in meeting recruitment goals and military readiness because of oral health-related issues. ·  Untreated cavities among the poor remain twice that of non-poor. Disparities persist by race/ethnicity status. ·  Primary tooth decay increased in boys aged 6-11 and didn't change in adolescents' and adults' permanent teeth. ·  Untreated decay in permanent teeth shows no progress. ·   In ages 2-11, decayed tooth surfaces increased with a greater impact on boys ·   Four out of 5 Americans aged 6 years and older experience cavities, irrespective of poverty or race/ethnicity status. ·   40% of children have eroded teeth.   (NEXT)   China Builds 27 Empty New York Cities   Epoch Times, January 20, 2022 As of 2016, China's empty apartment units could house New York City 27 times over. With that in mind, how could you afford to pay the construction mortgages on 70 million apartment units with no residents deeded to you by the evil genie? A challenging question. You would have to do some fast talking with the Chinese banks of the sort Trump managed with New York banks decades ago during the S&L crisis. Your only hope of avoiding being sucked into a black hole of debt defaults would be to hire some creative scoundrels disguised as accountants to help you persuade the banks to lend you additional billions (or more probably, trillions) to postpone the day of reckoning. Note that the extent to which you could succeed would only worsen the ultimate malinvestment problem. Your assets would not be enhanced in any way by being encumbered with additional debt. They would just become more costly. That is at least a $36.4 trillion question. Maybe a $45.9 trillion, or possibly even a $116.6 trillion question. The correct answer depends on China's actual debt level. Forbes reports the estimate of Professor Victor Shih of the University of California San Diego. Shih believes that Chinese official debt figures have proven woefully inadequate. In 2017, Shih put total Chinese debt at 328 percent of GDP (reported at $14 trillion), therefore $45.9 trillion. According to Shih, “total interest payments from June 2016 to June 2017 exceeded the incremental increase in nominal GDP by roughly 8 trillion RMB.” A collapse of China's asset bubble lies ahead. I doubt any Chinese tycoons are strolling the streets of Shanghai with their girlfriends, making jokes about street people being a trillion yuan richer than they are. That underscores a problem when the government of a country enlarges debt to magnitudes beyond the scale of assets held by even the wealthiest persons. That makes it all the more unlikely that mortgaged assets can be redeemed from hock while encumbered by anything like their current level of debt.   (NEXT)   IMF sees cost of COVID pandemic rising beyond $12.5 trillion estimate   IMF/OECD News 21/01/2022 The International Monetary Fund expects to raise its forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic will cost the global economy $12.5 trillion through 2024, the head of the global lender said on Thursday. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told an event hosted by the Financial Times that supply chain disruptions, inflation and tighter monetary policy were “throwing cold water on the recovery everywhere.” She said huge gaps in COVID-19 vaccine rates and the overall widening divergence between rich and poor caused by the pandemic, along with learning losses and increased gender impacts, would cause more protests, tensions and insecurity.   (NEXT)   The media blackout on Fauci's damning emails   They suggest something nefarious was up on the lab leak theory yet the press has refused to notice SPECTATOR WORLD, January 17, 2022 Last week saw another batch of emails drop from Anthony Fauci, and another media blackout as to their contents. The strategy by the press in cases like this has been pretty straightforward: ignore the story, wait for right-leaning media or Republicans to pick it up, then frame any attacks on the subject as tainted by partisanship. Last week, when confronted once again by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Fauci responded with more hyperbole and ad hominem. The media, meanwhile, framed the exchanges as “Rand Paul Attacks!” and “Anthony Fauci defends!” They refused to look at the information in the emails that Paul was asking about, refused to ask questions about them, refused to even report on them. They are interested in the bloodsport, not the truth. The reason for that is simple: the truth is becoming very problematic for the man who once conflated himself with science itself. The only reporting done on the emails by the New York Times, for instance, was a video clip from the Associated Press regarding the exchange with Senator Paul. What has not been covered with any sort of journalistic enthusiasm is the topic of the emails themselves, the most damning yet, which suggest that Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the NIH, purposefully downplayed the possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan, China, at the start of the pandemic because it might have damaged “international harmony” in the scientific community.   (NEXT)   Alberta Canada Inadvertently Published (and Quickly Deleted) Health Data Exposing that More Than Half of Vaccinated Deaths Have Been Counted as Unvaccinated   Gateway Pundit 23 January 2022 In yet another absolute bombshell revelation the government of Alberta, Canada exposed itself this week when it accidentally published damning evidence that exposes how the public health authorities have been manipulating the Covid-19 statistics. After seemingly realizing what it had just done, the corrupt Canadian province quickly scrambled to delete the incriminating data off their website, but, thanks to internet sleuths like Twitter user Metatron – and his substack post, we have the receipts. According to its latest Covid-19 update, the Alberta Government admitted to following the fraudulent standard that was in use by vaccine manufacturers during clinical trials – which is to ignore the adverse outcomes, including Covid infection, hospitalizations, and deaths, for fourteen days after vaccine administration – no matter how many doses they have had. But instead of just ignoring the cases like the vaccine manufacturers, the corrupt Alberta government has been lumping them in with the unvaxxed. In other words, anyone who was infected – was hospitalized – or even died, in the two weeks following their first, second, or even THIRD dose would be recorded as an unvaccinated case. And now, thanks to the now-deleted data, we can tell exactly how many cases have been fraudulently manipulated by inadvertently including the time from dose to infection for each of the events – and as it turns out, over half of the vaccinated deaths were added to the unvaccinated. Almost 56% of ‘recorded' Covid-related deaths among the vaccinated occurred within 14 days of vaccination – and almost 90% within 45 days, which is noteworthy because that is what's claimed to be the timeframe of the vaccine's effectiveness. As for hospitalizations, the numbers aren't that much better. Almost half of the severe cases among the vaccinated happened within the two-week window, meaning they were tallied as unvaccinated in the official record. 80% of which occurred within the first 45 days post-vaccination.   (NEXT)   COVID testing firm piled unprocessed swabs in trash bags, billed feds $113M   ARS TECHNICA  1/20/2022, Federal and state investigations into a large national chain of COVID-19 testing sites have turned up tests that were never labeled with patients' names, tests piled into trash bags stored for long periods at room temperature, tests that were never processed, and test results that were clearly fake. Behind the testing sites are two Illinois-based companies: Center for COVID Control (CCC) and Doctors Clinical Laboratory, Inc., which is said to carry out COVID PCR testing for CCC. The two companies share the same address, though CCC is owned by Chicago-area couple Akbar Syed and Aleya Siyaj, while the clinical company is owned by Mohammed Shujauddin. Together, the companies claim to provide rapid and PCR testing for COVID-19, with fast turnaround times and no appointments necessary. So far, they have collected more than 400,000 samples from over 300 locations across the US. And they have billed the federal government over $113 million for running many of those tests. The companies are currently under investigation by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as multiple states. On Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit alleging numerous counts of deceptive or fraudulent practices by the pair. According to federal inspections reported by NBC News, CCC employees didn't even label some samples with patients' names. Inspection documents from federal investigators noted that "51 out of 51 patient specimen tubes contained in the box [they examined] were blank.”   (NEXT)   Why shoplifting is soaring across the US — and will only get worse   NEW YORK POST. January 22, 2022 Retail crime has been rising throughout the US for the past five years, with organized criminal rings targeting stores everywhere from Woonsocket (Rhode Island) to Greensboro (North Carolina) to Grafton (Wisconsin). The National Retail Federation reported that store losses mounted from $453,940 per $1 billion in sales in 2015 to $719,458 in 2020. The biggest increase over that period happened not during the pandemic but in 2019, when total losses from shoplifting surged to $61 billion, up from $50 billion the previous year. The COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and early 2021 moderated losses, largely because stores were closed or had curtailed operating hours. Now that retailing has resumed, crime has spiked again. Shoplifting no longer fits its traditional mold as a nonviolent crime perpetrated mostly by teens or substance-abusing adults. Nearly two-thirds of the retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation said that violence associated with store thefts has risen, led by organized gangs that resell the goods they steal. Like retailers, top law-enforcement officials place some of the blame for the crime surge on a widespread lessening of penalties for shoplifting. California's recent headline-making “flash mob” shoplifting sprees have brought widespread attention to Proposition 47 — a 2014 state ballot initiative, supported by a range of left-leaning and libertarian groups, which, among other things, boosted the felony threshold for shoplifting from $450 of merchandise to $950. Soon after it passed, retailers in California began reporting a sharp uptick in retail theft, often in plain view of helpless store personnel and distressed customers. What has received far less attention, however, is the fact that California's Prop. 47 was not an outlier among states. In the past 10 years, nearly half of all states have boosted their thresholds for retail felony theft. Thirty-eight states now don't consider shoplifting a felony unless $1,000 or more of merchandise gets stolen. A 2020 National Retail Federation report on organized retail crime found that two-thirds of retailers in states that had raised their felony shoplifting minimums reported growing retail theft. (NEXT)   The Significance of the Nuremberg Code: The Universal Right of Informed Consent to Medical Interventions   By Alliance for Human Research Protection Global Research, September 20, 2021 The universal right of Informed Consent to medical interventions has been recognized in US law since at least 1914. 1. That year, the New York Court of Appeals established the right to informed consent to medical intervention in a case involving non-consensual surgery. Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital 105 N.E. 92, 93 N.Y. (1914) Justice Benjamin Cardozo articulated the court's reasoning: Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient's consent commits an assault for which he is liable in damages.” 2. The 1947 Nuremberg Code is the most important legal document in the history of medical research ethics. It established 10 foundational principles of ethical clinical research. The first and foremost principle is unequivocal: “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential”. It prohibits research to be conducted on human beings without the informed consent of the individual. 4. The first US Supreme Court decision in which the Nuremberg Code was invoked was in 1987.  The plaintiff was a Sergeant in the US Army who sought compensation — having been a victim in a covert CIA-sponsored, LSD mind-control experiment. 5. In 1994, the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments was tasked with investigating and documenting the scope of unethical US government human radiation experiments. The (ACHRE) Report (1995) includes CIA mind-control experiments and devotes two chapters to the Nuremberg Code, and describes the growing influence that the Nuremberg Doctors Trial and the Nuremberg Code had on the American medical establishment. 6. In 2001, the Maryland Court of Appeal explicitly cited the Nuremberg Code as a source of legally enforceable ethical standards in the case against the Kennedy Krieger Institute. The case involved a government lead abatement experiment that exposed inner city Black toddlers to lead paint. The purpose was to record the damaging effects of lead. The parents were not informed about the purpose or the risks. 7.  The case involved Pfizer which conducted an unapproved, trial of its experimental antibiotic, Trovan on children in Nigeria. The court found Pfizer guilty. Rabi Abdullahi, et al. v. Pfizer, Inc., 562 F.3d (2d Cir. 2009) “Among the nonconsensual experiments that the tribunal cited as a basis for their convictions were the testing of drugs for immunization against malaria, epidemic jaundice, typhus, smallpox and cholera. Seven of the convicted doctors were sentenced to death and the remaining eight were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. The American tribunal's conclusion that action that contravened the Code's first principle constituted a crime against humanity is a lucid indication of the international legal significance of the prohibition on nonconsensual medical experimentation.” Telford Taylor explained,“Nuernberg was based on enduring [legal] principles and not on temporary political expedients, and this fundamental point is apparent from the reaffirmation of the Nuernberg principles in Control Council Law No. 10, and their application and refinement in the 12 judgments rendered under that law during the 3-year period, 1947 to 1949.” 10. On March 7th an Israeli citizens group filed a a petition to the International Criminal Court charging the Israeli Government with violating the Nuremberg Code with its mandatory Vaccination policy Anshe Ha-Emet (People of the Truth) a fellowship, composed of Israeli doctors, lawyers and citizens, filed a complaint against the government national “medical experiment” without the informed consent of the citizens. Attorneys Ruth Makhachovsky and Aryeh Suchowolski filed the complaint stating: “When the heads of the Ministry of Health as well as the prime minister presented the vaccine in Israel and began the vaccination of Israeli residents, the vaccinated were not advised, that, in practice, they are taking part in a medical experiment and that their consent is required for this under the

Korean scientists emphasize the health benefits of ginseng   Pusan National University (South Korea), September 16, 2021   Ginseng, a widely popular superfood, has long been used in traditional medicine. The health benefits of ginseng are largely attributed to compounds called ginsenosides, which are present in the roots, stems, and leaves of the plant. Ginsenosides are known to prevent inflammation, diabetes, and cancer, and can also help control blood cholesterol levels and reduce aging. Although there are 13 known species of ginseng, Korean ginseng—which contains the highest number of ginsenosides—is not commonly found in nature. Moreover, of the two types of ginsenosides, the more effective variety—the minor ginsenosides—accounts for only 20% of the total ginsenoside content in ginseng.    (NEXT)   Study reveals how saline solution can inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2   The use of a hypertonic solution of sodium chloride at 1.1% reduced viral replication by 88% in tests involving infected lung cells   University of San Paulo (Brazil)   Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have shown that a hypertonic saline solution inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and have elucidated the biochemical mechanism involved. An article reporting the research is published in ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science. The study was performed in the laboratory using human epithelial lung cells infected with the virus. If the strategy proves effective in clinical trials, it could contribute to the development of novel prophylactic interventions to prevent COVID-19 or even treatments for the disease. “Given the gravity of the pandemic, we believe it would be important to extend this line of research by conducting clinical trials designed to verify the efficacy of using a spray with hypertonic sodium chloride [NaCl] saline as a form of prophylaxis, helping to stop the virus from spreading within the infected organism and reducing the likelihood of more severe inflammation,” said Cristiane Guzzo, last author of the article and a researcher at the university's Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICB-USP).    (NEXT)   How stress can cause a fever   Psychological stress can trigger physiological responses, including an increase in body temperature. A neural circuit that underlies this stress-induced heat response has been identified.   You are about to take the stage to speak in front of a large audience. As you wait, your heart starts to pound, your breathing quickens, your blood pressure rises and your palms sweat. These physiological responses are evolutionarily conserved mechanisms to prepare your body to fight against imminent dangers, or to run away quickly. Another key response is an increase in body temperature. Emotional stress can cause this psychogenic fever in many mammalian species, from rodents to humans1,2. What is the neural mechanism that underlies this phenomenon? Writing in Science, Kataoka et al.3 describe a key neural circuit in psychologically induced hyperthermia.   The current work builds on a long legacy of research by the same group, who began their quest for a neuronal circuit that triggers heat production in 2004, using brown fat tissue as an entry point4. Brown fat is a type of ‘good' fat that can generate heat when needed. Blocking the activity of β3-adrenergic receptor proteins, which are abundant in brown fat and enable the tissue to respond to signals from neurons, attenuates stress-induced hyperthermia5. (NEXT)   Study finds that Pilates significantly improves blood pressure in young, obese women   Marymount University (US)   A new paper in The American Journal of Hypertension, published by Oxford University Press, finds that mat Pilates may be an effective strategy to improve cardiovascular health for young obese women, a population that is at risk for hypertension and early vascular complications.   With an estimated 9 million participants in 2018 and a series of celebrity endorsements, including Beyoncé and Emma Stone, mat Pilates training has seen a recent resurgence in popularity. It has become one of the most widely known wellness routines in the United States. The program emphasizes core strength, flexibility, body posture, and controlled breathing.   At the same time, the prevalence of obesity in young adults has become a major public health issue. Though it is well-documented that exercise is a key factor in preventing and managing cardiovascular health problems, obese women tend not to maintain traditional workout routines. Despite sources in the media reporting on the cardiovascular benefits of Pilates, the existing scientific literature is scarce.   Researchers here studied young obese women (age 19-27) with elevated blood pressure and a body mass index between 30-40kg/m2 through 12 weeks of mat Pilates. The participants were free of chronic diseases, were non-smokers and performed less than 90 minutes of regular exercise per week. There were three one-hour training sessions per week, which were divided into the following stages: initial warm up and stretch (10min), general mat Pilates exercises (40 min), and a cool down (10 min). The training increased over the 12 weeks, with the repetition of each exercise steadily increasing. A certified mat Pilates instructor supervised all sessions.   (NEXT)   Link between inflammation and pancreatic cancer development uncovered   University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center   A new discovery from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has clarified the long-established connection between inflammation and pancreatic cancer development. According to the study published today in Science, pancreatic cells display an adaptive response to repeated inflammatory episodes that initially protects against tissue damage but can promote tumor formation in the presence of mutant KRAS.   The authors demonstrated that mutant KRAS—which is found in roughly 95% of all pancreatic cancers—supports this adaptive response, leading to selective pressure to maintain the cancer-causing mutation.   "We discovered that a single transient inflammatory event induced long-term transcriptomic and epigenetic reprogramming of epithelial cells that cooperated with oncogenic KRAS to promote pancreatic tumors long after the inflammation was resolved," said corresponding author Andrea Viale, M.D., assistant professor of Genomic Medicine. "In the setting of repeated pancreatitis, KRAS mutations can be acquired early on to limit tissue damage, suggesting the existence of a strong evolutionary pressure to select mutated cells and providing a possible explanation for the nearly universal presence of mutant KRAS in pancreatic cancers." (NEXT)   Vegetable Compound Shows Promise Against Diabetic Kidney Disease   AlMaarefa University (Saudi Arabia)   A compound that occurs in watercress and other cruciferous vegetables, phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), has shown a potential benefit against diabetic nephropathy, according to research on rodents presented at the American Association for Anatomy annual meeting, held during Experimental Biology 2021.* “Diabetic nephropathy is a serious microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus and the major cause of end-stage renal disease,” Mohamed El-Sherbiny, PhD, and colleagues wrote. Previous research has indicated that a vegetable compound known as sulforaphane that is related to PEITC reduces diabetes-associated kidney damage. For the current study, the research team evaluated the effects of PEITC in a rat model of diabetic nephropathy. The animals were given 3, 10 or 30 milligrams per kilogram PEITC for eight weeks. Kidney function, inflammation, oxidative stress, total antioxidant capacity, antioxidant enzyme levels, protein glycation and kidney structure were assessed at the beginning and end of the treatment period. Phenethyl isothiocyanate administration was associated with improved kidney function, oxidant/antioxidant balance, inflammation and protein glycation, with higher doses associated with greater results.

Drinking beetroot juice reduces high blood pressure, trial shows Queen Mary University (UK), January 20, 2022   One glass of beetroot juice a day is enough to significantly reduce blood pressure in patients with high blood pressure, conclude researchers who conducted a placebo-controlled trial in dozens of patients.   "This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people with hypertension - even those whose high blood pressure was not controlled by drug treatment." Beetroot contains high levels of inorganic nitrate. Other leafy vegetables - such as lettuce and cabbage - also have high levels of the compound, which they take up from the soil through their roots. In the human body, inorganic nitrate converts to nitric oxide, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels. The patients in the active supplement group also experienced a 20% or so improvement in blood vessel dilation capacity and their artery stiffness reduced by around 10%. Studies show such changes are linked to reduced risk of heart disease.     Researchers recommend clinical trials for CBD to prevent COVID-19 based on promising animal data University of Chicago Medical Center, January 20 2022 An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Chicago has found evidence that cannabidiol (CBD), a product of the cannabis plant, can inhibit infection by SARS-CoV-2 in human cells and in mice. The study, published on January 20, 2022, in Science Advances, found that CBD showed a significant negative association with SARS-CoV-2 positive tests in a national sample of medical records of patients taking the FDA-approved drug for treating epilepsy. The researchers now say that clinical trials should be done to determine whether CBD could eventually be used as a preventative or early treatment for COVID-19. They caution, however, that the COVID-blocking effects of CBD come only from a high purity, specially formulated dose taken in specific situations. The study's findings do not suggest that consuming commercially available products with CBD additives that vary in potency and quality can prevent COVID-19. "CBD has anti-inflammatory effects, so we thought that maybe it would stop the second phase of COVID infection involving the immune system, the so-called 'cytokine storm.' Surprisingly, it directly inhibited viral replication in lung cells," said Marsha Rosner, Ph.D., Charles B. Huggins Professor in the Ben May Department of Cancer Research and a senior author of the study. To see this effect, the researchers first treated human lung cells with a non-toxic dose of CBD for two hours before exposing the cells to SARS-CoV-2 and monitoring them for the virus and the viral spike protein. They found that above a certain threshold concentration, CBD inhibited the virus's ability to replicate. Further investigation found that CBD had the same effect in two other types of cells and for three variants of SARS-CoV-2 in addition to the original strain. CBD did not affect the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to enter the cell. Instead, CBD was effective at blocking replication early in the infection cycle and six hours after the virus had already infected the cell.   Mediterranean diet associated with a lower risk of mortality in older adults University of Barcelona (Spain), January 20, 2022 A greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet which had been assessed through an index made with biomarkers during a 20-year scientific monitoring is associated with a lower mortality in adults over 65.  The study is based on the InCHIANTI project, conducted in the region of the Italian Tuscany, a study that has been carried out during 20 years in a total of 642 participants (56 percent women) aged over 65 or more and which enabled researchers to obtain complete data on food biomarkers. In the study, researchers chose the reference levels of the following dietary biomarkers in the urine: total polyphenols and resveratrol metabolites (from grape intake) and presents in plasma, plasma carotenoids, selenium, vitamin B12, fatty acids and their proportion of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Using a predictive model, they assessed the associations of the Mediterranean diet index and the food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) with mortality. Once the models were analyzed, the score of the Mediterranean diet using the biomarkers was inversely associated with all causes of death.   The best way to fix a sad mood: Whatever you think works best Ohio State University, January 20, 2022 What's the best way to improve a sad mood? It may be whatever skill you think you're best at, a new study suggests. Think you're good at mindfulness techniques? Then that may work best for you. Or do you believe a more cognitive approach is your strength? Then use that. Researchers found that people who were in a sad mood improved more quickly when they used a mood-improving method that they were told was their strongest skill. These participants improved more quickly than people asked to use a skill that they were told was a relative weakness. "We only studied mindfulness and cognitive skills here, but there are a variety of approaches to improving mental health," he said. "The ones that you think would work best for you probably will indeed work best."   Tomato Juice Reduces Inflammation and Waist Size In Women Tufts and Boston universities,  January 20, 2022   A daily glass of tomato juice is known to significantly lower cardiovascular disease, cancer and even osteoporosis. A new study is now showing that it also has a direct effect on waist circumference, cholesterol, and markers of inflammation in women.

   Data from 30 women revealed that a daily glass of 280 mL of tomato juice containing 32.5 mg of lycopene was associated with an average reduction in waist circumference of 1.6 cm and more than one pound kg reduction in body weight.   The tomato juice supplements were associated with a 22% decrease in levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), a potent marker of inflammation, and a 25% increase in adiponectin levels, according to findings published in Nutrition . Adiponectin is a hormone released from fat cells, which plays an important role in the regulation of insulin sensitivity and energy.     Does coffee help protect against endometrial cancer? Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, January 20, 2022   Higher coffee consumption is linked with a lower risk of endometrial cancer, a type of cancer that begins in the lining of uterus, according to an analysis of relevant studies published to date. Also, caffeinated coffee may provide better protection than decaffeinated coffee. The analysis, which appears in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research, included 24 studies on coffee intake with 9,833 new cases of endometrial cancer occurring in 699,234 individuals. People in the highest category of coffee intake had a 29% lower relative risk of developing endometrial cancer than those in the lowest category.     LETTER RE. WIKIPEDIA To the Victims of Wikipedia's Libel, You are by now fully aware that the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been exceedingly antagonistic against your careers and your personal stances on many issues that directly affect the principles of democracy, freedom of speech, medical choice and personal well-being. In particular, medical professionals and advocates for natural health have been categorically ridiculed, libeled and their careers canceled. This disturbing trend continues to worsen. Sadly, editors who support globalist agendas and the pharmaceutical industry now far outnumber those trying to make efforts to write opposing views in the spirit of neutrality and objectivity. Repeatedly I hear that efforts to correct the numerous inaccuracies, misinformation, biases and derogatory terms on biographical entries are exercises in futility. The encyclopedia's parent organization, the WikiMedia Foundation, has been habitually unresponsive to demands for corrections and refuses to enforce its volunteer editors to abide by its editorial rules of neutrality when dealing with subjects regarding alternative medicine and the biographies of its advocates. Since Wikipedia is ranked in the top three websites that people turn to for information about current events, medicine and general health, and for biographical information about public figures and contemporary voices, I am convinced that numerous people have been wrongfully misled and dissuaded from seeking reliable information on Wikipedia. The Foundation refuses to assume responsibility and to be held accountable for the abuse being perpetrated by individual editors and groups promoting antagonistic ideologies. The consequence has been that your reputations have been seriously undermined and damaged. Over the years, voluminous complaints have been communicated and/or filed to the Foundation, including lawsuits, about the gross violations in Wikipedia's editorial policies, misinformation and inflammatory and potentially libelous language. Based upon the evidence and my repeated encounters with the Wikimedia Foundation's in-house and outside attorneys it is my belief that the encyclopedia's efforts to advance a globalist and corporate-friendly ideology may be intentional. It is not merely the hundreds of thousands of physicians worldwide who rely on peer-reviewed supported therapies, but Wikipedia's animus has spread far and wide to assure that its users have no objective choice over sound information about personal religious, socio-political or health decisions. Robert Kennedy Jr, Sharyl Attkinsson, Rupert Sheldrake, Abby Martin, Julian Assange and literally hundreds of others who have exemplary careers and who have been repeatedly accurate have had their accomplishments scrubbed and destroyed. Anonymous Wikipedia editors have made it their personal mission to paint them as promoters of misinformation and conspiracy theories should be verbally ostracized.  The Foundation recently hired a new Executive Director, Maryam Iskander. Although I originally hoped this may signal a positive change in Wikipedia's neutrality policies and new efforts would be forthcoming to rein in radical ideological editors, I am no longer optimistic. Ms Iskander happens to be an upcoming leader aligned with the World Economic Forum. I now have every reason to believe that Wikipedia will increasingly steer its editing closer towards the Great Reset agenda.  Despite ours and others' numerous attempts and failures to deal directly with the Foundation's legal department and Board members to have misinformation corrected or biographies eliminated altogether, there are options that can be pursued by those who have been ridiculed, shamed and wrongfully characterized on Wikipedia. Each of us has lost something due to Wikipedia's denial of truth. However, we can continue to record our personal achievements on our websites and through our allies.  Second, we can continue to investigate and write critical essays and analyses exposing Wikipedia's biases, negligence, misinformation, political partisanship, smear campaigns and its financial collaborations with private anti-democratic entities, corporate industries and government agencies.  With the growing consolidation of various neoliberal and globalist Wikipedia editors' presence, including the Skeptics of scientific materialism, into a reactionary movement, this is a critical moment for us to take the upper hand by cooperating together to challenge Wikipedia wherever there is demonstrable proof of ill-will and gross bias. I believe a grassroots national campaign to “Walk Away From Wikipedia” would capture the Foundation's attention. For our part we have written over 70 articles exposing the encyclopedia, its senior editors and the Foundation's corporate relations. Yet there remains much more to uncover and report.    Best regards,   Gary Null, PhD

Magnesium is essential for the immune system, including in the fight against cancer University of Basel (Switzerland), January 19, 2022 Previous studies have shown that cancerous growths spread faster in the bodies of mice when the animals received a low-magnesium diet – and that their defense against flu viruses was also impaired. However, there has so far been little research into how exactly this mineral affects the immune system. Now, researchers have discovered that T cells can eliminate abnormal or infected cells efficiently only in a magnesium-rich environment. Specifically, magnesium is important for the function of a T cell surface protein called LFA-1. (NEXT) More lycopene linked to longer lives for people with metabolic syndrome University of Nebraska Medical Center, January 16, 2022 Higher blood levels of lycopene may reduce the risk of mortality in people with metabolic syndrome, says a new study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Lycopene is an antioxidant that is present in red- and pink-colored fruits and vegetables. As well as being used as a food coloring, it is also used in supplements and functional foods and beverages. New data published in Nutrition Research suggests that higher serum levels of lycopene were associated with greater survival times for people with metabolic syndrome, compared to low serum levels. (NEXT) Too much sugar during adolescence may alter brain's reward circuits European Journal of Neuroscience, January 19, 2022 A new study in rats may provide significant insights into the long-term impacts of over-consumption of sugary foods during adolescence. The study shows that the enjoyment of such foods later in adulthood is reduced in those who over-consumed early in life. Investigators found that this decrease in reward relates to reduced activity in one of the key hubs of the brain's reward circuitry, called the nucleus accumbens. Such long-lasting alterations could have important implications for reward-related disorders such as substance abuse or eating disorders. (NEXT) Unveiled the epigenetic mechanism by which vitamin D modulates the tolerance of the immune system Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (Germany), January 19, 2022 In autoimmunity, the mechanisms that guarantee that our defense system does not attack our own body - tolerance to oneself - does not work properly. Multiple sclerosis, which affects one in every 1,000 people in Spain, is a serious autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath of some types of neurons, causing progressive neurological disability. Dr. Esteban Ballestar, leader of the Epigenetics and immune diseases group at the Josep Carrreras Leukaemia Research Institute, and Dr. Eva Martínez-Cáceres, leader of the Immunopathology group at the IGTP-Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, have recently published in the prestigious journal Cell Reports the mechanism by which vitamin D activates the tolerance program of dendritic cells. (NEXT) Study links poor sleep in seniors to more severe arteriosclerosis University of Toronto, January 19, 2022 Poor sleep quality in older people is associated with more severe arteriosclerosis in the brain as well as a greater burden of oxygen-starved tissue (infarcts) in the brain, both of which can contribute to the risk of stroke and cognitive impairment, according to the newest findings reported in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke. The relationship between cardiovascular disease and so-called "fragmented" sleep has been studied in the past, but this is the first study to look specifically for an association between sleep fragmentation and detailed microscopic measures of blood vessel damage and infarcts in autopsied brain tissue from the same individuals. Fragmented sleep occurs when sleep is interrupted by repeated awakenings or arousals. In this study, sleep was disrupted on average almost seven times per hour. Researchers found that greater sleep fragmentation was associated with 27 percent higher odds of having severe arteriosclerosis. Moreover, for each additional two arousals during one hour of sleep, researchers reported a 30 percent increase in the odds that subjects had visible signs of oxygen deprivation in their brain. (OTHER NEWS) America's New Class War Chris Hedges, January 18, 2022 There is one last hope for the United States. It does not lie in the ballot box. It lies in the union organizing and strikes by workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, Lyft, John Deere, Kellogg, the Special Metals plant in Huntington, West Virginia, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the Northwest Carpenters Union, Kroger, teachers in Chicago, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona, fast-food workers, hundreds of nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Organized workers, often defying their timid union leadership, are on the march across the United States. Over four million workers, about 3% of the work force, mostly from accommodation and food services, healthcare and social assistance, transportation, housing, and utilities have walked away from jobs, rejecting poor pay along with punishing and risky working conditions. There is a growing consensus – 68% in a recent Gallup poll with that number climbing to 77% of those between the ages of 18 and 34 – that the only way left to alter the balance of power and force concessions from the ruling capitalist class is to mobilize and strike, although only 9% of the U.S. work force is unionized. Forget the woke Democrats. This is a class war. The Democratic Party will not push through the kind of radical New Deal reforms that in the 1930s staved off fascism and communism. Its empty political theater, which stretches back to the Clinton administration, was on full display in Atlanta when Biden called for revoking the filibuster to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, knowing that his chances of success are zero. Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, along with several of the state's voting rights groups, boycotted the event in a very public rebuke. They were acutely aware of Biden's cynical ploy. When the Democrats were in the minority, they clung to the filibuster like a life raft. Then Sen. Barack Obama, along with other Democrats, campaigned for it to remain in place. And a few days ago, the Democratic leadership employed the filibuster to block legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz. The Democrats have been full partners in the dismantling of our democracy, refusing to banish dark and corporate money from the electoral process and governing, as Obama did, through presidential executive actions, agency “guidance,” notices and other regulatory dark matter that bypass Congress. The Democrats, who helped launch and perpetuate our endless wars, were also co-architects of trade deals such as NAFTA, expanded surveillance of citizens, militarized police, the largest prison system in the world and a raft of anti-terrorism laws such as Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) that abolish nearly all rights, including due process and attorney-client privilege, to allow suspects to be convicted and imprisoned with secret evidence they and their lawyers are not permitted to see. The squandering of staggering resources to the military — $777.7 billion a year — passed in the Senate with an 89-10 vote and in the House of Representatives with a 363-70 vote, coupled with the $80 billion spent annually on the intelligence agencies has made the military and the intelligence services, many run by private contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton, nearly omnipotent. The Democrats long ago walked out on workers and unions. The Democratic governor of Maine, Janet Mills, for example, killed a bill a few days ago that would have allowed farm workers in the state to unionize. On all the major structural issues there is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. The longer the Democratic Party does not deliver real reforms to ameliorate the economic hardship, exacerbated by soaring inflation rates, the more it feeds the frustration of many of its supporters, widespread apathy (there are 80 million eligible voters, a third of the electorate, who do not cast ballots) and the hatred of the “liberal” elites stoked by Donald Trump's cultish Republican Party. Its signature infrastructure package, Build Back Better, when you read the fine print, is yet another infusion of billions of government money into corporate bank accounts. This should not surprise anyone, given who funds and controls the Democratic Party. The rapacious pillage by the elites, many of whom bankroll the Democratic Party, has accelerated since the financial crash of 2008 and the pandemic. Wall Street banks recorded record profits for 2021. As the Financial Times noted, they milked the underwriting fees from Fed-based borrowing and profited from mergers and acquisitions. They have pumped their profits, fueled by roughly $5 trillion in Fed spending since the beginning of the pandemic, as Matt Taibbi points out, into massive pay bonuses and stock buybacks. “The bulk of this new wealth—most—is being converted into compensation for a handful of executives,” Taibbi writes. “Buybacks have also been rampant in defense, pharmaceuticals, and oil & gas, all of which also just finished their second straight year of record, skyrocketing profits. We're now up to about 745 billionaires in the U.S., who've collectively seen their net worth grow about $2.1 trillion to $5 trillion since March 2020, with almost all that wealth increase tied to the Fed's ballooning balance sheet.” Kroger is typical. The corporation, which operates some 2,800 stores under different brands, including Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Foods Co., Fred Meyer, Fry's, Gerbes, Jay C Food Store, King Soopers, Mariano's, Metro Market, Pay-Less Super Markets, Pick'n Save, QFC, Ralphs, Ruler and Smith's Food and Drug, earned $4.1 billion in profits in 2020. By the end of the third quarter of 2021, it had $2.28 billion in cash, an increase of $399 million in the first quarter of 2020. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen made over $22 million, nearly doubling the $12 million he made in 2018. This is over 900 times the salary of the average Kroger worker. Kroger in the first three quarters of 2021 also spent an estimated $1.3 billion on stock buybacks. Class struggle defines most of human history. Marx got this right. It is not a new story. The rich, throughout history, have found ways to subjugate and re-subjugate the masses. And the masses, throughout history, have cyclically awoken to throw off their chains. (NEXT) Was Peter Daszak Working For The Central Intelligence Agency? Kanekoa, January 18, 2022 “We found other coronaviruses in bats, a whole host of them, some of them looked very similar to SARS. So we sequenced the spike protein: the protein that attaches to cells. Then we… Well, I didn't do this work, but my colleagues in China did the work. You create pseudo particles, you insert the spike proteins from those viruses, see if they bind to human cells. At each step of this, you move closer and closer to this virus could really become pathogenic in people. You end up with a small number of viruses that really do look like killers." This statement was said by EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak at a 2016 forum discussing “emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic”. Daszak, who received more than $118 million in grants and contracts from federal agencies, including $53 million from USAID, $42 million from DOD, and $15 million from HHS, appeared to boast about the manipulation of “killer” SARS-like coronaviruses carried out by his “colleagues in China” at the now infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to investigative research done by independent-journalist Sam Husseini and The Intercept, much of the money awarded to EcoHealth Alliance did not focus on health or ecology, but rather on biowarfare, bioterrorism, and other dangerous uses of deadly pathogens. EcoHealth Alliance received the majority of its funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a State Department subsidiary that serves as a frequent cover for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Their second largest source of funding was from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which is a branch of the Department of Defense (DOD) which states it is tasked to “counter and deter weapons of mass destruction and improvised threat networks.” The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has a long history of acting as a contract vehicle for various CIA covert activities. With an annual budget of over $27 billion and operations in over 100 countries, one former USAID director, John Gilligan, once admitted it was “infiltrated from top to bottom with CIA people.” Gilligan explained that “the idea was to plant operatives in every kind of activity we had overseas; government, volunteer, religious, every kind.” From 2009 to 2019, USAID partnered with EcoHealth Alliance on their PREDICT program which identified over 1,200 new viruses, including over 160 coronavirus strains; trained roughly 5,000 people around the world to identify new diseases; and improved or developed 60 research laboratories. What better way for the CIA to collect intelligence on the world's biological warfare capabilities? Dr. Andrew Huff received his Ph.D. in Environmental Health specializing in emerging diseases before becoming an Associate Vice President at EcoHealth Alliance, where he developed novel methods of bio-surveillance, data analytics, and visualization for disease detection. On January 12, 2022, Dr. Andrew Huff issued a public statement (on Twitter) in which he claimed, Peter Daszak, the President of EcoHealth Alliance, told him that he was working for the CIA. Dr. Huff continued, “…I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA / IC community orchestrated the COVID coverup acting as an intermediary between Fauci, Collins, Daszak, Baric, and many others. At best, it was the biggest criminal conspiracy in US history by bureaucrats or political appointees.” In February 2020, Daszak told University of North Carolina coronavirus researcher Dr. Ralph Baric that they should not sign the statement condemning the lab-leak theory so that it seems more independent and credible. “You, me and him should not sign this statement, so it has some distance from us and therefore doesn't work in a counterproductive way,” Daszak wrote. More unredacted emails have revealed that while these scientists held the private belief that the lab release was the most likely scenario, they still worked to seed the natural origin narrative for the public through the papers published in Nature Medicineand The Lancet. If Dr. Andrew Huff is telling the truth, Fauci, Collins, and Daszak might be covering up the lab origin not only for themselves, but also for the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Government.

5G's Crimes Against Humanity   Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 19, 2022     The roll out of the new C-Band 5G service by AT&T and Verizon scheduled for January 19, has raised alarms for major airline executives who have warned that it will create “catastrophic” interference with flight navigation systems and pilot safety during take off and landing.  The risks will be greater during bad weather. Among the warnings are major disruptions in commerce and supply chain, the overriding of aircrafts' electronic safety systems and radio altimeters, and the grounding of flights that will leave “tens of thousands of Americans grounded.” According to CNN, the airlines estimate that upwards to 1,000 flights will be disrupted daily. The 5G threat is particularly heightened in low-visibility conditions. Chief executives from American Airlines, United, Delta, Southwest and Jet Blue have demanded that 5G be blocked within a two-mile radius of major US airports. FedEx and UPS have also joined the airlines' complaints. Foreign airlines such as Dubai's Emirates, Air India, Japan Air, Lufthansa and British Airways have already changed or canceled flights to the US. Two of the world's largest plane manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing, have also issued warnings.    This has become an ongoing battle between the Federal Aviation Administration and the private telecomm industry and its Washington lobbyists. The FAA has been warning about 5G interruption of planes' navigation systems for quite some time.  The telecomm industry's unwillingness to budge is most disturbing because the Biden administration has already permitted 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to roll out as scheduled.  It is only in the vicinity of major airports where the FAA and airlines demand restrictions due to safety concerns. However, as we have reported for the past several years, the telecomm giants, notably AT&T and Verizon, and its leading media spokespersons at CNN and the New York Times, have undermined and denied 5G's risks, especially to human health and the environment, ever since wireless technologies were first commercialized.   5G is destined to be a permanent fixture across the nation. There is barely a chance to prevent it. The thousands of medical and environmental studies confirming high EMF's dangers and the petitions signed by thousands of international scientists to halt its deployment are unequivocally ignored or worse ostracized and canceled.  It is estimated that there are over 10,000 peer-reviewed clinical studies mentioning serious molecular biological injury and defects to organs, neurons, cells and cellular function, and DNA damage to plants, animals and humans alike.  Between August 2016 and September 2018 alone, over 400 new studies on electromagnetic radiation risks were compiled by public health Professor Joel Moskowitz at the University of California at Berkeley.   Despite the pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing have not hindered 5G's progress to connect every American into its spider's web.  In December 2019, T-Mobile reached its goal of nationwide 5G coverage of over 1.3 million square miles (34 percent of the US) and AT&T reached its milestone to reach 179 million people. The 5G roll out is also crucial for international globalists to usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  The World Economic Forum's presentation, “Why is 5G Important for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” outlines the multi-trillion dollar impact advanced connectivity will have on manufacturing, wholesale and resale, smart cities and homes, public services, transportation, real time banking, finance and insurance, agriculture and forestry, micro chip surveillance, real estate, education, mining, health and medicine.   We must not hold any false hopes that the Biden administration will ultimately side with the airlines' safety concerns. During the 2020 election, the Biden campaign received $97 million from the Communications/Tech sector versus Trump's $18 million.  Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, AT&T and Comcast overwhelmingly contributed to Biden's war chest.   The American public is being bamboozled with blatant falsehoods to embrace 5G as a necessary and innovative technology that will benefit and improve our lives. But the real truth is the exact opposite.    The following information has been abbreviated from scientific literature that is fully validated and has been stated by international experts such as Drs. Devra Davis and Martin Pall about EMF's adverse effects to government leaders and national legislators repeatedly. This outline was presented by Dr. Martin Pall, a Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Medical Sciences at Washington State University to the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pall is recognized worldwide as an expert in EMF and 5G's detrimental effects on biological systems and the diseases associated with wireless technologies.   Lower Fertility:  Alters the structure of the testes and ovaries, lowers sperm count and the number of egg follicles, increases spontaneous abortion and lowers the levels of three sex hormones. Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Effects:  There has been a dramatic increase in the following conditions since the advent of mobile phones, the internet, and wireless technologies:  insomnia, fatigue, depression, headaches and cognitive dysfunction, anxiety, and loss of memory. Animal studies have shown that EMFs produce major changes in brain structure, which is likely happening to everyone who has extensive daily exposure to EMFs Cellular DNA Damage:  There are three types of DNA damage observed in EMF exposure:  single and double DNA breaks and oxidized DNA bases.  These can cause cancer and mutations in the sexual germ lines. Apoptosis:  EMFs contribute to programmed cell death that in turn leads to reproductive and neurodegenerative disorders. Oxidative Stress:  Free radical damage that has been associated with numerous health conditions including cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, myocardial infarction, stroke, chronic inflammation, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, cellular death and aging Endocrine Effects: According Dr. Pall, every hormonal system in the body is adversely affected by EMF exposure. Excessive Intracellular Calcium:  Ca2+ is critical for cellular activity Cancer:  There are 35 separate scientific reviews of the body of peer-reviewed literature providing evidence that EMFs increase carcinogenesis, promote and progress tumor development and contribute to metastasis.   There are also other medical conditions that have been shown to be associated likely with EMF exposure:   Cardiac Effects.  EMFs interfere with the electrical control of the heart that can produce tachycardia, bradycadia, arrhythmia and abnormal heart palpitations. Early Onset of Alzheimer's and Dementia:  In recent years and in parallel with increased EMF exposure, signs of symptoms associated with Alzheimer's are being observed in people age 30 and younger. Dr. Pall has called this "digital dementias." ADHD and Autism:  The epidemic in ADHD and autism witnessed in each younger generation may be caused by late prenatal and early post-natal EMF exposure. Each of these neurological conditions is associated with the increase of calcium over-penetrating cell linings due to EMF pulsations and disrupting synapse formations.   Everyone will be affected by 5G's radiation. But it will not require three decades to observe its injurious effects. Unlike cigarettes, nobody has a choice whether you wish to be exposed to 5G or not. 5G's EMF radiation is all-pervasive.    The mainstream media, in particular the New York Times, which has a collaborative agreement with the leading 5G provider Verizon, have no intention to warn the public about any of the scientific findings mentioned above. There is a growing consensus in the scientific and medical community that 5G will usher an epidemic of disease never before witnessed in human history. It is too difficult to make forecasts. Nevertheless, if the past and current research on EMF's adverse effects on health and the environment during the past 50 years are any indication, we are entering a new epoch of disease and neurological disorders that humanity is completely unprepared to handle.    This is a consequence of what happens when an entire nation is trapped into carelessly trusting elected presidents and legislators whose campaigns are bankrolled by the Telecomm giants and Silicon Valley, and a media empire ruled by serial liars and masters of disinformation campaigns for private corporate interests. This is vulture capitalism at is worse.  

HEALTH NEWS Walking for 150 minutes per week associated with improved wellbeing in over-50  Trinity College Dublin, January 17, 2022  New research using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin shows that being physically active, for example by walking for at least 150 minutes per week, is associated with more social participation and better mental health and wellbeing.  The findings show that: Two-thirds of the Irish population aged 50 years and older report low or moderate levels of physical activity while only one-third report high levels of activity, based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Middle-aged and older Irish adults with high levels of physical activity report greater participation in social activities, less anxiety, better quality of life, and less loneliness compared to those with low physical activity levels. Middle-aged and older adults with low levels of physical activity are over twice as likely to have clinically relevant depressive symptoms as those with high levels of physical activity (14% versus 6%). Interventions should specifically target women, older adults, those in employment, those who are not engaged in non-church related social activities and those living in built-up areas such as apartments.     Study finds hydroxychloroquine delays disability for least treatable form of multiple sclerosis University of Calgary (Canada), January 17, 2022 A University of Calgary study has found promising results for the generic drug hydroxychloroquine when used to treat the evolution of disability of primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), the least treatable form of the autoimmune disease.  Cumming School of Medicine research teams found hydroxychloroquine helped to slow the worsening of disability during the 18-month study involving participants at the MS clinic in Calgary. The research was published in Annals of Neurology. The experimental study, known as a single-arm phase II futility trial, followed 35 people between November 2016 and June 2021. Researchers expected to see at least 40 percent, or 14 participants, experience a significant worsening of their walking function, but at the end of the trial only eight participants had worsened. Hydroxychloroquine was generally well-tolerated.     Tree nut consumption is associated with better diet Louisiana State University,  January 16, 2022 A new study, published this week in the open access journal Nutrients, compares the nutrient adequacy and diet quality of those who consume tree nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts), and non-tree nut consumers in a nationally representative population. Tree nut consumption was associated with better nutrient adequacy for most nutrients that are lacking in the diets of many Americans, and with better diet quality. Researchers looked at 14,386 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). The data showed that, compared to non-consumers, tree nut consumers had a lower percentage of the population consuming usual intakes of nutrients below the recommended levels of vitamins A, E and C; folate; calcium; iron; magnesium; and zinc. Tree nut consumers had a higher percentage of the population over the recommendation for adequate intake for dietary fiber and potassium    Protein isolated from baker's yeast shows potential against leukemia cells University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), January 16, 2022  An enzyme identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as brewer's or baker's yeast, has passed in vitro trials, demonstrating its capacity to kill acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells. "In this study, we characterize the enzyme L-asparaginase from S. cerevisiae. The results show this protein can efficiently annihilate leukemia cells with low cytotoxicity to healthy cells," said Gisele Monteiro, a professor at FCF-USP and the principal investigator for the published study. Production of the enzyme asparagine synthetase is deficient in ALL and several other types of cancer cells, which are therefore unable to synthesize the amino acid asparagine. "This type of cell depends on extracellular sources of asparagine, an essential amino acid for the synthesis of proteins and hence of DNA and RNA. So it's required for cell division," Monteiro said. "The enzyme asparaginase depletes this amino acid in the extracellular medium, converting it into aspartate and ammonia. In patients with ALL, this leads to a sharp fall in serum levels of asparagine, hindering protein synthesis in malignant cells and inducing apoptosis, or programmed cell death." The bacterial enzyme killed about 90 percent of the MOLT4 human leukemia cells and displayed low toxicity to the healthy HUVEC cells, killing only 10 percent. "The yeast enzyme killed between 70 percent and 80 percent of the MOLT4 cells and displayed less than 10 percent toxicity for HUVEC cells. Neither was significantly effective against REH cells."   Pakistan says trial of Chinese traditional medicine for Covid-19 successful International Center for Chemical and Biological Science (Pakistan), January 17, 2022 Local health authorities on Monday announced the completion of a successful clinical trial of Chinese traditional herbal medicine for treating Covid-19, as Pakistan enters a fifth wave of the pandemic driven by the Omicron variant. The Chinese medicine, Jinhua Qinggan Granules (JHQG) manufactured by Juxiechang (Beijing) Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is already being used in the treatment of Covid-19 patients in China. “Since it was tried on patients with different variants of Covid-19, we expect it to be effective on Omicron as on other variants,” Professor Iqbal Chaudhry, director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Science (ICCBS) in Karachi, where trials were conducted The trials were conducted on 300 patients who were treated at home, and would work on mild to moderate Covid-19 cases, Dr Raza Shah, principal investigator in the trials, told reporters, adding that the efficacy rate was around 82.67 per cent.   Berry compounds' heart health benefits linked to impact on platelets Sun Yat-sen University (Taiwan), January 14, 2022 The new study, published in Nutrition & Metabolism , deepens our understanding of the heart health benefits of anthocyanins, pigments found in many fruit like black raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and blackcurrants. Chinese scientists report that 320 mg per day of purified anthocyanins, equivalent to about 100 g of fresh blueberries and blackcurrants, for 24 weeks were associated with significant reductions in platelet chemokine levels, which correlated to lower levels of inflammatory markers in people with elevated cholesterol levels. “Platelet chemokines are involved in inflammatory reactions, immune responses, and other aspects of the development of atherosclerosis,” explained researchers from Sun Yat-sen University. “These findings indicate a potential mechanism by which anthocyanins exert protective effects on the cardiovascular system, achieved through the comprehensive regulation of platelet chemokines, lipid metabolism and inflammation, in which platelet chemokines may play pivotal roles.”   OTHER NEWS Time to Boycott - Companies Discriminating Against Their Unvaccinated Employees The Naked Emperor, January 17, 2022 Suddenly, employment and discrimination laws don't exist. Here is an ever-growing list of companies that are discriminating against their employees. They need boycotting until they change their policies. ·  Finance o    Citigroup - Employees to lose their jobs by the end of the month if unvaccinated; o    Goldman Sachs - Told employees they will require a booster to work in the office from 1 February; o    JPMorgan Chase - Won't pay unvaccinated employees because they aren't allowed to go to the office; o    OneAmerica - Requiring vaccines for all employees; Healthcare o    National Health Service - Staff with direct contact with patients must have had a 1st dose by 3 February or risk losing their job at the end of March; o    Mayo Clinic - Has fired 700 unvaccinated employees; Retail o    Columbia Sportswear - Will begin firing unvaccinated employees from 1 Feb; o    Ikea - Has cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff forced to self-isolate; o    Kroger - Eliminated paid leave for unvaccinated employees who get COVID-19 and require them to pay monthly health insurance surcharges; o    Next - Sick pay cut for unvaccinated staff forced to self-isolate; o    Nike - If employees remain unvaccinated by 15 January they will be fired; o    Morrisons - Cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff in October 2021; o    Ocado - Unvaccinated isolating staff to have sick pay cut; o    Tyson Foods - Require COVID-19 vaccinations for its U.S workforce and providing $200 to full vaccinated frontline team members; o    Vans, Supreme, Timberland & The North Face (Parent company = VF Corporation) - will start firing unvaccinated employees by 31 January without severance; Services o    Wessex Water - To cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff who need to self-isolate; Tech o    Apple - Starting 24 January, employees will need proof of booster. Unvaccinated will need negative tests to go to work; o    Google - Tells unvaccinated employees they'll lose pay and will eventually be fired; o    Intel - Employees to go on unpaid leave if unvaccinated by 4 January;     The Age of Intolerance: Cancel Culture's War on Free Speech John and Nisha Whitehead, January 11, 2022 Cancel culture—political correctness amped up on steroids, the self-righteousness of a narcissistic age, and a mass-marketed pseudo-morality that is little more than fascism disguised as tolerance—has shifted us into an Age of Intolerance, policed by techno-censors, social media bullies, and government watchdogs. Everything is now fair game for censorship if it can be construed as hateful, hurtful, bigoted or offensive provided that it runs counter to the established viewpoint. In this way, the most controversial issues of our day—race, religion, sex, sexuality, politics, science, health, government corruption, police brutality, etc.—have become battlegrounds for those who claim to believe in freedom of speech but only when it favors the views and positions they support. This tendency to censor, silence, delete, label as “hateful,” and demonize viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite is being embraced with a near-fanatical zealotry by a cult-like establishment that values conformity and group-think over individuality. This authoritarian intolerance masquerading as tolerance, civility and love (what comedian George Carlin referred to as “fascism pretending to be manners”) is the end result of a politically correct culture that has become radicalized, institutionalized and tyrannical. J.K. Rowling, author of the popular Harry Potter series, has found herself denounced as transphobic and widely shunned for daring to criticize efforts by transgender activists to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender. Rowling's essay explaining her views is a powerful, articulate, well-researched piece that not only stresses the importance of free speech and women's rights while denouncing efforts by trans activists to demonize those who subscribe to “wrongthink,” but also recognizes that while the struggle over gender dysmorphia is real, concerns about safeguarding natal women and girls from abuse are also legitimate. Ironically enough, Rowling's shunning included literal book burning. Yet as Ray Bradbury once warned, “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.” Indeed, the First Amendment is going up in flames before our eyes, but those first sparks were lit long ago and have been fed by intolerance all along the political spectrum. Consider some of the kinds of speech being targeted for censorship or outright elimination. Offensive, politically incorrect and “unsafe” speech:  Bullying, intimidating speech: Dangerous, anti-government speech:  The problem as I see it is that we've allowed ourselves to be persuaded that we need someone else to think and speak for us. And we've bought into the idea that we need the government and its corporate partners to shield us from that which is ugly or upsetting or mean. The result is a society in which we've stopped debating among ourselves, stopped thinking for ourselves, and stopped believing that we can fix our own problems and resolve our own differences. In short, we have reduced ourselves to a largely silent, passive, polarized populace incapable of working through our own problems and reliant on the government to protect us from our fears. We have allowed our fears—fear for our safety, fear of each other, fear of being labeled racist or hateful or prejudiced, etc.—to trump our freedom of speech and muzzle us far more effectively than any government edict could. Ultimately the war on free speech—and that's exactly what it is: a war being waged by Americans against other Americans—is a war that is driven by fear. By muzzling free speech, we are contributing to a growing underclass of Americans who are being told that they can't take part in American public life unless they “fit in.” Be warned: whatever we tolerate now—whatever we turn a blind eye to—whatever we rationalize when it is inflicted on others will eventually come back to imprison us, one and all.   Spain police officers in Valencia: "We are with the people, not with corrupt politicians. We are in contact with Portugal, Italy, France, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands to unite all the police in Europe. Down with the health passport."     There Is Currently No COVID Medical Emergency Only Psychological Engineering Says Senior Israeli Immunologist GREAT GAME INDIA,  January 16, 2022 The attempts of governments across the globe at “psychological engineering” the population on Covid related matters has now been fully exposed after several years. A well respected immunologist in Israel heavily criticized the approach of every administration globally. In a scathing letter addressed to the Israeli Ministry of Health, a renowned immunologist denounced mass vaccination against COVID-19 and chastised officials who've already “branded” the unvaccinated “as spreaders of the disease.” The letter, penned by Professor Ehud Qimron, who is the head of Tel Aviv University's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, rips off vaccine-focused COVID tactics endorsed by authorities across the globe, which Qimron labels “doomed to fail.” “Two years late, you finally realize that a respiratory virus cannot be defeated and that any such attempt is doomed to fail,” he wrote to the Israeli health ministry. “You do not admit it, because you have admitted almost no mistake in the last two years, but in retrospect it is clear that you have failed miserably in almost all of your actions, and even the media is already having a hard time covering your shame.” Qimron reprimanded Israeli authorities for failing to recognize that COVID-19 vaccines will neither eliminate the virus or provide herd immunity, as the government's immunization campaign “failed” to do. “You refused to admit that the infection comes in waves that fade by themselves, despite years of observations and scientific knowledge,” he said. “You refused to admit that recovery is more protective than a vaccine, despite previous knowledge and observations showing that non-recovered vaccinated people are more likely to be infected than recovered people.” “You refused to admit that the vaccinated are contagious despite the observations. Based on this, you hoped to achieve herd immunity by vaccination — and you failed in that as well.” According to research, immunizations essentially inflict more harm than that of the virus on its own in younger demographics. According to a study released last month by British researchers, the jabs dramatically raise the chance of potentially life-threatening heart inflammation in males under 40 years old compared to COVID-19 and may lead in more lethal types of the heart ailment. “You have ignored many reports of changes in menstrual intensity and menstrual cycle times,” Qimron noted in his letter to the health ministry. “You hid data that allows for objective and proper research. Instead, you chose to publish non-objective articles together with senior Pfizer executives on the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.” “The truth is that you have brought the public's trust in you to an unprecedented low, and you have eroded your status as a source of authority,” he alleged, citing increased incidences of mental illness and misbehavior among Israeli pupils amid COVID regulations. “You have destroyed the education of our children and their future,” said Qimron. “You made children feel guilty, scared, smoke, drink, get addicted, drop out, and quarrel, as school principals around the country attest. You have harmed livelihoods, the economy, human rights, mental health and physical health.” You slandered colleagues who did not surrender to you, you turned the people against each other, divided society and polarized the discourse. You branded, without any scientific basis, people who chose not to get vaccinated as enemies of the public and as spreaders of disease. You promote, in an unprecedented way, a draconian policy of discrimination, denial of rights and selection of people, including children, for their medical choice. A selection that lacks any epidemiological justification. “There is currently no medical emergency,” the immunologist continued. “The only emergency now is that you still set policies and hold huge budgets for propaganda and psychological engineering instead of directing them to strengthen the health care system.” “This emergency must stop!”   Serious Health Risks of Covid-19 Vaccines: Open Letter to Cornell University Board of Trustees and President Martha Pollack Cornell University Community, January 12, 2022 Dear President Pollack and Cornell Board of Trustees, We are students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff of Cornell University. We are grateful for Cornell's efforts at keeping students and the Ithaca community safe during this pandemic. As concerned members of the global Big Red family, we write this open letter to express our strong opposition to Cornell's Covid-19 booster mandate. In light of new data available about both the vaccine and the virus, we urge you to change the “mandate” to a “recommendation” based on the factors outlined below.  We appreciate that the booster mandate and new procedures for the spring term stem from the good intention to prevent severe illness. But as with any public health policy, many factors — scientific, ethical, and legal — must be considered and weighed. We are concerned that Cornell, in issuing this booster mandate, has overlooked recent and evolving scientific data regarding the vaccine and the virus that makes a booster mandate inappropriate and unnecessary, raising serious ethical and legal questions. In December 2021, Cornell identified over 1,600 Covid-19 positive cases with “every case of the Omicron variant to date [being] found in fully vaccinated students, a portion of whom had also received a booster shot.” Cornell's own data highlights that vaccination, even with the booster, has very limited capability in stopping virus transmission. A similar conclusion has been reached by CDC's research: vaccinated people seem to transmit Covid-19 similarly to unvaccinated people. The virus will continue to be transmitted among our highly vaccinated campuses. In a recent campus-wide email, Cornell explicitly acknowledged the impossibility of containing or eliminating Omicron, the flu, or other respiratory illnesses, which is why it will “shift from counting positive cases.”  As so many students test positive, they are, in essence, receiving a natural booster based on the very latest variants of the virus. And yet, Cornell is ignoring the natural immunity in these students and mandating a booster injection based on older variants, which Cornell knows is ineffective at stopping the spread of Covid-19 in the Cornell community. This decision is counter to science and seems like it was made less to promote students' health and more to achieve some other unstated goal of the administration. Otherwise, why require a booster injection that is ineffective, and potentially dangerous, for students who are naturally contracting and fighting off a virus that many scientists believe is becoming more endemic than pandemic? Mounting evidence points to serious risks from exposure to the Covid-19 vaccines. The latest scientific research shows that Covid-19 vaccine side effects such as myocarditis, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, and pericarditis are more common in young people than we think (see references 1-5 listed below). Recently, an Oxford-conducted study of men under the age of 40 demonstrated that the risk of myocarditis after one dose mRNA exceeds the risk of myocarditis from an actual Covid-19 infection. Even more alarmingly, the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) indicates that there were over 15,000 Covid-19 vaccine related death cases in 2021, compared with the previous average of 158 vaccine related deaths per year (Pre-Covid-19), in the context of a yearly total of 280 million injections and 70 different vaccines. This data shows that, compared to other vaccines, Covid-19 injections carry around 100 times the risk of death. Considering new data on the virus and the vaccine, the university may very well cause disability or death by imposing further vaccine requirements, and it will have to bear the responsibility. Please do the right thing, and end this unnecessary and unethical mandate. EU Regulators, WHO Call for End to COVID Boosters, Citing Evidence Strategy Is Failing EU drug regulators, World Health Organization experts and the former chairman of the UK's COVID task force all cited mounting evidence mRNA COVID boosters aren't working and the strategy should be dropped. Childrens Health Defense, January 12, 2022   European Union drug regulators warned frequent COVID boosters could adversely affect the immune system and said there are currently no data to support repeated doses. According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), continued booster doses every four months could pose a risk of overloading people's immune systems and lead to fatigue. Instead, the agency recommended countries space out the intervals between boosters and coordinate their programs with the onset of the cold season in each hemisphere — following blueprints of influenza vaccination strategies. Boosters “can be done once, or maybe twice, but it's not something that we can think should be repeated constantly,” Cavaleri said. “We need to think about how we can transition from the current pandemic setting to a more endemic setting.” The World Health Organization's (WHO) Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) on Jan. 11 warned, “a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.” The expert group, created by the WHO to assess the performance of COVID vaccines, said providing fresh doses of already existing vaccines as new strains of the virus emerge is not the best way to fight a pandemic. “It's over, people,” Alex Berenson, former New York Times reporter and best-selling author, wrote. “Aside from a few unlucky Israelis, no one is going to receive a fourth dose of the original vaccine.” Berenson wrote: “Everyone with eyes can see it doesn't work against Omicron — and if you haven't gotten a third dose, at this point, why would you? You are getting at most weeks of marginally improved protection for potentially severe side effects. “Instead the WHO is now promising/demanding vaccines based on whatever the dominant Sars-Cov-2 strain is at the moment. That promise is as empty as all the others the health bureaucrats and vaccine companies have made.”   60% Of Omicron Hospitalization Numbers Were Incorrect Admits Canada's Chief Medical Officer GREAT GAME INDIA. January 17, 2022 Shocking statistics regarding Canada's Omicron hospitalizations being incorrect has come to light recently. The Premier of Alberta has claimed a staggering 60% disparity between the actual figures. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Alberta Chief Medical Officer Deena Hinshaw both confirmed that public figures for ICU capacity and COVID admissions were up to 60% incorrect. “Of the 163 omicron patients in hospital, 66 have a primary COVID diagnosis … and of the 14 omicron patients in ICU, 11 have a primary COVID diagnosis,” he stated. As per Kenney, this indicates that 60% of individuals labelled as staying in the hospital for an omicron ailment weren't there because they arrived sick with COVID, and also that the ICU statistics reflect the same rationale, with more than 20% of recorded stays being unintentional. This is consistent with developments found throughout Canada, as provincial medical authorities have shifted their focus and begun to release increasingly specific data on hospitalizations.

America's Obsession with Illusion Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 14, 2022 “He who despises his own life is soon master of others” – English proverb For the vast majority of Americans, the past year has been the most challenging in their lives – certainly for young adults. However, not everyone has been suffering equally. The nation's health or illness is not uniform. Much of our suffering is dependent upon the institutionalization and negligence of previous injustices, the loss of social equanimity, economic heedlessness, and our leaders' unmitigated greed and pursuit of power. Nor is everyone adversely affected by the shifts underway in the imaginations of the political and ideological universes. The transnational class of corporate and banking elites, for example, has little motivation to respect or contribute to national boundaries and interests. They perceive themselves as global actors. For the generals and captains of neoliberal globalization, the puppet masters of financial markets, the Covid-19 pandemic only caused annoying disruptions in the quality of their lives. For the remainder, it has been cataclysmic. As we begin 2022 should we not pause and reflect carefully about what we want and don't want as individuals and a nation to secure a sustainable future? A deep and collective introspection into the shared moral principles is called for. It is no longer what we say or profess that has any truth or significance. Rather what we actualize in our daily lives and as a society is going to determine whether the future will be better future or worse. Only our actions can realistically convey the deeper values in the American psyche. Therefore we need to ask ourselves more difficult questions to discover the real moral poverty that defines us as a civilization. Where were the large demonstrations against the trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and foreign banks when barely a penny was spent for the average citizen? Where were the demonstrations against home foreclosures and the loss of small family farms?  Debt drenched student aid? Exploitive payday loans and exorbitant credit card fees? There was no outrage against Obama's broken promises on universal healthcare, a platform that helped bring him to the White House. The single-minded attention on the pandemic has cancelled out 2.5 million homeless American children and 46 million adults and children who go hungry daily. Where was a collective voice condemning the hundreds of billion tax dollars to increase the power of the military and intelligence complexes as American cities further collapsed into ghettos? Where were the marches against corporations off-shoring jobs? Why no vocal outrage against the invasions of Libya and Syria, or the US' ongoing support of rogue dictatorships, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE for crimes against humanity in Yemen? Where are the protests against corporations exploiting slave labor in poor countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia?  There were no noteworthy protests for any of these issues. And yet these are true existential threats to our very democracy. Bertrand Russell wrote, “one should care about the world they do not see.” Should we not be planning ahead for the future of our children, grandchildren and ourselves instead of being incapacitated by fear? The national popular disinterest in these and other crises foreshadows something on the horizon that does not bode well for most Americans. It is a simple principle to understand; yet so subtle it will likely go unnoticed until everyone is individually and collectively affected. It is the utter lack of balance within the nation's body politick, and across the media that spoon feeds us virtual images of a faux theatrical play, the illusory icons on our minds' monitor screens, that shape our perceptions of reality. This is how control is exerted over our thoughts, speech and actions. In fact, it is only after people exercise their thoughts independently, with the certain belief that they have actual self-control over their lives, that they can arrive at the realization that their perceptions may be largely distorted. Throughout America's history there has been a system of three federal branches to assure there is a platform for checks and balances as well as a structure to contain the tensions between them. That system now is being rapidly challenged and eroded. Now the middle of the road Democrats officially control the White House and both legislative bodies. We will see what awaits us. There is also what is commonly referred to as the “fourth estate,” the powers of the press and news media that control the framing of the political narrative and partisan issues. In the past, the media was expected to hold the government accountable by exposing its conflicts of interest that endanger the public, its misdemeanors, and systemic corruption. This too is in decay as the media has been fully captured by corporate interests and now aligns itself politically and ideologically with the new political elite determined to reshape democracy and launch a new reset that will dramatically infringe on individual rights and liberties. Finally, there is the growing influence of a fourth branch of government, the corpocracy and its private interests. We might also include the US intelligence community that increasingly operates independently from executive and legislative oversight. Together we can witness this loose cabal of seemingly independent entities, working simultaneously in consortium and in opposition to each other, propelling us towards a future tsunami of greater polarization and immense social disruption. Earlier generations were not threatened by the telecommunication and technological giants, such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Clinton's Communications Decency Act of 1996, despite its well-meaning intentions to protect free speech, was otherwise destructively naïve. At that time it was sensible; however, that was before the advent of the social media that now dominates our lives and shapes political discourse. Silicon Valley has become a force far more powerful than the lobbyists on K Street to ensure that corporate Democrats are raised to a position of absolute power. Yet the problem would be equally threatening if it were the corporate and radicalized GOP in power. The centrist Democratic left, lulled in a passivity that “it can't happen here,” is every bit as dangerous and delusional as the Republican far-right's paranoia over conspiracies squatting behind every nook and cranny. A moderate centrist right no longer exists as it has now exited reality like a herd of lemmings to follow Trump phenomena over a phantasmagoric cliff. The more important question to contemplate is how this will impact yourself and average citizens. What happens elsewhere around the world can no longer be viewed in isolation. Globalization is perhaps the most holistic phenomena within the matrix of financial capital movements and post-modern social restructuring. China has the means to socially control most of its population, especially in urban areas. On the other hand, China would be unable to succeed in this endeavor without the direct assistance, trade and technological development of Silicon Valley and the private innovators of intelligence and surveillance applied science. China has already launched social scoring, a nefarious means to reward and penalize public activity. If a person protests the lack of personal freedom, democratic values and free speech, his or her social score decreases. And through digital networks, authorities can monitor and identify every Chinese citizen's movements. All of this technology is ready for launch in the US and other developed nations. However, rather than social scoring, it is block chain, the digital database that gathers any information it is programmed for. Block chain has already been employed for almost a decade. At this moment the federal government and individual states are blindly over-reacting to Covid's health threats, the climate and environment, and the collapse of social cohesion. These threats are eliciting government mandates, such as vaccination. A Biden federal vaccine mandate would overrule individual state laws. The fact that this is being publicly stated should quell many conspiratorial theories. It is part of a more comprehensive and long-term agenda for expanding government social control under the pretense and propaganda of keeping Americans safe under the banner of national security. New laws are under construction that would redefine hate speech. Censorship of free speech for criticizing official narratives and policies to tackle the pandemic are being enforced. Any criticism towards the failures of the Covid-19 vaccines is redefined as threats to public health. People raising such critiques may eventually find their names on domestic terrorist lists. This scenario is not beyond the imagination. Wikileaks revealed that environmental, animal protection, and human rights groups have been labeled as domestic terrorist organizations. Guilt by association laws, for example buried in Obama's National Defense Authorization Act, are in place. Expanding a law's scope is far easier than erasing it from the books. Consequently, it is not unlikely that these laws may eventually widen to include charges of subversion based solely on the emails you read, the videos you watch or the broadcasts you listen to. This would inevitably lead to the death toll for any residue of integrity in journalism. Silicon Valley's collusion with the government has canceled the voices of some of our best investigative journalists, such as Chris Hedges, Sharyl Attkinsson, Glenn Greenwald, Max Blumenthal and Craig Murray. These are only a few of many examples. The new unstated law is that original investigation must support the official narrative, otherwise it will be prohibited from accessible public view. We may recall that under the second Bush administration, the justice department created “free speech zones,” fenced off or confined areas where demonstrators were only permitted to exercise their Constitutional rights of free protest and expression. Today we are only several small amendments away before the right to assemble being banned altogether. Faced with growing condemnation by many nations, the US' hegemony on the world geopolitical arena has waned considerably. Biden's administration and its return to neocon foreign against Russia and China and neoliberal market policies will likely make every effort to regain the dominance it lost during the past four years. What has vanished in the US' former full spectrum dominance over the geopolitical landscape is now being inverted to strengthen federal hegemonic reign over the American population. Finally, we need to awaken to modern technologies' remarkable sophistication and its certain threats to the health of our societies, and even to our definition of being human. Sadly, this is an industry each of us has been complicit in advancing. Coining a term by one of the planet's most important and forgotten 20th century prophetic voices, the Trappist monk Father Thomas Merton, we are facing a great Unspeakable, a spiritual crisis contributing to the existential vacuity of modern American culture. Few are aware that in his 1964 collection of meditations, Seeds of Destruction, Merton predicted that the civil rights movement would confront a catastrophic impasse and may find itself without leadership. Four years later, Martin Luther King Jr, who Merton had a deep correspondence with, was assassinated. Merton would die suddenly later that same year under very mysterious circumstances in Thailand. Another way to describe the Unspeakable is criminal Sovereignty, with a capital S, to convey its almost numinous qualities. If alive today, Merton would look upon both the extreme right and left as mere expressions of the meaninglessness of American life manifesting as a turbulent ocean of afflictive emotions and thoughts. Instead of technology serving the needs of humanity, Americans are being increasingly conditioned to willingly bow as slaves to technology. The public, Somerset Maugham warned, “are easily disillusioned then they are angry or it was the illusion they loved.” The Unspeakable's unspoken mantra is: technology must progress regardless of how many people fall destitute, jobless, debt ridden and physically ill with only suicide as a recourse to escape. “American democracy today,” Merton observed over 55 years ago, “is just cheap pressed wood fiber, cardboard and spray paint.” Consequently, the elite sitting in the global control tower view the Great Reset's technological regime as preferable to democracy's kabuki theater. Advanced surveillance, artificial intelligence, intelligent robotics, transhumanism, a 5G internet of everything, genetic engineering, and weather modification should be our guiding avatars. The solutions, he would argue, can no longer be found in civil discourse or the rights of human beings gathering in assembly. For the ruling elite, the masses are blind sheep wandering in search of a shepherd. This is what author Ronald Wright called the “progress trap” – progress' unending efforts to feed technology's hunger to devour natural and human capital, interest free. And the mainstream press and news media, in its' malady of cognitive dissonance, serves as its unreflective cheerleader for our march towards civilizational collapse. Merton was keenly aware of technology's dangers to social stability. In a 1967 letter he took aim at the “universal myth that technology infallibly makes everything in every way better for everybody. It does not.” However, Merton was by no means a Luddite. “Technology could indeed make a better world for millions of human beings,” he wrote. Yet there remained the nightmare of technology transforming the world into a “more collectivist, cybernated mass culture.” Decades before the first desktop, Merton foresaw a complete fragmentation of the nation's moral and spiritual fabric when people will begin basing all of their political and ethical decisions on computers. Prophetically he wrote to a friend, “just wait until they start philosophizing with computers!” That was 1967. He even foresaw technology becoming a means to elevate the slaves of technology's false self, to satisfy narcissistic appetites for admiration and status. In other words, the woke social media. “The greatest need of our time,” Merton wrote in his Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, “is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning we cannot begin to see. Unless we see we cannot think. The purification must begin with the mass media.” For this reason we urgently need to penetrate the illusions of propaganda and popular falsehoods, across the entire political spectrum as well the self-appointed pontificating Pharisees who are ushering a new socio-economic era where endless technological innovation has precedence over human lives. Despite its newness, it has also been clearly predictable. No doubt, if Orwell were penning his great novel today, the emergence of this new American era we are witnessing would not be fiction.

America's Obsession with Illusion Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 14, 2022   “He who despises his own life is soon master of others” – English proverb   For the vast majority of Americans, the past year has been the most challenging in their lives – certainly for young adults. However, not everyone has been suffering equally. The nation's health or illness is not uniform. Much of our suffering is dependent upon the institutionalization and negligence of previous injustices, the loss of social equanimity, economic heedlessness, and our leaders' unmitigated greed and pursuit of power.  Nor is everyone adversely affected by the shifts underway in the imaginations of the political and ideological universes. The transnational class of corporate and banking elites, for example, has little motivation to respect or contribute to national boundaries and interests. They perceive themselves as global actors. For the generals and captains of neoliberal globalization, the puppet masters of financial markets, the Covid-19 pandemic only caused annoying disruptions in the quality of their lives. For the remainder, it has been cataclysmic.   As we begin 2022 should we not pause and reflect carefully about what we want as and don't want as individuals and a nation for securing a sustainable future? Fundamental is a deep introspection into the common and moral principles we are living today. It is not what we say or profess, but what we actualize in our daily lives and as a collective society that matters. Only our actions can realistically convey the deeper values in the American psyche.    Therefore we need to ask ourselves more difficult questions to discover the real moral poverty that defines us as a civilization. Where were the large demonstrations against the trillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street and foreign banks when barely a penny for the average citizen was spent? Where were the demonstrations against home foreclosures and the loss of small family farms?  Debt drenched student aid? Exploitive payday loans and exorbitant credit card fees. There were no protests against Obama's broken promises on universal healthcare. The single-minded attention on the pandemic has cancelled out 2.5 million homeless American children and 46 million adults and children who go daily. Where was a collective voice condemning the hundreds of billion tax dollars to increase the power of the military and intelligence complexes as American cities further collapsed into ghettos? Where were the marches against corporations off-shoring jobs. Why no vocal outrage against Obama's invasions of Libya and Syria, or the US ongoing support of rogue dictatorships, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for crimes against humanity in Yemen. Where are the protests against corporations exploiting slave labor in poor countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia.  There were no noteworthy protests for any of these issues. And yet these are true existential threats to our very democracy. Bertrand Russell wrote, “one should care about the world they do not see.” Should we not therefore be planning ahead for the future of our children, grandchildren and ourselves instead of being incapacitated by fear.   The national popular disinterest in these and other crises forebodes something on the horizon that does not bode well for most Americans. It is a simple principle to understand; yet so subtle it will likely go unnoticed until everyone is individually and collectively affected. It is the utter lack of balance within the nation's body politick, and across the media that spoon feeds us virtual images of a faux theatrical play, the illusory icons on our minds' monitor screens, that shape our perceptions of reality. This is how control is exerted over our thoughts, speech and actions. In fact, it is only after people exercise their thoughts independently, with the certain belief that they have actual self-control over their lives, that they arrive at the realization that their perceptions may be largely distorted.   Throughout America's history there has been a system of three federal branches to assure there is a platform for checks and balances as well as a structure to contain the tensions between them. That system now is being rapidly challenged and eroded. Now the middle of the road Democrats officially control the White House and both legislative bodies. We will see what awaits us.   There is also what is commonly referred to as the “fourth estate,” the powers of the press and news media that control the framing of the political narrative and partisan issues. In the past, the media was expected to hold the government accountable by exposing its conflicts of interest that endanger the public, its misdemeanors, and systemic corruption. This too is in decay as the media has been fully captured by corporate interests and now aligns itself politically and ideologically with the new political elite determined to reshape democracy and launch a new reset that will dramatically infringe on individual rights and liberties.   Finally, there is the growing influence of a fourth branch of government, the corpocracy and its private interests. We might also include the US intelligence community that increasingly operates independently from executive and legislative oversight.   Together we can witness this loose cabal of seemingly independent entities, working simultaneously in consortium and in opposition to each other, propelling us towards a future tsunami of greater polarization and immense social disruption.   Earlier generations were not threatened by the telecommunication and technological giants, such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Clinton's Communications Decency Act of 1996, despite its well-meaning intentions to protect free speech, was otherwise destructively naïve. At that time it was sensible; however, that was before the advent of the social media that now dominates our lives and shapes political discourse. Silicon Valley has become a force far more powerful than the lobbyists on K Street to ensure that corporate Democrats are raised to a position of absolute power. Yet the problem would be equally threatening if it were the corporate and radicalized GOP in power.   The centrist Democratic left, lulled in a passivity that “it can't happen here,” is every bit as dangerous and delusional as the Republican far-right's paranoia over conspiracies squatting behind every nook and cranny. A moderate centrist right no longer exists as it has now exited reality like a herd of lemmings to follow Trump phenomena over a phantasmagoric cliff.   The more important question to contemplate is how this will impact yourself and average citizens. What happens elsewhere around the world can no longer be viewed in isolation. Globalization is perhaps the most holistic phenomena within the matrix of financial capital movements and post-modern social restructuring. China has the means to socially control most of its population, especially in urban areas. On the other hand, China would be unable to succeed in this endeavor without the direct assistance, trade and technological development of Silicon Valley and the private innovators of intelligence and surveillance applied science. China has already launched social scoring, a nefarious means to reward and penalize public activity. If a person protests the lack of personal freedom, democratic values and free speech, his or her social score decreases. And through digital networks, authorities can monitor and identify every Chinese citizen's movements. All of this technology is ready for launch in the US and other developed nations. However, rather than social scoring, it is block chain, the digital database that gathers any information it is programmed for. Block chain has already been employed for almost a decade.    At this moment the federal government and individual states are blindly over-reacting to Covid's health threats, the climate and environment, and the collapse of social cohesion. These threats are eliciting government mandates, such as vaccination. A Biden federal vaccine mandate would overrule individual state laws. The fact that this is being publicly stated should quell many conspiratorial theories. It is part of a more comprehensive and long-term agenda for expanding government social control under the pretense and propaganda of keeping Americans safe under the banner of national security.   New laws are under construction that would redefine hate speech. Censorship of free speech for criticizing official narratives and policies to tackle the pandemic are being enforced. Any criticism towards the failures of the Covid-19 vaccines is redefined as threats to public health. People raising such critiques may eventually find their names on domestic terrorist lists. This scenario is not beyond the imagination. Wikileaks revealed that environmental, animal protection, and human rights groups have been labeled as domestic terrorist organizations. Guilt by association laws, for example buried in Obama's National Defense Authorization Act, are in place. Expanding a law's scope is far easier than erasing it from the books. Consequently, it is not unlikely that these laws may eventually widen to include charges of subversion based solely on the emails you read, the videos you watch or the broadcasts you listen to. This would inevitably lead to the death toll for any residue of integrity in journalism. Silicon Valley's collusion with the government has canceled the voices of some of our best investigative journalists, such as Chris Hedges, Sharyl Attkinsson, Glenn Greenwald, Max Blumenthal and Craig Murray. These are only a few of many examples. The new unstated law is that original investigation must support the official narrative, otherwise it will be prohibited from accessible public view.    We may recall that under the second Bush administration, the justice department created “free speech zones,” fenced off or confined areas where demonstrators were only permitted to exercise their Constitutional rights of free protest and expression. Today we are only several small amendments away before the right to assemble being banned altogether.   Faced with growing condemnation by many nations, the US' hegemony on the world geopolitical arena has waned considerably. Biden's administration and its return to neocon foreign against Russia and China and neoliberal market policies will likely make every effort to regain the dominance it lost during the past four years. What has vanished in the US' former full spectrum dominance over the geopolitical landscape is now being inverted to strengthen federal hegemonic reign over the American population.   Finally, we need to awaken to modern technologies' remarkable sophistication and its certain threats to the health of our societies, and even to our definition of being human. Sadly, this is an industry each of us has been complicit in advancing. Coining a term by one of the planet's most important and forgotten 20th century prophetic voices, the Trappist monk Father Thomas Merton, we are facing a great Unspeakable, a spiritual crisis contributing to the existential vacuity of modern American culture. Few are aware that in his 1964 collection of meditations, Seeds of Destruction, Merton predicted that the civil rights movement would confront a catastrophic impasse and may find itself without leadership. Four years later, Martin Luther King Jr, who Merton had a deep correspondence with, was assassinated. Merton would die suddenly later that same year under very mysterious circumstances in Thailand.   Another way to describe the Unspeakable is criminal Sovereignty, with a capital S, to convey its almost numinous qualities. If alive today, Merton would look upon both the extreme right and left as mere expressions of the meaninglessness of American life manifesting as a turbulent ocean of afflictive emotions and thoughts. Instead of technology serving the needs of humanity, Americans are being increasingly conditioned to willingly bow as slaves to technology. The public, Somerset Maugham warned, “are easily disillusioned then they are angry or it was the illusion they loved.” The Unspeakable's unspoken mantra is: technology must progress regardless of how many people fall destitute, jobless, debt ridden and physically ill with only suicide as a recourse to escape. “American democracy today,” Merton observed over 55 years ago, “is just cheap pressed wood fiber, cardboard and spray paint.” Consequently, the elite sitting in the global control tower view the Great Reset's technological regime as preferable to democracy's kabuki theater. Advanced surveillance, artificial intelligence, intelligent robotics, transhumanism, a 5G internet of everything, genetic engineering, and weather modification should be our guiding avatars. The solutions, he would argue, can no longer be found in civil discourse or the rights of human beings gathering in assembly. For the ruling elite, the masses are blind sheep wandering in search of a shepherd. This is what author Ronald Wright called the “progress trap” – progress' unending efforts to feed technology's hunger to devour natural and human capital, interest free. And the mainstream press and news media, in its' malady of cognitive dissonance, serves as its unreflective cheerleader for our march towards civilizational collapse.    Merton was keenly aware of technology's dangers to social stability. In a 1967 letter he took aim at the “universal myth that technology infallibly makes everything in every way better for everybody. It does not.” However, Merton was by no means a Luddite. “Technology could indeed make a better world for millions of human beings,” he wrote. Yet there remained the nightmare of technology transforming the world into a “more collectivist, cybernated mass culture.” Decades before the first desktop, Merton foresaw a complete fragmentation of the nation's moral and spiritual fabric when people will begin basing all of their political and ethical decisions on computers. Prophetically he wrote to a friend, “just wait until they start philosophizing with computers!” That was 1967. He even foresaw technology becoming a means to elevate the slaves of technology's false self, to satisfy narcissistic appetites for admiration and status. In other words, the woke social media.   “The greatest need of our time,” Merton wrote in his Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, “is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning we cannot begin to see. Unless we see we cannot think. The purification must begin with the mass media.”   For this reason we urgently need to penetrate the illusions of propaganda and popular falsehoods, across the entire political spectrum as well the self-appointed pontificating Pharisees who are ushering a new socio-economic era where endless technological innovation has precedence over human lives. Despite its newness, it has also been clearly predictable. No doubt, if Orwell were penning his great novel today, the emergence of this new American era we are witnessing would not be fiction.

Transcending the Delusions Institutional Control Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 13, 2022 In his 1938 song Scottsboro Boys, blues artist Lead Belly warned us to remain alert, “stay woke”, as we pass through unfriendly and prejudiced lands and territories. “I advise everybody to be a little careful,” Lead Belly sang, “stay woke, keep your eyes open.” We need to become streetwise by critically evaluating everything. However the present woke generations appear to have entered a coma.  The most recent incarnation of wokeness is not an awakening of either consciousness or conscientiousness that respects the sacredness of life, other humans, and the animal and plant kingdoms. It has steered away from its early origins within the Black community when it was used to refer to a social and political awareness for racial and social injustices. The first modern use of the term “woke” first modern use goes back to a 1962 New York Times article by the Black author William Melvin Kelly in referring to being “well informed, up to date.”  To be woke requires critical thought and discernment.  It has more in common with an innate metacognitive knowing to distinguish between rightness and fraud. Now the term has been adopted by two entire generations, regardless of race, and politicized with almost an ontological unease to conquer and divide. Hence to be woke is to be anti-woke. Throughout human history hierarchical power has been abused to control those who are subject and dependent upon that power, such as the rule of kings, emperors and authoritarian tyrants. In addition, to meet our daily needs and to secure financial ease there are landowners, merchants and bankers. In all of these power relationships, equity is always on the side of those who hold power. At this moment our nation has reached an impasse where only a tiny group of individuals control and govern the lives of the many. The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan wrote, “In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message.” McLuhan is suggesting that the masses have the tendency to focus on what is most obvious and consequently miss or ignore the deeper and more subtle changes unfolding over a period of time.  In other words, what may seem to be correct and just on the surface may eventually bring forth deleterious or “unintended” consequences. McLuhan wrote long before the internet. Today, presidential campaigns and federal laws, public health policies, the mainstream media and corporate entertainment are the conduits for how we define ourselves. They also define and set the boundaries for the dogmatic beliefs we ultimately identify with. But all of these narratives are controlled by a handful of power players, including the social media platforms such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia. Succumbing to the siren's call of this illusion is being woke with closed eyes. There is a saying that if you do not know the product being advertised you are the product; and this is certainly true for how millions of Americans are persuaded to purchase junk they have no need for. Our personal realities thereby are reduced to millions of bits of algorithmic data that know more about us than we know about ourselves.  We are sold on the promises of 5G technology despite the media never mentioning its serious dangers to human health and the environment. The risks of genetically modified foods and vaccination are censored from public discourse. Federal agencies that begin small and are believed to be temporary, such as Homeland Security, become permanent and unstoppable leviathans that encroach into every corner of our lives. At this moment, we are being instructed that our sole attention should be to get a Covid-19 vaccine and boosters so life can return to normal. This may sound reasonable. However, hidden beneath this message's surface has been a sophisticated effort to bypass and trash essential regulatory protective measures to assure the safety of these genetic products. Now that all world governments' health policies have utterly failed to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as Delta and Omicron, more and more doctors and medical experts around the world are coming forth to say we have been deceptively misled by the Ministry of Truth's Anthony Fauci-s and Bill Gates-s of the world.  Yet their voices are being canceled and censored by Silicon Valley and social media as are professors speaking against student demands for personal entitlement and the anti-woke White Fragility diatribe that condemns genetic whiteness as racist. Students would prefer college to be sanitized of critical thought, a pleasant, non-intrusive and safe environment filled with teddy bears and psychologists next door to drug their episodes of existential angst and purposelessness in life. As the pandemic hijacks our attention, global warming increases. Over twenty percent of Americans will go to sleep hungry tonight. Those with cancer, heart disease, diabetes and dementia are told to just hang on a bit longer; a blockbuster pharmaceutical cure is just around the corner.  But for decades, this carrot has been dangled before us and has yet to come to fruition. Everything today is its opposite. The blue and red pills have been pulverized together. Only a purple pill laced with the strychnine of lies and half-truths is offered by an unduly legislative system run by technocrats and their private financial handlers. Woke and anti-woke are indistinguishable since both are born from similarly delusional worldviews divorced from reality, neither being capable of observing the preciousness and fragility of human life. It is only the rare authentic progressive who has transcended this divide and can wisely observe the battlefields orchestrated by politically motivated ideologues, aristocrats and the media. As the US spins further into a controlled dystopia, it is difficult to imagine that this trajectory towards social decay can be easily reversed. Arthur Miller said, “an era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.”  Therefore, we still have a long way to go and it may require a full system-failure at all economic and social levels before a viable and realistic effort can restore what has been lost from the ethical wasteland left in its wake. It took Rome several centuries to collapse but we are on course to accomplish this feat within a decade. To remain optimistic, therefore, requires a rejection of the dominant Social Darwinism and the specter of what Thomas Huxley called the Church Scientific that now informs both parties and that have shackled us in a fatalist purgatory or worse Dante's hells of lust, gluttony and greed. The evangelical Christian Right -- science's counterrevolutionary reactive response -- is equally a contributor to the dumbing down of the nation's sanity with fairy tales and superstition. Our indoctrination into scientific materialism, our surrendering our autonomy and divine freedoms to political and corporate regimes, and the clashes over political correctness, that disempower us from believing we can change our conditions, has created a sense of hopelessness in life and growing existential despair.  The consequences, particularly for the younger generations, have been an outburst of psychological maladies, ADD and ADHD, depression and anxiety, and rising suicide rates. It is also contributing to the unbridled frenzy of hatred across the internet.  Ideological beliefs become dogmas based upon mental afflictions, which in turn drive our emotions, fears and hatreds and reactions. No wonder pessimism is on the rise and optimism is in decline. Only a personal encounter with a deeper purpose and meaning in life, which cuts through the tyranny of our false sense of the self or ego, can ultimately guide us to rise above the turmoil and crises facing us. This does not imply a detached disinterest, an ascetic renunciation, from the plights of our neighbors and humanity. But it does demand an introspective inquiry into ourselves to discover authentic kindness, compassion and a deeper connection with others so authentic well-being and genuine happiness can emerge.  It is a commitment to finding our interconnection, in fact our interdependence, with others in the spirit of selflessness and service. So if modern American society relies solely upon mental and emotional distraction to survive, clearly there is no hope for constructive solutions to emerge to confront the roots of climate change, racism, identity politics, inequality, etc. Nor will society evolve beyond that of primates if we can only function from our reptilian and limbic brains. Obviously not everyone will discover the same purpose in his or her quest for life's meaning. It is an individual quest that is largely entwined with each of our unique gifts, skills, passions and talents that we have brought into this incarnation. Those who disagree that one can discover meaning in life are the dogmatists of materialism and should be shunned. Logic and reason alone will not satisfy this discovery; although developing skills in critical thought and discernment is more often than not necessary. It is only the rare person who has immediate intuitive knowledge about herself and the world around her. For the remainder of us, we need to educate ourselves to have a roadmap, develop a discerning eye, and engage in deep introspection into ourselves to find the purpose of our lives. It is an individual journey that begins deep within ourselves and ends by embracing others in community despite the differences. However this is not an exercise in reason, but a direct experience within the depths of ourselves. When we touch on that place that can only be reached by subjective introspection new horizons of opportunities and possibilities open up. Then we can understand the words of the great jazz artist John Coltrane, “I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.” In that honoring of our inherent goodness, genuine well-being and happiness is found and only then can our illusions and dogmatic beliefs be surrendered.

Research shows hemp compounds prevent coronavirus from entering human cells   Oregon State University, January 11, 2022 Hemp compounds identified by Oregon State University research via a chemical screening technique invented at OSU show the ability to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from entering human cells. Van Breemen and collaborators, including scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, found that a pair of cannabinoid acids bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, blocking a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people. The compounds are cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, CBDA, and the spike protein is the same drug target used in COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. A drug target is any molecule critical to the process a disease follows, meaning its disruption can thwart infection or disease progression.   Tomato concentrate could help reduce chronic intestinal inflammation associated with HIV   University of California Los Angeles, January 11, 2021 New UCLA-led research in mice suggests that adding a certain type of tomato concentrate to the diet can reduce the intestinal inflammation that is associated with HIV. Left untreated, intestinal inflammation can accelerate arterial disease, which in turn can lead to heart attack and stroke. The findings provide clues to how the altered intestinal tract affects disease-causing inflammation in people with chronic HIV infection, suggesting that targeting the inflamed intestinal wall may be a novel way to prevent the systemic inflammation that persists even when antiviral therapy is effective in controlling a person's HIV.     Too much sitting could mean worse outcomes for cancer survivors   Cancer Care Alberta (Canada), January 11, 2022 A new study shows those who sit too much and are not physically active are much more likely to die early from cancer or any other cause than those who are more active. Data on cancer survivors who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2014 showed that inactive survivors who reported sitting more than eight hours a day were at the highest risk of dying. "Cancer survivors who did not meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans [150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity leisure-time physical activity] and sit longer than eight hours per day had more than a fivefold increase in the risk of death from all causes—cancer and non-cancer," said lead researcher Lin Yang. The link was particularly troubling because the researchers found that as many as one-third of cancer survivors didn't exercise and sat more than six hours a day. Only about one-third got the recommended 150 hours of exercise a week, Yang said.     Running could improve brain function in people with Gulf War illness   Texas A&M University, January 10, 2022 It has now been three decades since 700,000 American troops responded to the invasion of Kuwait in the first Gulf War, and more than a third of those troops still suffer from the same condition: Gulf War Illness (GWI). Previously labeled Gulf War syndrome, GWI is characterized by persistent reduced cognitive function, memory problems, mood and sleep disturbances, chronic pain and fatigue. The exact cause of GWI is not known, though it is suggested that some combination of the prophylactic drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB), the mosquito repellant N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), insecticide permethrin (PER), multiple pesticides, low doses of Sarin, and chronic war-related stress are to blame. Positive findings notwithstanding, the impracticalities of a drug that is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) led Shetty to explore more accessible means. With perhaps the most simple of interventions that could be asked (certainly one familiar to our veterans), he found that running a few times each week could be powerful in the relief of GWI-related symptoms.     Why high-dose vitamin C kills cancer cells   Low levels of catalase enzyme make cancer cells vulnerable to high-dose vitamin C University of Iowa, January 9, 2022 Vitamin C has a patchy history as a cancer therapy, but researchers at the University of Iowa believe that is because it has often been used in a way that guarantees failure. Most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally. However, the UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C intravenously--and bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion pathways--creates blood levels that are 100 - 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C's ability to attack cancer cells. Earlier work by UI redox biology expert Garry Buettner found that at these extremely high levels (in the millimolar range), vitamin C selectively kills cancer cells but not normal cells in the test tube and in mice. Physicians at UI Hospitals and Clinics are now testing the approach in clinical trials for pancreatic cancer and lung cancer that combine high-dose, intravenous vitamin C with standard chemotherapy or radiation. Earlier phase 1 trials indicated this treatment is safe and well-tolerated and hinted that the therapy improves patient outcomes. The current, larger trials aim to determine if the treatment improves survival. In a new study, published recently in the December issue of the journal Redox Biology, Buettner and his colleagues have homed in on the biological details of how high-dose vitamin C (also known as ascorbate) kills cancer cells.   People with early-onset Parkinson's disease may benefit from boosting niacin in diet   University of Leicester (UK), January 10, 2022 •    Team studied fruit flies with a mutation that mimics the human disease •    Niacin/Vitamin B3 is found in a variety of foods including meats and nuts •    Research suggests niacin boosts levels of NAD compound in body for energy generation and DNA repair, which is critical for keeping mitochondria in shape and Parkinson's at bay •    Drugs that block NAD-consuming DNA repair already exist to treat cancer - therefore these drugs could be repurposed to protect faulty mitochondria in Parkinson's disease "This study strengthens the therapeutic potential for Vitamin B3/niacin-based dietary interventions in the treatment of Parkinson's disease" - Dr Miguel Martins, MRC Toxicology Unit, University of Leicester People with certain forms of early-onset Parkinson's disease may benefit from boosting the amount of niacin in their diet, according to new research from the University of Leicester. Niacin, or Vitamin B3, is found in a variety of foods, including nuts and meat. The team from the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester studied fruit flies with a mutation that mimics the human disease.     America's Crisis of Cultural Moral Panic   Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 12, 2022 It is one thing to show a man that he is in error and another to put him in touch with truth… No man's knowledge can go beyond his experience” – John Locke (Essays Concerning Human Understanding) Locke was not alone in questioning what we believe to be true knowledge, and pointing out the consequences of failing to discern falsehoods from reality. Locke was in excellent company.  Due to the scientific revolution, which inspired several generations of deep thinkers, naturalists and philosophers, including Rousseau, Kant, Spinoza, Darwin, Bacon and Voltaire, the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason has dominated the intellectual world of ideas for nearly two centuries. Locke's statements remain pertinent because today there is a new generation that has been indoctrinated by the shortcomings of scientific materialism. It was intended to bring forth a new purity, an idyllic perfectionism of thought and beliefs founded alone upon objective inquiry. But now this higher ideal has degenerated into a juvenile revolution fuelling identity politics, the cancel culture of wokeness, and a passionate micro-aggression that derives hedonist pleasure in ridicule and insult. One of its more lofty goals is to end free speech as we know it – except for those who are woke. Other goals are to institute a faux collectivism and to abolish meritocracy or social rewards earned through effort and achievement. For many years, important voices of critical thought – Noam Chomsky, Henry Giroux, Jordan Peterson, to name a few, have been warning us that this day was rapidly approaching. However, since there are no dynamic leaders in the youth's woke moment of Maoist-style cleansing and purging of wrong-views, wrong attitudes and wrong beliefs, most of us in the older generations wrongly assume it would be a passing phase. But it wasn't. In fact, the consequences of this unleashed furor, evidenced by an absence of self-reflection and critical thought, has been channeled into a mob rule of dissent and abuse.  In the virtual world gatherings of protest across social media, it is nearly unstoppable. No one is challenging them, neither the mainstream media nor the majority of academia. Rather, corporate leaders and persuasive forces within the ranks of liberal democratic institutions are coming to their aid. Therefore, it proceeds under the cover of a silent political power to sustain its energy. On the other hand, today's youth have every reason to feel disenchanted and to suffer rampant existential angst, the emptiness of not feeling a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in the world at large.  American neoliberalism's and our educational system's single-minded attention on science and technology -- which in themselves are amoral disciplines -- and rote memorization and testing has resulted in two decades of our youth becoming increasingly illiterate in the humanities, critical evaluation and reflective inquiry.  It is also the most irreligious generation in American history. Without the skills of introspective thought to develop a sense of genuine well-being and true happiness, or what Plato called eudomonia as opposed to hedonia, (the pursuit of temporary or transient pleasures), our nation has tossed its youth to the rabid dogs of the social Darwinian rat race for survival. Therefore, it is not surprising that suicides among today's teens and twenty-somethings have risen 47 percentduring the past two decades.  Sadly the casualty rate is higher after we consider there are 36 percent more people living in their 20s today than there were at the turn of the century. Thirty-two percent of youth through their 20s have clinical anxiety disorders, 1 in 9 suffer from depression and almost 14 percent have ADHD.  Although the medical community would like us to believe these are either inherited or biological conditions attributable to brain chemical imbalances, there is absolutely no scientific consensus proving there is a direct, observable causal relationship between brain function and mental states.  Certainly there are correlated relationships; but correlation is not causation.  The latter is solely a belief, an assumption, without any conclusive and confirming data. The causes are elsewhere and perhaps to be found in our dysfunctional society and the complete breakdown of traditional ethical structures and universal values. In 1972, South African sociologist Stanley Cohen proposed the Moral Panic Theory, an irrational widespread fear that threatens one's sense of values, safety and cohesion to one's “tribal” identity.  This moral panic, Cohen observes, is bolstered by the injustices of the ruling elite and its mouthpieces in the media. It also centers aroundthose who society marginalizes and is based upon “ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality and religion.” Ashley Grossman, writing for ThoughtCo, makes the point that those in power will ultimately most benefit from moral panics “since they lead to increased control of the population and the reinforcement of the authority of those in charge.” The panic aroused grassroots movements provides the government or state “to enact legislation and laws that would seem illegitimate without the perceived threat at the center of the moral panic.” The popular fear of the Covid-19 virus and the unvaccinated created by our federal health officials and their news media allies is another recent example of Moral Panic Theory. Unfortunately, most of the country has entered a Moral Panic phase: the vitriolic propaganda in both parties, the greed and opportunism of the oligarchic and corporate elite, QAnon and the Alt-Right, and the Woke-Left. Repeatedly woke students are demanding their schools and colleges make assurances that they are emotionally safe from ideas and philosophies that challenge their fragile comfort zones. Teachers and professors who challenge their students' illusions about knowledge and their fragile self-identity are being ostracized with calls for administrative dismissal. How many academicians are forced to remain silent to avoid the consequences of the new woke Inquisition? Such student actions are indicative of their weak sense of self-worth and existential angst; yet we must look at modern parental upbringing and our culture's leading elders, as noted by Jonathan Haidt, to diagnose the causal factors for this psychological catastrophe of two entire generations. Consequently, when collective panic reaches a threshold, Cohen's theory might explain the sudden eruption of irrational behavior entangled in the rise of a cancel culture built upon an intellectual anarchy that is frighteningly irrational. And it is equally endemic to the reactionary maleficence of white supremacists and militias. So when a new book emerges, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, and becomes the holy grail of woke truths, we are lectured that what will not be tolerated is any deviation or heresy its espoused twisted emerging social norm. The author's central theme is that if you have the misfortune of being born with the wrong genes into the wrong family a with the wrong skin color, you are a racist and will be such for the remainder of your days.  Hence every White person is condemned with a defective moniker blazed across the forehead. And since meritocracy likewise is damned, all achievements are reduced to an inherited privilege of having been born Caucasian.  Your attempt to defend yourself and profess your free speech is a testament of your heresy. No apology or act of humility can save you. It is a life sentence without parole for good behavior. White Fragility is already being taught in many schools, with the full cooperation of teacher unions and school administrators. Resistance will be a subversive act and an admission of your racism. It is critical to observe this may be heading towards a new paradigm of Orwellian social control. Yet there is barely a shred of credible scientific evidence to support DiAngelo's hypotheses.  It is a flawed opinion, and a dangerous one at that.  Worse, its long-reaching conclusions could advocate for a repressive regime of a future scientism dictatorship that Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell warned.  Russell noted that “collective passions” have a penchant to inflame “hatred and rivalry directed towards other groups.” He was acutely aware that “science is no substitute for virtue; the heart is as necessary for the good life as the head.” And DiAngelo's screed falls into the dark abysmal waters of genetic determinism that gave rise to racist fascism. Russell further cautioned that this distorted over-reliance on faux science could be “a curse to mankind.” Perhaps, during its Icarus moment, wokeness will self-destruct under its own rashness and the internal fire of its undiscerning ardor.  What carnage it leaves in its wake remains to be seen. Yet there is nothing new or original in the cultural rebellion we are witnessing. This game has been played out before in previous acts that strived for an adolescent and unreachable social perfection.  It will have its blowback.  In his Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton observed that for every action there is an equally opposing reaction. However, we have yet to witness how it will boomerang. But we will.  In the meantime, a new class of wannabe priests is emerging within the woke movement, a priesthood David Hume warned about in his Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, which will in turn be an adversary to liberty. Consider the backlash after Harpers magazine published a Letter on Justice and Open Debate to warn about “a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity.”  Signed by over 160 brilliant minds, academicians and authors – liberal and conservative -- including Noam Chomsky, Jonathan Haidt, Susannah Heschel, Steven Pinker, Gloria Steinem, etc, the letter gives a stark warning of the unwelcomed consequences of the new culture of censorship that the demonstration's leaders are ushering into the nation at large. The woke now demand retribution against its signers, in effect shutting down the nation's 200-plus years of free speech, the right to disagree and public discourse. Have those who are most rabidly eager to condemn and cancel the wide diversity of voices who disagree with their beliefs considered earlier precedents for their actions? It was the Spanish Inquisition.  In principle, how many today are in effect labeled heretics and “witches” because they have spoken publicly in favor of free speech and oppose censorship? May not the woke movement in turn become the harbinger of a new Inquisition, a new platform of economic and social persecution by the powerful and wealthy waiting in the corridors after the cult of woke loses its steam? The causal problems to our terrified culture is of course far deeper and has been identified and analyzed repeatedly in the writings of Chris Hedges and Henry Giroux.  Our nation thrives on victimizing others.  Now the once disenfranchised victims of the liberal woke generation, erupting from its simmering angst and meaninglessness, are determined to be the new victimizers. What is the end game when a populist uprising of disillusioned and psychologically traumatized youth at the mercy of capitalism's parasitical march to claim more victims gets the upper hand. The movement has now evolved beyond its original demands of racial justice for the Black and other minority communities who have been discriminated against by our institutions, particularly law enforcement and the private prison system. Now it is rapidly morphing into a massive autonomous cult of divisiveness and self-righteousness without a moral backbone that recognizes the essential values of forgiveness, reconciliation, and cooperative engagement for preserving a sane and productive culture that benefits all.     Insurance companies should ‘penalize' the unvaxxed, ethicist at New York University recommends   Professor Arthur Caplan said that people who have chosen not to get jabbed should pay higher insurance premiums and be barred from getting life insurance LifeSite News, Jan 6, 2022 An ethicist at New York University said that people who have not gotten jabbed should be punished by insurance companies. “By and large, if you're vaccinated and boosted, even if you get infected, you're going to be fine. You're going to be fine here. It's the unvaccinated who are going to be hurt, so why should anyone who is boosted bother at this point to do anything that makes the unvaccinated more safe?” CNN's John Berman asked Professor Arthur Caplan, the director of the medical ethics division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Professor Caplan agreed that the unvaccinated should be shamed and treated poorly by society, though he said he hopes he can change their minds. “I'll condemn them. I'll shame them. I'll blame them,” Professor Caplan said. “We can penalize them more, say you will have to pay more on your hospital bill. You can't get life insurance, disability insurance at affordable rates if you aren't vaccinated.”     NO DEATHS FROM VITAMINS - Safety Confirmed by America's Largest Database   Orthomolecular News Service, January 7th 2022 The 38th annual report from the American Association of Poison Control Centers shows zero deaths from vitamins. It is interesting that it is so quietly placed way back there where nary a news reporter is likely to see it. The AAPCC reports zero deaths from multiple vitamins. And, there were no deaths whatsoever from vitamin A, niacin, pyridoxine (B-6) any other B-vitamin. There were no deaths from vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, or from any vitamin at all. On page 1477 there is an allegation of a single death attributed to an unspecified, unknown "Miscellaneous Vitamin." The obvious uncertainly of such a listing diminishes any claim of validity. There were no fatalities from amino acids, creatine, blue-green algae, glucosamine, or chondroitin. There were no deaths from any homeopathic remedy, Asian medicine, Hispanic medicine, or Ayurvedic medicine. None.   (NEXT)   40% of Israel could be infected with Covid-19 in current wave, says PM   France24, January 10, 2022 Israel could see up to nearly 40 percent of the population infected by coronavirus during the current wave, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday, as testing facilities nationwide buckled Data presented at the cabinet meeting indicates that here, in Israel, between two to four million citizens in total will be infected during this current wave. A country of just 9.4 million, Israel has seen infections nearly quadruple over the past week compared to the previous one. The health ministry reported 17,518 new infections on Saturday. Health ministry data showed that more than 4.3 million Israelis were fully vaccinated with three shots, while 204 people are hospitalised in serious condition as a result of Covid-19 illness on Sunday. More than 1.5 million Covid cases, including 8,269 deaths, have been officially recorded in Israel.   (NEXT)   4th COVID Booster Shot Could Cause ‘Immune System Fatigue,' Scientists Say   As Israel moves ahead with fourth COVID shot, scientists told the New York Times the additional booster may cause more harm than good. Childrens Health Defense, January 7, 2022 COVID-19 booster shots could do more harm than good, according to scientists interviewed late last month by The New York Times. The scientists warned “that too many shots might actually harm the body's ability to fight COVID” and “might cause a sort of immune system fatigue.” On Monday, Israeli authorities began offering anyone over age 60 a chance to get a fourth shot, or second booster of the COVID vaccine. But scientists told The Times, before Israel confirmed it would offer the fourth shot, the science is not yet settled on using an additional booster shot to combat the new Omicron variant. There is one official report of an Israeli dying from Omicron. However, according to The Times of Israel, it is unclear that Omicron caused the death of the individual — a man in his 60s hospitalized weeks earlier from a pre-existing condition. A new report from the UK Health Security Agency showed booster doses are less effective against Omicron than previous variants, and their effectiveness wears off in only 10 weeks. Professor Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist and chairman of Israel's Association of Public Health Physicians, told The New York Times there's no published scientific evidence a fourth shot is needed to prevent severe illness from Omicron. “Before giving a fourth shot, it is preferable to wait for the science,” Levine said.   (NEXT)   145-Country Study Shows Increase Of Transmission And Death After Introduction Of Covid Vaccines   Truth Press, January 11, 2022 Instead of bringing an end to this pandemic as promised, the widespread rollout of the experimental vaccines has actually caused a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths across the world, according to a recently published preprint study that looked at data from the 145 of the most vaccinated countries in the world. The 99-page study titled “Worldwide Bayesian Causal Impact Analysis of Vaccine Administration on Deaths and Cases Associated with COVID-19: A BigData Analysis of 145 Countries” found that in the US specifically, the jab has caused a whopping 38% more Covid cases per million – and an even more astonishing 31% increase in deaths per million. In total, researchers found that almost 90% (89.84%) of the 145 countries experienced this negative effect from the vaccines after they were made available. From the study: “Results indicate that the treatment (vaccine administration) has a strong and statistically significant propensity to causally increase the values in either y1 [variable chosen for deaths per million] or y2 [variable chosen for cases per million] over and above what would have been expected with no treatment. y1 showed an increase/decrease ratio of (+115/-13), which means 89.84% of statistically significant countries showed an increase in total deaths per million associated with COVID-19 due directly to the causal impact of treatment initiation [vaccines]. y2 showed an increase/decrease ratio of (+105/-16) which means 86.78% of statistically significant countries showed an increase in total cases per millionof COVID-19 due directly to the causal impact of treatment initiation.” Perhaps the most telling part of the study's results is that the countries which recorded the fewest Covid deaths in 2020 were the ones to experience the largest increases in cases and deaths once the vaccine was introduced, with some of them seeing increases as high as over a thousand percent. In the study's conclusion, researchers warned that the substantial increase in deaths and cases should be “highly worrisome” for the policymakers around the world who have been promoting the experimental vaccines as the “key to gain back our freedoms.”   (NEXT)   Covid Vaccine-Injuries: "An Avalanche", says Attorney Aaron Siri   In November 2021, attorney Aaron Siri explained to an expert panel at Congress that his firm was seeing "an avalanche of submissions" from people seeking help to sue after covid vaccine-injuries.         Here we are in early January 2022, and:        ~ The CDC's data released December 31, 2021 contains 1,017,001 covid vaccine-injury records.        ~ The WHO's global database (VigiAccess) has collected 2,933,902 covid vaccine-injury records.        Even young children are being vaccine-injured.       From CDC's own publication, MMWR Dec. 31, 2021:        ~ "5,277 VAERS reports received for children aged 5–11 years" [1,028 (19.5%) were excluded from this analysis]        ~ "Approximately 5.1% of parents reported that their child was unable to perform normal daily activities on the day after receipt of dose 1, and 7.4% after receipt of dose 2. Approximately 1% of parents reported seeking medical care in the week after vaccination"       ~ "Two reports of death during the analytic period [November 3 - December 19, 2021]

The Government Assault Against Ivermectin and other Safe SARS-2 Treatments    Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, September 1, 2021     Had the FDA and Anthony Fauci's National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID) started approving existing clinically-proven and inexpensive drugs for treating malaria, parasites and other pathogens at the start of the pandemic, millions of people would have been saved from experiencing serious infections or dying from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Why federal health officials never followed this strategy is a question the mainstream media refuses to ask.   Another question that the medical establishment, let alone our compliant media, is why have they failed to ask whether there are reliable studies in the peer-reviewed literature and testimonies from thousands of day-to-day clinical physicians worldwide who treat Covid-19 patients with these drugs, in particular hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Ivermectin. We may also point out the many different natural remedies, such as nigella sativa, curcumin, vitamin D, melatonin, etc, which have been shown to be effective against SARS-2 infections. In most nations, there has been enormous success in treating Covid patients at the early and moderate stages of infection. However, in the US, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, the FDA and our federal medical officials have categorically denied their use.  In fact during the past couple weeks, there has been an aggressive and concerted effort to erect obstacles to prevent the employment of these more effective drugs. More recently a widespread campaign is underway to denigrate them altogether.   For example, the TOGETHER trial is now touted by the mainstream media as a flagship study showing that ivermectin is ineffective and even dangerous to prescribe. The study was conducted by professor Edward Mills at McMaster University in Ontario. If we are to believe the New York Times, the trial, which enrolled 1,300 patients, was discontinued because Mills claimed the drug was no better than a placebo. However, there is strong reason to believe this entire trial was nothing less than a staged theatrical performance. When asked, Mills denied having any conflict of interests.  However, Mills happens to be employed as a clinical trial advisor for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The Gates Foundation was also the trial's principal funder.  It may be noted that various organizations and agencies in other nations, such as the Health Products Regulatory Authority in South Africa, which have banned ivermectin, are often funded by Gates. It is naïve to believe that Gates has any philanthropic intentions whatsoever to see a highly effective treatment for SARS-2 infections reach worldwide approval. These drugs are in direct competition to his enormous investments and unwavering commitment to the Covid-19 vaccines.   In the meantime, Americans only have monoclonal antibody therapy and the controversial and ineffective drug Remdesivir at their disposal. Remdesivir's average effectiveness for late stage treatment is only 22 percent.  A Chinese study published in The Lancet found no statistically significant benefit in the drug and 12 percent of participants taking the drug had to discontinue treatment due to serious adverse effects, especially liver and kidney damage.   When questions are posited as a general argument for advocating expedient measures to protect public health during this pandemic, would it not have been wise to have prioritized for emergency use HCQ, Ivermectin, and other remedies with a record of curtailing Covid, such as the antibiotic azithromycin, zinc, selenium, Vitamins C and D, and melatonin as a first line of defense?  There was absolutely no need to have waited for experimental vaccines or experimental drugs such as Remdesivir before the pandemic became uncontrollable.  But this is what Fauci and Trump, and now Biden, permitted to happen.   If this strategy of medical intervention had been followed, would it have been successful?  The answer is likely an unequivocal “yes”.  Both HCQ and, even better, Ivermectin have been prophylactically prescribed by physicians working on pandemic's front lines with enormous success.  Yet those American physicians struggling to get this urgent message out to federal health officials are being marginalized and ridiculed en masse. Only in the US, the UK, France, South Africa and several other developed nations has there been a stubborn hubris to deny their effectiveness. The World Health Organization recommends Ivermectin for Covid-19 so why not the US and these other nations? Under oath, multiple physicians and professors at American medical schools have testified before Congress to present the scientific evidence supporting HCQ and Ivermectin.  These are otherwise medical professionals at the very heart of treating Covid-19 patients.   Today, American journalism is in shambles. In fact, it is a disgrace.  The American public is losing trust in the media. Whether it is CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the liberal tabloid Daily Beast, NPR or PBS, each has unlimited resources to properly investigate the federal and institutional machinery behind the government health policies being thrust upon us.  Yet no mainstream journalist has found the moral compass to bring this truth to the public.   In the meantime, we are allowing millions to die, and countless others to be seriously affected from a severe infection because of professional medical neglect and a healthcare system favoring the pharmaceutical industry's frantic rush to develop expensive novel drugs and experimental vaccines. The incentive by the drug makers is to take every advantage available within the FDA's emergency use loopholes to get their products approved as quickly as possible.  The primary advantage is that these novel drugs and vaccines can then leap over regulatory hurdles, which otherwise would require them to conduct lengthy and thorough clinical trials to prove their efficacy and safety. The consequence is that none of the new pharmaceutical Covid-19 interventions have been adequately reviewed.   On the other hand, HCQ and Ivermectin have an established legacy of prior research and have been on the market for decades. Worldwide, it is not unreasonable to claim that billions of people have been treated with these drugs.   Below is a breakdown of the studies conducted so far for HCQ, Ivermectin and Vitamin D specifically for combatting the SARS-CoV-2 virus   Hydroxychloroquine   344 studies, 250 peer-reviewed have been conducted specifically for Covid-19 281 have been clinical trials that involved 4,583 scientists and over 407,627 patients 64% improvement in 31 early treatment trials 75% improvement in 13 early stage infection treatment mortality results 21% improvement in 190 late stage infection treatment trials (patients in serious condition) 23% improvement in 44 randomized controlled trials Full list of HCQ studies and details:  https://c19hcq.com   Ivermectin   131 studies, 52 peer-reviewed have been conducted specifically for Covid-19 63 have been clinical trials that involved 613 scientists and over 26,398 patients 58% improvement in 31 randomized controlled trials 86% improvement in 14 prophylaxis trials 72% improvement in 27 early stage infection treatment trials 40% improvement in 22 late stage infection treatment trials 58% improvement in 25 mortality results Full list of Ivermectin studies and details:  https://c19ivermectin.com   Other inexpensive repurposed drugs for treating SARS-2   Fluvoxamine   88% improvement in early treatment 29% improvement in late stage treatment 63% improvement in all 7 peer-reviewed studies   Vitamin D   101 studies conducted by over 875 scientists 63 sufficiency studies with 34,863 patients 33 treatment trials with 46,860 patients 42% improvement in 33 treatment trials 56% improvement in 68 sufficiency studies 55% improvement in 19 treatment mortality results Full list of Vitamin D studies and details:  https://c19vitamind.com   In contrast there have been 21 studies enrolling 35,744 patients in Remdesivir trials showing only a 22% improvement in all studies combined. This rate is below that of simply taking probiotics (5 studies at 24% improvement), melatonin (7 studies at 62% improvement), curcumin (4 studies at 71% improvement), nigella sativa (3 studies at 84% improvement), quercetin (4 studies at 76% improvement), and aspirin (7 studies at 37% improvement).  Despite the small number of trials and low numbers of enrolled participants, early results indicate that greater attention and funding needs to be allocated for more rigorous research if there is to be any success in curbing SARS-2 infections' severity.   Please share this information. The inept policies and measures being taken by our federal health officials and by both the former Trump and present Biden administrations are unparalleled in American healthcare history. And never before has the media been so willing to self-censor and been so grossly irresponsible to hide the published science and the truth.  

  https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-dr-sucharit-bhakdi-these-vaccines-are-killing-the-young-and-the-old-they-are-killing-our-children/5765866 Natural Herbal HPV "Cure" Discovered Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (India), January 5, 2022 Despite the widespread belief that HPV infection is a singularly lethal force against which we only have vaccination defend ourselves, both ancient herbal medicine and our body's inherent immune defenses have newly been confirmed to have significant power against it. A groundbreaking study published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention reveals that vaccination and watchful waiting are not the only recourse against HPV infection. The study is believed to be the first of its kind to find an effective and safe therapeutic intervention for the clearance of established cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Moreover, the study confirmed that HPV infection is self-limiting and clears on its own in 73.3% of the untreated placebo group within 37 days. (NEXT) Proper exercise can reverse damage from heart aging University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, January 8, 2022 Exercise can reverse damage to sedentary, aging hearts and help prevent risk of future heart failure - if it's enough exercise, and if it's begun in time, according to a new study by cardiologists at UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources. To reap the most benefit, the exercise regimen should begin by late middle age (before age 65), when the heart apparently retains some plasticity and ability to remodel itself. And the exercise needs to be performed four to five times a week. Two to three times a week was not enough, the researchers found in an earlier study. (NEXT) Aspartame Is Linked To Leukemia And Lymphoma In New Landmark Study On Humans Natural Health Federation, December 28, 2021 As few as one diet soda daily may increase the risk for leukemia in men and women, and for multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men, according to new results from the longest-ever running study on aspartame as a carcinogen in humans. Importantly, this is the most comprehensive, long-term study ever completed on this topic, so it holds more weight than other past studies which appeared to show no risk. And disturbingly, it may also open the door for further similar findings on other cancers in future studies. (NEXT) Rhodiola defeats chronic fatigue in just one week Uppsala University (Sweden),  January 5, 2022 The ancient Vikings reportedly utilized it for its refreshing powers. The Sherpa mountain people relied on it to help them scale the heights of Mount Everest. Rhodiola rosea, an herb grown in Arctic areas of Asia and Eastern Europe, is relatively little known in modern times – but, it probably should be. Recent scientific studies have consistently shown that rhodiola causes significant improvement in fatigue symptoms – and starts working in less than a week. (NEXT) Trial affirms arginine benefit in erectile dysfunction Università Federico II di Napoli (Italy), January 3 2022. A trial reported  in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation added evidence to a benefit for supplementation with the amino acid L-arginine among men with erectile dysfunction (ED). The findings suggest that L-arginine could serve as an alternative to PDE5 inhibitor drugs used to treat ED which are not always effective or can be associated with side effects. Fifty-one men received two grams L-arginine three times per day and 47 received a placebo for three months. (NEXT) Using smells to boost learning during sleep The authors confirm that the strategic use of aromas while learning and during sleep might improve exam performance — even outside of the laboratory University of Freiburg (Germany), December 24, 2021 In a nutshell, the recent study concludes that if we smell an aroma while we take on new knowledge and then sleep next to a source of that same odor, we will find it easier to recall the information at a later date. To investigate, the scientists recruited 54 students from sixth grade classes in Germany. They asked these participants to keep rose scented sticks next to them while they learned English vocabulary at home. A week after the students first encountered the vocabulary during a school class, they sat an exam. The scientists split half of the students into four experimental groups: Group 1: No exposure to any odor cues. Group 2: Exposure to rose scent while learning at home and during the vocabulary test. Group 3: Exposure to rose scent while learning at home and during each night before the test but not during the test. Group 4: Exposure to rose scent while learning at home, every night before the test, and during the test. (NEXT) (ARTICLE) Woke Culture's Reality Deficit Disorder Richard Gale & Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 7, 2022 If anti-racial wokeness is true, then the more deeply we probe and investigate it, the truer it should appear. This was one of William James' fundamental principles when he made efforts to turn the psychology of his day into a valid science. If James' methodology had not been obliterated by the rise of behaviorism in 1910, psychology would be completely different today. We might actually be treating and curing people of mental disorders without prescribing life-long medications. On the other hand, if DiAngelo's hypothesis is false, the more deeply one investigates, which includes introspection, the more false it will appear. That is where robust inquiry comes in: to determine what is simply true regardless of whatever your personal unsubstantiated and biased beliefs about it might be. What you believe has absolutely no impact upon whether something is true or not. This is also basic Buddhist epistemology that has been repeatedly replicated by contemplatives for several millennia. Neuroscience, including its gross failures and tendencies towards metaphysical realism, has more to tell us about the inherent dangers in White Fragility's doctrine. First, modern brain science has not produced an iota of evidence to confirm that the mind and consciousness are solely a product or output originating in neuron and synaptic activity. None. Contrary to the evidence, most neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists nevertheless embrace this opinion as a settled matter. But it is ridiculous to believe that evolution somehow dragged along our ancient single-celled ancestors until some point was reached when a conscious mind -- a “nothing” that is not observable, not measurable, not quantifiable, without atoms or photons, mass, electric charge or spin – mysteriously arose out of something, such as genes and biomolecular phenomena. Therefore cognitive scientists pretend to know something about the mind and consciousness when in fact they haven't a clue. Although DiAngelo is not stating that socialized racism among Whites is genetically determined, the trajectory of her argument has the potential to lead towards that conclusion. She does consider systemic White racism as being unconscious. Therefore she has moved her social theory into psychology. Since modern psychology today is becoming increasingly informed by the neurosciences, which in turn is being informed by evolutionary biology, it is only a small leap away to find her theory complementing genetic determinism as a means to explain Whiteness' conditioned racism. If her socialized determinism, and that of the neuroscience and evolutionary biology fields, are correct, then it would break the fundamental physical laws of energy conservation and causal efficacy. In effect, DiAngelo is saying White people have no choice. It's socialized chemistry or its socialized chemistry; either way its socialized chemistry.  In effect, DiAngelo is admitting that her own perceptions about reality are fundamentally flawed. Why is that? Dr. Donald Hoffman has been a professor of neuroscience at the University of California at Irvine for over three decades. He has an impeccable background having studied artificial intelligence at MIT. But unlike the vast majority of his colleagues, Hoffman broke ranks and passed beyond neuroscience's 19th century mechanistic base and dared to study modern quantum physics and relativity theory. Theoretical physics is almost anathema in human biological research and medicine, which is why these soft sciences have made so little progress to improve human health and well-being. Hoffman has performed hundreds of thousands of simulations comparing different species and their chances for survival based upon their ability to perceive and comprehend reality more accurately or not. His discoveries are startling and utterly revolutionary. Hoffman discovered, across the board, species that best perceive reality go extinct more rapidly than competing species that only perceive what is necessary for them to remain fit and survive. During an interview following a TED Talk, Hoffman stated, “according to evolution by natural selection,” – and here he is limiting himself solely to evolutionary biological theory and not the various competing theories about the nature of consciousness – “an organism that sees reality as it is will never be more fit than an organism of equal complexity that sees none of reality but is just tuned to fitness. Never.” In other words, evolution has nothing to do with perceiving reality more clearly, but only to be more fit in order to adapt, survive and procreate. And now physicists are even telling us that the primal cause behind all physical objects may be consciousness itself, which has no association whatsoever with natural selection. For example, Professor Edward Witten, regarded as “the world's smartest” physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, has been compared to Newton and Einstein. Witten doesn't believe science will ever understand consciousness. “I think consciousness will remain a mystery,” Witten stated during a lecture, ”I have a much easier time imagining how we understand the Big Bang than I have imagining how we can understand consciousness.” Or we can listen to Stanford University theoretical physicist Andre Linde: “The current scientific model of the material world obeying laws of physics has been so successful that we forget our starting point as conscious observers, and conclude that matter is the only reality and that perceptions are only helpful for describing it. But in fact, we are substituting the reality of our experience of the universe with a conceptually contrived belief…” One may feel our critique is too abstract with little or no practical application; however to at least conceptually understand race in terms of our sensory perceptions can have enormous benefits to cut through and lessen the false semblances that arise from reality deficit disorder that winds up producing books such as White Fragility. Moreover, contrary to DiAngelo's arguments, British journalist Melanie Phillips offers a clearer understanding for why we should not rely upon the pundits of anti-racial wokeness to save us from ourselves. Despite disagreeing with Phillips on many of her other socio-political positions, she correctly identifies the fundamental flaws being voiced by arrested development wokeness across our campuses and within the corporate wing of the Democrat party. First, it is unable to establish a hierarchy of values and morals. For example, if one refuses to say that any lifestyle or culture is better than another, then it cannot be said that liberalism is better than conservatism or any other ideology.  Consequently, faux liberalism cannot legitimately defend the very principles upon which it defines itself: racial and gender equality, freedom of speech and religion, justice and tolerance, and class struggle.  It contradicts its own principles and follows DiAngelo's footsteps to remove the dignity of the individual, which in the past was at the heart of authentic liberalism and once served as its moral backbone. What we are witnessing therefore in Woke liberalism – and in DiAngelo's reinvention of racism -- is “the strong dominating the weak,” and this is an ill-liberal ideology that is already showing signs of having catastrophic consequences in classrooms and the workplace. Finally, if DiAngelo's theory is correct, then all Whites, without exception, in American history, were unconsciously transmuted into racists starting at the time of their birth. What is her proof? Is there any scientific evidence to support this outrageous claim? Did she consider the lack of sensitivity towards other peoples and races who were victims of racial identity and violence, such as the Jews who experienced genocide at hands of their Nazi overlords? And what would she say against those Whites who have fought against racism throughout the American experience, such as the Abolitionists in the US and UK who put their bodies at great risk?  In principle she is labeling them too as racist despite their fighting, protesting and even dying as committed anti-racists. Many Whites have embraced other races and cultures with open arms; however, DiAngelo wants us to believe this legacy was a sham, because in some strange voodoo way they were unconsciously racist. Is this not the height of hubris and arrogance?

  Richard Gale & Gary Null PhD Progressive Radio Network, January 7, 2022 During the past two years, the rise in wokeness and its cancel culture has shocked the sensibilities and moral fabric of the nation. It has fuelled divisions between races, class and economic status, levels of education and political allegiances. However, the anger that wokeness has carried into civil discourse is a symptom of a much deeper causal factor buried in the national psyche; that is, America's pervasive “reality deficit disorder (RDD).” This is a condition that has proliferated across the American landscape since the Age of Enlightenment and the 19th century's advent of scientific materialism as a secular religion.  The proponents of modern behaviorism and the neurosciences are likewise saturated with RDD. The Woke self-congratulating experts and false prophets are its public face.  These are plastic liberal intellectuals who have found reinforced their sense of self-righteousness by spreading the post-modern gospel of Robin DiAngelo's 2018 bestseller White Fragility. Despite the widespread adulation DiAngelo has received from liberal educators, the mega-corporate elite, and the left media, she has managed to jockey herself away from the deep scrutiny her writings and lectures deserve.  An exception is Jonathan Church, author of Reinventing Racism, who brilliantly exposes DiAngelo's flaws and deconstructs her façade of her impartial objectivity.  Church takes a more philosophical offensive to shed light on DiAngelo's implicit biases and contradictions that in turn distort the very ideas she attempts to proselytize. While we agree wholeheartedly with Church's polemic, we would take a more cognitive approach and state that DiAngelo's racial theories of irredeemable Whiteness as an inherent social construct have no basis in reality whatsoever. White Fragility reads like a tantrum by an author with a third-rate intellect who is deeply confused about her own gender and racial identity. “All white people,” DiAngelo wants us to believe, “are invested in and collude with racism.” If you were born White then racism is built into your socialized development and behavior regardless whether your family background is exemplary of racial justice or not. There can be no escape from this curse, DiAngelo suggests, no redemption or purification by fire regardless of how much penitence, public service or charity you perform for the greater good. We wonder whether she would include the indigenous blond hair, blue-eyed Finno-Ugric peoples inhabiting the northern forests and tundra of Scandinavia and Russia's Kola Peninsula as being socially structured and therefore colluding in the world's racism. The author reminds us of someone who has read every published book about chocolate and thus feels qualified to write one of her own despite never having tasted chocolate. Philosophy and postmodern sociology in general, notably the modern philosophies of science and mind, often suffer from this mental affliction. They write books about other philosophers' books who in turn wrote books about their predecessors' scribbling. Right-wing critics of wokeness and certain factions within postmodern Critical Race Theory likewise indulge in a similar cognitive hallucination built upon feeble-minded pre-Galilean superstitions. Their perceptions about themselves and the world, their righteous anger and biases, are similar to dreamscapes, phantoms they have conjured and which can have dire long-term consequences to the welfare of innocent victims prejudiced and canceled by their vitriol and condemnation. There have always been conflicting ideologies, cherished beliefs and inflamed emotions towards racial discrepancies, social order and justice or how the nation should be governed. But today these cognitive afflictions, masquerading as passions and righteous causes have disintegrated into tribalism. This is now fomenting new class and racial distinctions and struggles as well as media turf wars. No one can accurately predict where this collective reality deficit disorder will lead ultimately but it certainly won't contribute to a positive advancement of human well-being. It repeats the old adage of garbage in, garbage out. “The greatest need of our time,” the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote in his Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, “is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning we cannot begin to see. Unless we see we cannot think.”  Merton believed that this “purification must begin with the mass media.”  We would suggest it also begins with our educational institutions. Teachers who embrace White Fragility's social folly and logical fallacies need to introspectively gaze and observe the destructive ataxia nesting in their own minds.  If anyone wonders why the nation is so angry, screaming and protesting, one reason is because the failed neoliberal experiment, the culture of political nepotism, a captured and biased media, and a thoroughly corrupt judiciary have created this horror show. And DiAngelo seemingly wants to gather tinder to keep racial conflagrations burning. "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous," Martin Luther King lamented, "than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." It is our deep ignorance about not first knowing ourselves and appreciating our intrinsic interconnections with each other and the environment that perpetuates the suffering around us. These deeper existential relationships can potentially outsmart and surpass the benefits Critical Race Theory has to offer. Underlying any social structure is to be found cognitive causal relationships. This includes our attachments to whatever accomplishments and failures we experience in our lives through racial identity, which may lead to a reality deficit with all of its superiority complexes, apathy and depression. First, there is sufficient empirical science to reach a consensus that we are a culture that has become habituated to mistaking its unfounded perceptions about itself and the world as reality-based. This applies to our cognitive conceptions of Whiteness, Blackness, Yellowness, etc. Church makes this clear; DiAngelo's use of the term Whiteness is “nebulous” and “vague.”  He points out that her logic falls into a Kafka Trap, referring to Kafka's novel The Trial when an unassuming man is dragged into court and accused for an unspecified crime; subsequently his unwavering denial is itself interpreted as absolute proof that the accusation is true. “Yes, all white people are complicit with racism,” writes DiAngelo, “People will insist that they are not racist… This is the kind of evidence that many white people used to exempt themselves from that system. It is not possible to be exempt from it.” Consequently, for DiAngelo, Whites can only speak about their “whiteness” in terms of how it reinforces an implicit racism within the social system. But from a neuro-scientific perspective, all colored racisms are skewed perceptions of reality. For example, when we gaze into a deep azure sky we immediately assume there is physical blue over our heads. However, there are no blue-colored photons reaching our retinas. Rather, our brains receive the emitted photons and through a complex channeling of information from the eye to the visual cortex. The brain then Photoshops the color azure and projects it through our glance into the empty space of the sky. The same is true whether we gaze at a verdant forest canopy, a fiery sunset, the fluorescent, shimmering hues of a fanning peacock's feathers or observing an African, Asian or European person crossing the street. There is nothing mysterious behind this; it is visual brain science 101. No neuroscientist questions this visual phenomenon.  We reify the sensory stimuli the brain receives from the objective world and then grasp and cling to these as being factually real. Theoretically race may be understood as only a conventional or relative appearance arising to our mental perceptions. No absolute objective claims can be made about it; therefore, there cannot be any absolute analyses or one-size-fits-all solutions for confronting racism either. In striking contrast to White Fragility's cognitive deficiencies, we may consider an argument posed by the great Jewish German existentialist Martin Buber. Buber speaks of an I-You relationship when we engage with another person as another subject instead of as an object. There's a subject there, and that subject is every bit as real as the subject over here. For example, as much as I might care about my own well-being, then so does another person. To transcend White Fragility's divisions and its many shortcomings, which relate to others as I-Its -- as mere objects -- we simply need to be aware of Buber's advice, and become fully engaged with that reality. Buber highlights this as a profoundly existential problem in modern society. It is debilitating.  It is dehumanizing, although for DiAngelo and the cancel culture preserving racial I-It relationships is not only valid but essential. When we regard others simply in terms of whether the color of their skin is appealing or unappealing, pleasant or unpleasant, superior or inferior, and so forth we are bifurcating impressions that have no substance in reality. We are simply treating other sentient beings as if they have no more sentience, no more subjectivity, no more presence from their own side than a robot or computer. But that seems fine for DiAngelo and her tragic dehumanizing dogma. If DiAngelo were unintelligent or had severe brain damage, we might understand and would certainly sympathize. But she -- and we would argue many of those who would carry White Fragility's banner into school classrooms -- are likely very educated people. That is the calamity and the clear evidence for the deep-seated spiritual impoverishment when a person is viewed as nothing more than the race of their physical bodies. If anti-racial wokeness is true, then the more deeply we probe and investigate it, the truer it should appear. This was one of William James' fundamental principles when he made efforts to turn the psychology of his day into a valid science. If James' methodology had not been obliterated by the rise of behaviorism in 1910, psychology would be completely different today. We might actually be treating and curing people of mental disorders without prescribing life-long medications. On the other hand, if DiAngelo's hypothesis is false, the more deeply one investigates, which includes introspection, the more false it will appear. That is where robust inquiry comes in: to determine what is simply true regardless of whatever your personal unsubstantiated and biased beliefs about it might be. What you believe has absolutely no impact upon whether something is true or not. This is also basic Buddhist epistemology that has been repeatedly replicated by contemplatives for several millennia. Neuroscience, including its gross failures and tendencies towards metaphysical realism, has more to tell us about the inherent dangers in White Fragility's doctrine. First, modern brain science has not produced an iota of evidence to confirm that the mind and consciousness are solely a product or output originating in neuron and synaptic activity. None. Contrary to the evidence, most neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists nevertheless embrace this opinion as a settled matter. But it is ridiculous to believe that evolution somehow dragged along our ancient single-celled ancestors until some point was reached when a conscious mind -- a “nothing” that is not observable, not measurable, not quantifiable, without atoms or photons, mass, electric charge or spin – mysteriously arose out of something, such as genes and biomolecular phenomena. Therefore cognitive scientists pretend to know something about the mind and consciousness when in fact they haven't a clue. Although DiAngelo is not stating that socialized racism among Whites is genetically determined, the trajectory of her argument has the potential to lead towards that conclusion. She does consider systemic White racism as being unconscious. Therefore she has moved her social theory into psychology. Since modern psychology today is becoming increasingly informed by the neurosciences, which in turn is being informed by evolutionary biology, it is only a small leap away to find her theory complementing genetic determinism as a means to explain Whiteness' conditioned racism. If her socialized determinism, and that of the neuroscience and evolutionary biology fields, are correct, then it would break the fundamental physical laws of energy conservation and causal efficacy. In effect, DiAngelo is saying White people have no choice. It's socialized chemistry or its socialized chemistry; either way its socialized chemistry.  In effect, DiAngelo is admitting that her own perceptions about reality are fundamentally flawed. Why is that? Dr. Donald Hoffman has been a professor of neuroscience at the University of California at Irvine for over three decades. He has an impeccable background having studied artificial intelligence at MIT. But unlike the vast majority of his colleagues, Hoffman broke ranks and passed beyond neuroscience's 19th century mechanistic base and dared to study modern quantum physics and relativity theory. Theoretical physics is almost anathema in human biological research and medicine, which is why these soft sciences have made so little progress to improve human health and well-being. Hoffman has performed hundreds of thousands of simulations comparing different species and their chances for survival based upon their ability to perceive and comprehend reality more accurately or not. His discoveries are startling and utterly revolutionary. Hoffman discovered, across the board, species that best perceive reality go extinct more rapidly than competing species that only perceive what is necessary for them to remain fit and survive. During an interview following a TED Talk, Hoffman stated, “according to evolution by natural selection,” – and here he is limiting himself solely to evolutionary biological theory and not the various competing theories about the nature of consciousness – “an organism that sees reality as it is will never be more fit than an organism of equal complexity that sees none of reality but is just tuned to fitness. Never.” In other words, evolution has nothing to do with perceiving reality more clearly, but only to be more fit in order to adapt, survive and procreate. And now physicists are even telling us that the primal cause behind all physical objects may be consciousness itself, which has no association whatsoever with natural selection. For example, Professor Edward Witten, regarded as “the world's smartest” physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, has been compared to Newton and Einstein. Witten doesn't believe science will ever understand consciousness. “I think consciousness will remain a mystery,” Witten stated during a lecture, ”I have a much easier time imagining how we understand the Big Bang than I have imagining how we can understand consciousness.” Or we can listen to Stanford University theoretical physicist Andre Linde: “The current scientific model of the material world obeying laws of physics has been so successful that we forget our starting point as conscious observers, and conclude that matter is the only reality and that perceptions are only helpful for describing it. But in fact, we are substituting the reality of our experience of the universe with a conceptually contrived belief…” One may feel our critique is too abstract with little or no practical application; however to at least conceptually understand race in terms of our sensory perceptions can have enormous benefits to cut through and lessen the false semblances that arise from reality deficit disorder that winds up producing books such as White Fragility. Moreover, contrary to DiAngelo's arguments, British journalist Melanie Phillips offers a clearer understanding for why we should not rely upon the pundits of anti-racial wokeness to save us from ourselves. Despite disagreeing with Phillips on many of her other socio-political positions, she correctly identifies the fundamental flaws being voiced by arrested development wokeness across our campuses and within the corporate wing of the Democrat party. First, it is unable to establish a hierarchy of values and morals. For example, if one refuses to say that any lifestyle or culture is better than another, then it cannot be said that liberalism is better than conservatism or any other ideology.  Consequently, faux liberalism cannot legitimately defend the very principles upon which it defines itself: racial and gender equality, freedom of speech and religion, justice and tolerance, and class struggle.  It contradicts its own principles and follows DiAngelo's footsteps to remove the dignity of the individual, which in the past was at the heart of authentic liberalism and once served as its moral backbone. What we are witnessing therefore in Woke liberalism – and in DiAngelo's reinvention of racism -- is “the strong dominating the weak,” and this is an ill-liberal ideology that is already showing signs of having catastrophic consequences in classrooms and the workplace. Finally, if DiAngelo's theory is correct, then all Whites, without exception, in American history, were unconsciously transmuted into racists starting at the time of their birth. What is her proof? Is there any scientific evidence to support this outrageous claim? Did she consider the lack of sensitivity towards other peoples and races who were victims of racial identity and violence, such as the Jews who experienced genocide at hands of their Nazi overlords? And what would she say against those Whites who have fought against racism throughout the American experience, such as the Abolitionists in the US and UK who put their bodies at great risk?  In principle she is labeling them too as racist despite their fighting, protesting and even dying as committed anti-racists. Many Whites have embraced other races and cultures with open arms; however, DiAngelo wants us to believe this legacy was a sham, because in some strange voodoo way they were unconsciously racist. Is this not the height of hubris and arrogance?

Access to integrative therapy associated with better breast cancer survival Bryn Mawr Hospital and IQVIA, Inc., December 29 2021. An article that appeared on December 18, 2021 in the Journal of Oncology reported improved breast cancer survival among patients who had access to integrative therapies, including nutrition consultations or programs, exercise consultations or programs, patient support groups or patient-survivor pairings, spiritual services, psycho-oncology support, massage therapy, meditation or mindfulness, yoga, acupuncture or acupressure, music or art therapy, Reiki or therapeutic healing touch, and tai chi or qi gong. (NEXT) Substantial weight loss can reduce risk of severe COVID-19 complications Successful weight-loss intervention before infection associated with 60% lower risk of severe disease in patients with obesity Cleveland Clinic, December 29, 2021 A Cleveland Clinic study shows that among patients with obesity, prior weight loss achieved with bariatric surgery was associated with a 60% lower risk of developing severe complications from COVID-19 infection. The research was published in the journal JAMA Surgery. Numerous studies have established obesity as a major risk factor for developing serious illness from an infection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Obesity weakens the immune system, creates a chronic inflammatory state, and increases risk for cardiovascular disease, blood clots, and lung conditions. All of these conditions can complicate COVID-19. (NEXT) Trial finds Ginkgo biloba may help stroke survivors maintain cognitive function Nanjing University in China, January 2, 2022 Life Extension Update starts the New Year with fresh findings concerning a potential benefit for Ginkgo biloba in ischemic stroke survivors. The herb could help maintain the brain's command and control ability known as executive function, as well as aid in other areas at risk of decline among those who have experienced a stroke. On December 18, 2017, the journal Stroke & Vascular Neurology reported positive cognitive effects in association with supplementation with Ginkgo biloba among men and women who had recently experienced an ischemic stroke. Post-stroke cognitive decline has been found to affect approximately 30% of stroke survivors, and can be progressive. According to the authors  possible mechanisms for ginkgo's benefits in stroke patients include prevention of programmed cell death and increased cerebral blood flow. (NEXT) Doing less, achieving more: How the practice of wu-wei can boost athletes' performance  Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), January 4, 2022 When athletes experience the state of flow or are in the ‘zone', they sometimes describe the feeling as one of effortlessness. Although their exertions may feel effortless, what their bodies achieve in terms of performance can be extraordinary. In recent years, an increasing number of sport psychologists recommend that athletes practice mindfulness as part of their mental preparation for competing. Mindfulness aims to develop a non-judgemental awareness of the present moment, and can not only improve focus, but also promote that elusive state of flow. In a conceptual review published in KeAi's Asian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, a group of researchers assert that the ancient Chinese wisdom of wu-wei, which can be understood as non-doing or non-striving, is a natural extension of mindfulness training for athletes. (NEXT) Researchers find one autoimmune disease could lead to another University of Colorado, January 4, 2022 Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered that having one kind of autoimmune disease can lead to another. The scientists serendipitously found that mice with antibody-induced rheumatoid arthritis in their joints went on to develop spinal lesions similar to those in axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) which causes fusion of the vertebrate and curvature, or bending, of the backbone. Our results suggest that one autoimmune disease, such as inflammatory arthritis, may also lead to a secondary autoimmune disease such as AxSpA," said the study's lead author Nirmal Banda, Ph.D., professor in the division of rheumatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "This interesting disease association may be due to the binding of anti-collagen autoantibodies to the spine, or to some alteration of the immune system that requires further investigation." (NEXT) Canola oil in the diet accelerates brain damage and increases the risk of dementia Temple University January 3, 2022 Canola oil is one of the most popular vegetable oils in the world. However, many integrative healthcare providers are sounding the alarm about this seemingly harmless oil. And, as you already know, “popular” doesn't always mean it's healthy for us. For example, a new study out of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and published in the journal Scientific Reportshas linked canola oil with a decrease in memory and learning indicative of Alzheimer's disease – the most common form of dementia. It's also associated with triggering unwanted weight gain. In short, canola oil seems to be doing more harm than good, especially inside the brain. Canola oil actually increased the risk factors linked to Alzheimer's disease (GUEST) Tony Lyons Subject:  The Censorship of Bobby Kennedy's books (and other books), The Real Anthony Fauci Tony Lyons is the president and publisher of Skyhorse Publishing, a company that has published over 10,000 volumes and has made a name for itself by publishing highly controversial books on vaccine risks, autism and more recently books countering the official Covid-19 narrative. For years, Tony has fought against book censorship, including books by Woody Allen, Alan Dershowitz, and Phillip Roth's biography. He is the publisher of Robert Kennedy Jr's new book, The Real Anthony Fauci, which is currently the nation's bestselling and yet the most censored book in America.  Skyhorse's website is skyhorsepublishing.com

Most Comprehensive Study To Date: Omega-3 Reduces Heart Risks The most in-depth analysis to date confirms the importance of omega-3 fats for heart health. If fatty fish is not a regular part of your diet, you may need to consider supplementing omega-3 fatty acids to keep your heart happy and healthy. University of Idaho and University of Queensland, December 30. 2021 The most in-depth analysis to date confirms the importance of consuming sufficient quantities of omega-3 fats for preventing cardiovascular disease. The meta-analysis, published in the peer-reviewed journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reviewed 40 clinical trials, and the multi-disciplinary team of researchers delivered an authoritative rallying cry for including more EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) omega-3 fats in your diet, citing their significant cardioprotective effects. (NEXT) Honey and Nigella sativa against COVID-19: A multi-center placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial Riphah University (Pakistan), Harvard University, University of Louisville, December 30, 2021 BACKGROUND No definitive treatment exists for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Honey and Nigella sativa (HNS) have established antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. Hence, we investigated efficacy of HNS against COVID-19. wide Three hundred and thirteen patients - 210 moderate and 103 severe - underwent randomization from April 30 to July 29, 2020. Among these, 107 were assigned to HNS whereas 103 to placebo for moderate cases. For severe cases, 50 were given HNS and 53 were given placebos. HNS resulted in ∼50% reduction in time taken to alleviate symptoms as compared to placebo. HNS also cleared the virus 4 days earlier than placebo group in moderate (6 versus 10 days. HNS further led to hospital discharge in 50% versus 2.8% in severe cases In severe cases, mortality rate was four-fold lower in HNS group than placebo CONCLUSION HNS significantly improved symptoms, viral clearance and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Thus, HNS represents an affordable over the counter therapy and can either be used alone or in combination with other treatments to achieve potentiating effects against COVID-19. (NEXT) Promoting exercise rehabilitation as new and powerful tool for managing symptoms of multiple sclerosis   University of Worcester (UK) and University of Illinois,  December 29, 2021. Citing recent evidence, experts in rehabilitation research advocate for integrating exercise into the care plans of persons with multiple sclerosis. The central role of the neurologist in clinical care offers an opportunity for this provider to promote exercise as fundamental for managing the physical and cognitive symptoms of MS. Mounting evidence supports exercise as an important tool for managing the manifestations of MS, including fatigue, depression, and declines in physical mobility, balance, and cognition. While disease-modifying therapies can slow the progression of disease and disability, they do not alleviate symptoms or functional decline that adversely affect quality of life. Despite the advantages of exercise, physical inactivity is reported by 80 percent of people with MS. (NEXT) Sustainable diet leads to fewer blood clots in the brain Aarhus University (Denmark), January 4, 2022 The risk of bleeding or blood clots in the brain is lower if your diet is sustainable. This is shown by a new research result from Aarhus University. The results have just been published in the scientific journal Stroke. There should be more vegetables and less meat on the plate in front of us. A study from the Department of Public Health shows that a sustainable diet not only benefits the climate, but also benefits your health. "If adult men or women follow a sustainable diet for dietary fibre intake, then we see a lower risk of bleeding or blood clots in the brain," says Christina Dahm, who is behind the study. The seven official Danish climate-friendly dietary guidelines Eat plant-rich, varied and not too much. Eat more vegetables and fruit. Eat less meat – choose legumes and fish. Eat whole grains. Choose vegetable oils and low-fat dairy products. Eat less of the sweet, salty and fatty. Quench your thirst in water. (NEXT) Eating when we are not hungry is bad for our health University of Illinois, December 30, 2021 With the wide availability of convenient foods engineered for maximum tastiness— such as potato chips, chocolates, and bacon double cheeseburgers— in the modern food environment and with widespread advertising, the contemporary consumer is incessantly being bombarded with the temptation to eat. This means that, in contrast to people in traditional societies, people in contemporary societies often eat not on account of hunger but because tasty food is available and beckoning at all hours of the day. New research published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, found that the tendency of today's consumers to eat when they are not hungry might be less advantageous for health than eating when they are hungry. (NEXT) Black raspberries a contender for best antioxidant fruit, says study University of Agriculture (Poland), January 4, 2022 Black raspberries show greater health benefits than its closely related cousins the red raspberry and blackberry, research suggests. The research looked at the content of phenolics and anthocyanins in black raspberries, red raspberries and blackberries, assessing their antioxidant potential and health promoting properties. The study, which took place at the University of Agriculture in Krakow, discovered the amount of antioxidants in black raspberries was three times higher than the other fruits investigated. One discovery of note was the black raspberries' anthocyanines content, which was found to be approximately 1000% more than the raspberry and blackberry. Interestingly, black raspberries also contained a higher content of secondary metabolites, which have been proved equally beneficial for human health. (NEXT) Only 9% of teens meet physical activity guidelines during the pandemic, down from 16% pre-pandemic by  University of Toronto A new national study finds that only 9% of teens met the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day during the pandemic—a decline from 16% pre-pandemic. "The pandemic led to the cancelation of in-person physical education classes and organized sports, gym and recreational facility closures, and rises in screen use, which all contributed to lower physical activity for teens," said lead author Jason Nagata, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. The study found that lower physical activity was linked to poorer mental health, greater stress, and more worry about the pandemic. On average, teens reported two hours of physical activity per week during the pandemic. These estimates were lower for teens of color—Black, Latino, and Native American teens reported an average of 90 minutes of physical activity per week. (NEXT) RESPONSE TO COLUMBIA DOCTOR - Cases among fully vaccinated Back in late November in an interview with NBC News reported Fauci had stated that there was a significant increase in ER visits and hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people As usual, Fauci stated that most hospitalizations were among the unvaccinated according to studies – a trope he often repeats without ever mentioning what studies prove that. But for greater transparency we need to look at report overseas by health officials Dr Kristiaan Deckers from the GZA Hospital network in Belgium reported that 100% of ICU admissions were among the vaccinated. In the UK- the government's Public Health Data division reported that during the months of August to early December that persons who were double or triple vaccinated accounted for 6 in every 10 Covid cases, 7 in every 10 hospitalizations and 9 in every 10 Covid-19 deaths In the month of November alone, the fully vaccinated accounted for 62% of cases, 71% o hospitalizations and 85% of deaths And just before Xmas, the UK Office of National Statistics reported that triple vaccinated persons are 4.5 times more likely to test positive for the omicron variant compared to the unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Again last month ,South Korea reported record covid cases. The adult Korean population is almost completely fully vaccinated at 92% In France, the nations top virologist Prof Christian Perrone, and a long time health policy advisor to the French government has called for the lockdown of vaccinated people as being the super spreaders The very recent Danish study showed that the vaccines plus boosters showed a strong NEGATIVE efficacy against omicron – 78% of omicron cases are among the fully vaccinated which represents 77.5% of the Danish population – in other words, the vaccines have zero efficacy against omicron A German study based on the government's data by Prof emeritus Rolf Steyer at Fredrick Schiller University medical school also last month found that the higher the vaccination rate, the higher the excess mortality Recently was the Columbia University study – vaccine induced fatality rates are underreported by a factor of 20. Consequently thee actual number of deaths due to the Covid vaccines is between 146,000 and 187,000 Finally there are increasing reports by doctors and nurses in the field, in hospitals, clinics and emergency rooms who are reported that the large majority of covid cases are among the vaccinated.  In a large Rochester NY hospital – one ER professional reported that 90% of individuals admitted into the hospital are vaccinated (NEXT) VIDEOS Video - POLICE STATE: Australians Mass Protest After Churches Raided, Moms Arrested, Citizen Snitches - 7.5 minutes

Can cocoa consumption help us age better? Medical College of Georgia, Sept. 14, 2021 Whether consuming cocoa, known to be packed with powerful antioxidants that protect our cells from damage, helps us age better, is a question scientists want to definitively answer. The COSMOS Trial (COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study), led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, gathered data from 21,444 men and women looking at the impact of a cocoa extract supplement and/or multivitamins on common health problems, most of which increase with age. Dong and his colleagues will be looking specifically at aging, including so called “inflammaging,” and epigenetic aging, both considered good indicators of our biological age. Rather than just looking at the year you were born, biological age also takes into account key factors that impact your function and health, like genetics and lifestyle. He also has more standard aging measures on these individuals, like blood pressure and cognitive function tests. (NEXT) Psychobiotics as a novel strategy for alleviating anxiety and depression Jiangnan University (China), September 10, 2021 As an important ‘microbial organ', the gut microbiota directly participates in nutrient metabolism and peripheral immune regulation and even distantly affects brain functions and behaviours. This review provides an overview of recent discoveries regarding how the gut microbiota influences anxiety and depression and aims to establish the key signalling pathways between the gut microbiota and the brain. Finally, the psychobiotic strategy for treating mood disorders is discussed, covering both pre-clinical and clinical studies. Psychobiotic treatment could provide a novel therapeutic approach to treat anxiety and depression. In recent years, the gut microbiota has been viewed as a physiological control centre that is linked to the host's immune system, hormonal system, nervous system, or other physiological pathways. Until now, many studies have revealed the inextricable relationship between the gut microbiome and the brain, especially its participation in the regulation of memory, mood, and behaviour (Cryan et al., 2019b). (NEXT) Further evidence that vitamin D might protect against severe COVID-19 disease and death Trinity College (Ireland) and University of Edinburgh, September 16, 2021 New research from Trinity College and University of Edinburgh has examined the association between vitamin D and COVID-19, and found that ambient ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (which is key for vitamin D production in the skin) at an individual's place of residence in the weeks before COVID-19 infection, was strongly protective against severe disease and death. Researchers, for the first time, looked at both genetically-predicted and UVB-predicted vitamin D level. Almost half a million individuals in the UK took part in the study, and ambient UVB radiation before COVID-19 infection was individually assessed for each participant. When comparing the two variables, researchers found that correlation with measured vitamin D concentration in the circulation was three-fold stronger for UVB-predicted vitamin D level, compared to genetically-predicted. (NEXT) Study: Eating yogurt can help older adults with high blood pressure University of Maine, September 13, 2021 Yogurt consumption can help lower blood pressure in older adults with elevated levels, according to a new study led by an international team, including researchers at the University of Maine. The MSLS team examined the relationship between yogurt consumption and bloodpressure among older adults with and without high blood pressure. Statistical analyses revealed modest but statistically significant reductions in systolic blood pressure among those with high blood pressure who consumed yogurt. (NEXT) Comprehensive review of antioxidants and common arterial condition University of Connecticut, September 13, 2021 Nutritional science graduate student Chelsea Garcia and associate professor Christopher Blesso recently published an article in Free Radical Biology and Medicine outlining the research to date on a type of antioxidant called anthocyanins and its impact on atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis occurs when fats and cholesterol build up along the artery walls. This can restrict blood flow and cause blood clots. This condition is associated with oxidative stress, a process our bodies undergo throughout our lifetime as they encounter free radicals. These oxygen-containing molecules are highly reactive and unstable. They occur when a molecule gains or loses an electron. The unpaired electron on the free radical can react with other molecules and cause age-related harms in the body. (NEXT) Blueberry and soluble fiber improve serum antioxidant and adipokine biomarkers and lipid peroxidation in pregnant women with obesity University of Nevada, September 10, 2021 According to news originating from the University of Nevada research stated, “Pregnancies affected by obesity are at high risk for developing metabolic complications with oxidative stress and adipocyte dysfunction contributing to the underlying pathologies.” We conducted an 18 gestation-week randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of a dietary intervention comprising of whole blueberries and soluble fiber vs. control (standard prenatal care) on biomarkers of oxidative stress/antioxidant status and adipocyte and hormonal functions in pregnant women with obesity (* * n* * = 34). Serum samples were collected at baseline (

End of Year Trends Review -- A Look at 2022 Gerald Celente is one of today's pioneers in trend strategy and identifying the developments of change occurring in our world. He founded the Trends Research Institute in Kingston NY and is the publisher of the Trends Journal that has been in publication since 1980. Gerald has since become one of the nation's most sought after diagnosticians and forecasters.   He is also the host of the weekly show "Trends This Week," heard every Wednesday at 11 am Eastern Time on the Progressive Radio Network. More information can be found on the Institute's website TrendsResearch.com

Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha Root Extract on Cognitive Functions in Healthy, Stressed Adults Bengaluru Neuro Centre (India), December 26, 2021 The global prevalence of stress is increasing. Stress adversely affects cognitive ability, sleep quality, and overall psychological well-being. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal), an essential medicine in Ayurveda, is reportedly beneficial in reducing stress and improving memory. This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study evaluated the effect of Ashwagandha root extract sustained-release capsule 300 mg (hereafter Ashwagandha SR) on cognitive functions, stress levels, sleep quality, overall well-being, and safety in stressed subjects.  In this first reported clinical study assessing the “sustained-release formulation” of Ashwagandha root extract, we demonstrated that consumption of Ashwagandha SR capsules for 90 days resulted in improved memory and focus, psychological well-being, and sleep quality and reduced stress levels. We also showed that Ashwagandha SR capsules were safe when administered over the period of 90 days. Thus, these capsules can be used in a single daily dose as an effective adaptogen to improve cognitive abilities and reduce stress in otherwise healthy adults   Social stress messes up the hippocampus Polish Academy of Sciences, December 3, 2021   How do you feel when you are stuck in a traffic jam for hours? Or when you are late for a flight? Or when you are waiting at the university hall to pass an exam? Obviously, you feel stressed, which might endanger your hippocampus according to a research paper recently published in PLOS One by Stankiewicz and colleagues.   A large body of research has clearly shown that stress, especially when repeated and unpredictable, is capable of modifying the structure and the activity of neuronal circuits. In fact, stress is a risk factor for many mood-related disorders such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. Adaptive and maladaptive modifications take place in our brain to counteract stressors and these modifications could lead to severe mental pathologies. One of the most vulnerable structures of the brain is the hippocampus, a brain region greatly involved in learning and memory functions.   Stress responses have been correlated with altered inflammatory functions; for example, infiltration of leukocytes in the brain of socially defeated mice has been reported. As such, Stankiewicz and colleagues searched for potential modifications in expression of brain-inflammation markers in hippocampi from stressed mice.    Thankfully, good news also came out from this study. We all have experienced the pleasant effects of rest following stressful periods; in fact, Stankiewicz and colleagues found that after 5 days of recovery from a protocol of chronic stress most of the altered genes had returned to basal levels, suggesting that maladaptive modifications are indeed reversible. This finding reinforces the idea that our brain is able to adapt to any circumstances, healthy or unhealthy, and that our life style could sometimes be the best cure to our messed up brains.       Healthy diet in early pregnancy reduces risk of gestational diabetes University of Turku (Finland), December 29, 2021 A healthy, comprehensive diet that lowers the body's inflammation reduces the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, reveals a new study from the University of Turku in Finland. Obesity is a significant risk factor for developing gestational diabetes mellitus, and an increasing number of pregnant women are overweight or obese. Dietary habits have an impact on both obesity and the onset of gestational diabetes mellitus. The research results show that following a healthy diet in early pregnancy reduces the risk of gestational diabetes. The study also found that a higher dietary inflammatory index, meaning a diet that increases the low-grade inflammatory markers in the body was connected to an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, a higher consumption of fat and especially saturated fats was connected to gestational diabetes. This is of interest as the intake of saturated fats is known to increase the body's inflammation. Eating vegetables, fruit, berries, and wholegrain products as well as unsaturated fats is particularly important. These nutrients and foods reduce inflammation in the body and therefore also the risk of gestational diabetes.      Intake of magnesium associated with improvements in blood sugar, insulin sensitivity in meta-analysis University of Palermo (Italy), December 24, 2021 Magnesium intake may help improve blood sugar (glucose) metabolism among people with diabetes and those who are at high risk of developing the disease, according to findings from a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials reported in the journal Nutrients.  Magnesium [intake] appears to have a beneficial role and improves glucose parameters in people with diabetes,” the authors concluded. “Moreover, our work indicates that magnesium [intake] may improve insulin-sensitivity parameters in those at high risk of diabetes.” Their research suggests that magnesium intake may boost glucose utilization by the cells, particularly in those who have not developed full-fledged diabetes. Studies have also indicated that magnesium decreases factors that contribute to insulin resistance, including oxidative stress and inflammation. Compared to a placebo, intake of magnesium was associated with significantly lower fasting plasma glucose levels in trials that included diabetic participants.     Nighttime electronic device use lowers melatonin levels   Brigham and Women's Hospital, December 24 2021.    The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published the findings researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital of a suppressive effect for evening use of light-emitting electronic devices on sleep and melatonin secretion.   "Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light, which has a higher concentration of blue light -- with a peak around 450 nm -- than natural light," explained lead author Anne-Marie Chang. "This is different from natural light in composition, having a greater impact on sleep and circadian rhythms."    Twelve healthy adults were randomized to read a light-emitting eBook or a printed book in dim room light approximately four hours before bedtime for five evenings. At the end of the five day period, participants switched their assignments. eBook reading was associated with more time needed to fall asleep and less rapid eye movement sleep in comparison with reading a printed book. Evening melatonin levels were suppressed by an average of 55.12% in eBook readers, while those who read printed books had no suppression. Compared to printed book reading, the onset of melatonin release in response to dim light occurred 1 ½ hours later the day following reading of an eBook.       Mediterranean diet plus olive oil or nuts associated with improved cognitive function   Institute of Biomedical Investigations (Barcelona Spain), December 11, 2021   Supplementing the plant-based Mediterranean diet with antioxidant-rich extra virgin olive oil or mixed nuts was associated with improved cognitive function in a study of older adults in Spain but the authors warn more investigation is needed, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Emerging evidence suggests associations between dietary habits and cognitive performance. Oxidative stress (the body's inability to appropriately detoxify itself) has long been considered to play a major role in cognitive decline. Previous research suggests following a Mediterranean diet may relate to better cognitive function and a lower risk of dementia. However, the observational studies that have examined these associations have limitations, according to the study background. The study found that individuals assigned to the low-fat control diet had a significant decrease from baseline in all composites of cognitive function. Compared with the control group, the memory composite improved significantly in the Mediterranean diet plus nuts, while the frontal and global cognition composites improved in the Mediterranean diet plus olive oil group. The authors note the changes for the two Mediterranean diet arms in each composite were more like each other than when comparing the individual Mediterranean diet groups with the low-fat diet control group.

Drinking Matcha Tea Can Reduce Anxiety Kumamoto University (Japan), December 24, 2021 Researchers at Kumamoto University in the Kyushu region of Japan studied green tea's beneficial properties, specifically its ability to calm the mind. Published in the Journal of Functional Foods in 2019, the study examined the stress-reducing function of matcha green tea in animal experiments and clinical trials. The study honed in on the effects of L-theanine, a primary amino acid in green tea that has been shown to exhibit stress-reducing effects in mice and humans with high-trait anxiety. The amino acid L-arginine, also present in traditional green tea, has previously been shown to enhance stress-reducing effects of certain amino acids. Matcha tea, also called “fine powder tea,” has higher concentrations of theanine and arginine than traditional green tea preparations. However, the higher caffeine level creates an effect that is antagonistic to theanine, meaning it reduces theanine's calming effects. Previous studies have suggested that differences in the quantities and ratios of these three green tea components (theanine, arginine and caffeine) affect the efficiency of its stress-reducing action.   Researchers noted that the quantities of theanine and arginine must be high, whereas the EGCG and caffeine levels must be low to receive optimum anti-anxiety benefits of matcha tea. Therefore, this research suggests that the quality of matcha tea preparation is highly important when an individual is consuming matcha for its calming properties.   Omega-3 supplementation associated with reduction in markers of senescence       Akershus University Hospital (Norway), December 27 2021.  The November-December 2021 issue of Kidney Medicine reported the finding of a reduction in markers of cellular senescence among kidney transplant recipients who received supplemental omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in comparison with a placebo.  Accelerated cellular senescence has been associated with a decline in kidney transplant function. The current study compared the effects of 2.6 grams per day of omega-3 fatty acids to a placebo among 132 kidney transplant patients. Blood samples were collected before and after the 44-week treatment period.  Analysis of plasma obtained at the end of the trial revealed a reduction in the SASP components granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interleukin 1α, macrophage inflammatory protein 1α, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-13.      Self-Compassion Reduces Negative Mood Over Time New research shows that accepting negative moods can reduce them. University of Toronto, Dec 22, 2021 New research headed by the University of Toronto looked at if the amount that people "accept" their negative emotions is associated with (a) better mental health and (b) reduced negative moods over time. By acceptance, these authors do not mean simply allowing and being okay with negative things happening to you or being mistreated, but rather, experiencing and thinking about your own negative emotions in a non-judgemental way. In one study of over 1,000 people, they found that accepting mental experiences was related to less anxiety and depression and to more life satisfaction. This was even when "controlling" for potentially related variables like cognitive re-appraisal (re-thinking something to make it more positive/less negative) and rumination. This means, basically, that the effect persisted even when those other variables were accounted for. In Study 2, these researchers measured people's general level of acceptance of their negative thoughts and emotions. They then exposed participants in a laboratory to a variety of stressors. Participants with a higher level of general acceptance experienced lower levels of negative mood as a response. In Study 3, they assessed around 200 participants over a six month period. They found that high levels of acceptance were associated with better mental health at Time 1, and  the relationship between acceptance and positive mental health was explained by reduced levels of negative emotions six months later. Taken together, these studies suggest that one way to reduce negative moods is to stop beating yourself up about thinking bad thoughts and having negative feelings. Accepting them—and this might be easier said than done but is still possible—can greatly improve your mental health.     Researchers identify how red meat increases cardiovascular disease risk Cleveland Clinic, December 23, 2021 A Cleveland Clinic-led study has revealed new insights into how a diet rich in red meat increases risk for cardiovascular disease. The findings were published in Nature Microbiology. The latest findings offer a more comprehensive understanding of the two-step process by which gut microbes convert the nutrient carnitine into TMAO, an atherosclerosis- and blood clot-promoting molecule, following the ingestion of a red meat-rich diet. "These new studies identify the gut microbial gene cluster responsible for the second step of the process that links a red meat-rich diet to elevated cardiac disease risks," said Dr. Hazen, who directs the Cleveland Clinic Center for Microbiome & Human Health.  The researchers studied the relationship between fasting plasma γBB levels and disease outcomes using samples and clinical data collected from nearly 3,000 patients. Higher γBB levels were associated with cardiovascular disease and major adverse events including death, non-fatal heart attack or stroke.     Try exercise to improve memory, thinking Mayo Clinic,  December 27, 2021  A new guideline for medical practitioners says they should recommend twice-weekly exercise to people with mild cognitive impairment to improve memory and thinking. "Regular physical exercise has long been shown to have heart health benefits, and now we can say exercise also may help improve memory for people with mild cognitive impairment," says Ronald Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., lead author, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Mayo Clinic. Dr. Petersen encourages people to do aerobic exercise: Walk briskly, jog, whatever you like to do, for 150 minutes a week—30 minutes, five times or 50 minutes, three times. The level of exertion should be enough to work up a bit of a sweat but doesn't need to be so rigorous that you can't hold a conversation. "Exercising might slow down the rate at which you would progress from mild cognitive impairment to dementia," he says. Another guideline update says clinicians may recommend cognitive training for people with mild cognitive impairment. Cognitive training uses repetitive memory and reasoning exercises that may be computer-assisted or done in person individually or in small groups. There is weak evidence that cognitive training may improve measures of cognitive function, the guideline notes.     New evidence shows the importance of healthy lifestyle programs in pregnancy  Monash University (Australia), December 22, 2021 Healthy lifestyle programs in pregnancy support mums to achieve healthier pregnancies and improve health outcomes Monash University research shows. The systematic review incorporated 34,546 pregnancies and highlighted that supporting mums-to-be with a structured, healthy lifestyle program that provides structured, evidence-based health information, advice and guidance from professionals about healthy eating and physical activity during this priority life stage, helps achieve a healthier pregnancy and significantly improves pregnancy complications. The research also showed that healthy lifestyle programs are effective for all mums regardless of what weight they enter pregnancy and focus on supporting a healthy lifestyle and don't focus on weight and are a powerful tool in supporting mums to be the healthiest they can in pregnancy.   OTHER NEWS Video - Melissa Ciummei – North Ireland investor and economic researcher The pandemic is about the Great Reset. People have this idea that ‘that's my money in the bank', it's not. 10 minutes (video was deleted on youtube) https://videopress.com/v/rwiSFKU2   Video - Anna de Buisseret - Former British army officer and senior UK attorney Experimental Injections. “Biggest Crimes Against Humanity Ever Committed.”  From 44 second mark to 5:55 minute mark (video is embedded on this webpage) https://www.globalresearch.ca/biggest-crimes-against-humanity-ever-committed-anna-de-bouisseret-explains-who-will-held-liable-under-law/5765620

Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi is an American born physician trained in Germany and has been in the medical field now for five decades. He received his medical degree from the University of Bonn and did his post-doctoral work at the prestigious Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics before becoming an associate professor at the Institute of Medical Microbiology at Gressen University. Later he was appointed as the chair of Medical Microbiology at the University of Mainz. Dr. Bhakdi has published over 300 articles in the fields of immunology, bacteriology and virology and has received numerous awards including the Order of Merit of Rhineland. His book, co-written with his biologist wife Dr. Karina Reiss --  "Corona False Alarm?: Facts and Figures," --- which has been written for the layperson to understand the pandemic clearly -- became a national best seller in Germany and later rapidly receiving international attention. 

Effects of strawberries on bone biomarkers in pre- and stage 1-hypertensive postmenopausal women Florida State University Postmenopausal women experience an increase in bone remodeling with the rate of bone resorption superseding the rate of bone formation. This results in a net bone loss with a subsequent increased risk for osteoporosis and fractures. Strawberries are rich in polyphenols, which have been shown to have anti-hypertensive and bone-protective properties. Thus, we examined whether daily intake of strawberries would positively affect biomarkers of bone metabolism in postmenopausal women with pre- and stage 1-hypertension. After eight weeks, osteocalcin increased in the 50 g FDSP group with a large effect size (d = 0.6) when compared to the placebo-control group. Adiponectin increased by 5% and 6% in the 25 g and 50 g FDSP groups, respectively, while it declined in the placebo-control group by 25% (P = 0.03 for time-by-treatment interaction). Our findings suggest that consumption of 25 g FDSP increases IGF-1 in postmenopausal women with pre- and stage 1-hypertension.    Dietary supplement use by individuals living with and beyond cancer University College London, December 20, 2021 New research indicates that many individuals living with and beyond cancer use dietary supplements, often with the belief that the products will reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings reveal a need for health care professionals to provide advice and clarity to patients about the appropriate use of dietary supplements. To explore factors associated with dietary supplement use in cancer survivors, Rana Conway, PhD, RNutr, of University College London (UCL), and her colleagues studied 1,049 adults who had been diagnosed with breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer in the United Kingdom.  Among the major findings: 40% of participants took dietary supplements. 19% of participants believed that dietary supplements could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Women, participants meeting five-a-day fruit and vegetable recommendations, and those believing that dietary supplements were important for reducing the risk of cancer recurrence were more likely to use dietary supplements. Participants with obesity were less likely to use dietary supplements. Fish oils were the most commonly used dietary supplements, taken by 13% of participants. Calcium with or without vitamin D were the supplements most commonly used by individuals with breast cancer, taken by 15%.   Omega-3 fatty acid, carotenoid and vitamin E supplementation improves working memory in older adults: A randomised clinical trial Nutrition Research Centre Ireland, December 20, 2021 Accumulating evidence suggests that omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3FAs), carotenoids and vitamin E can improve cognitive performance. However, their collective impact on cognition has not yet been investigated in healthy individuals. This study investigated the combined effect of ω-3FA, carotenoid and vitamin E supplementation on the cognitive performance of older adults. Methods Cognitively healthy individuals aged ≥65 years consumed daily 1 g fish oil (of which 430 mg docosahexaenoic acid, 90 mg eicosapentaenoic acid), 22 mg carotenoids (10 mg lutein, 10 mg meso-zeaxanthin, 2 mg zeaxanthin) and 15 mg vitamin E or placebo for 24 months in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial. These results support a biologically plausible rationale whereby these nutrients work synergistically, and in a dose-dependent manner, to improve working memory in cognitively healthy older adults. Increasing nutritional intake of carotenoids and ω-3FAs may prove beneficial in reducing cognitive decline and dementia risk in later life.   A high-fiber diet may improve the response of melanoma patients to immunotherapy University of Texas and  National Cancer Institute, December 23, 2021 A diet rich in fiber may help some people being treated for melanoma respond to immunotherapy treatment by influencing the gut microbiome, according to a new study led by researchers at the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  Among patients with advanced melanoma who underwent immunotherapy with immune checkpoint blockers, those who consumed at least 20 grams a day of dietary fiber survived the longest without their disease progressing. In contrast, use of probiotic supplements appeared to lessen somewhat the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blocker regimens. Probiotics are live microorganisms typically consumed as a supplement to improve gut health. Among the 128 patients whose dietary fiber intake was known, those who reported consuming at least 20 grams of dietary fiber per day (an amount the researchers designated as "sufficient" for the purposes of this study) lived longer without their cancer progressing than those who consumed less dietary fiber. Every 5-gram increase in daily dietary fiber intake corresponded to a 30% lower risk of progression of the disease. Dr. Trinchieri noted that one possible mechanism through which dietary fiber exerts its beneficial effect is by increasing the types of bacteria in the gut, such as Ruminococcaceae, that produce high levels of certain short-chain fatty acids that have an antitumor effect.   Could meditation strengthen your immune system? University of Florida's College of Medicine, December 23, 2021 Meditation done at an intense level may bring a significant boost to the inner workings of your immune system. That analysis suggested that meditation boosted the activity of hundreds of genes known to be directly involved in regulating immune response. But the researchers stressed that their study involved 10-hour daily marathon meditation sessions conducted for eight straight days in total silence. In the real world, most people would be hard-pressed to replicate those methods.  The eight-day retreat provided all participants with vegan cuisine, and all followed a regular sleep schedule. Meditation sessions lasted 10 hours a day and were conducted in silence. The result: Three months after the retreat's conclusion, Chandran and his colleagues found an uptick in activity involving 220 immune-related genes, including 68 genes engaged in so-called "interferon signaling." The study authors pointed out that such signaling can be key to mounting an effective defense against various health conditions—including cancer, multiple sclerosis or even COVID-19—given that interferon proteins effectively act as immune system triggers.  Among seriously ill COVID-19 patients in particular, Chandran noted, insufficient interferon activity has been cited as a problem.  He explained that nearly all (97%) of interferon "response genes" were found to be activated following the mediation retreat. But relying on publicly available gene activity data derived from COVID-19 patients, Chandran and his colleagues reported that figure to be 76% among those with mild COVID illness, and just 31% among the most severe cases. At the same time, the investigators found that while inflammation-signaling gene activity remained stable following in-depth meditation, such signaling shot up among severely ill COVID-19 patients.   Even light-intensity exercise might reduce dementia risk Yonsei University College of Medicine (South Korea), December 22, 2021 In a new study, researchers have identified an association between light-intensity physical exercise in older adults and a reduced risk of dementia. In the present study, researchers investigated whether there was an association between doing light-intensity physical exercise and a reduced risk of developing dementia in older adults. The study involved 62,286 participants who were 65 years or older, did not have a dementia diagnosis, and had medical records in the Korean National Health Insurance Service database.  Researchers gathered data between January 2009 and December 2012 and tracked the participants until the end of December 2013. They completed data analysis from July 2020 to January 2021. After a median follow-up period of 42 months, the researchers noted how many participants developed dementia. They found that insufficiently active participants had a 10% reduced risk of developing dementia compared with inactive participants.  Active participants had a 20% reduced risk, while highly active participants had a 28% reduced risk.   Fast-food consumption linked to lower test score gains in 8th graders The more children ate in 5th grade, the slower their academic growth by 8th grade Ohio State University, December 22, 2021   The amount of fast food children eat may be linked to how well they do in school, a new nationwide study suggests. Researchers found that the more frequently children reported eating fast food in fifth grade, the lower their growth in reading, math, and science test scores by the time they reached eighth grade. Students who ate the most fast food had test score gains that were up to about 20 percent lower than those who didn't eat any fast food, said Kelly Purtell, lead author of the study and assistant professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University. The results remained even after the researchers took into account a wide variety of other factors that may have explained why those with high fast-food consumption might have lower test scores, including how much they exercised, how much television they watched, what other food they ate, their family's socioeconomic status and characteristics of their neighborhood and school. This study included about 11,740 students. They were tested in reading/literacy, mathematics and science in both fifth and eighth grades. They also completed a food consumption questionnaire in fifth grade.Children who ate fast food four to six times per week or every day showed significantly lower gains in all three achievement areas compared to children who did not eat any fast food the week before the survey. However, children who ate fast food just one to three times a week had lower academic growth compared to non-eaters in only one subject, math.

Effects of Curcumin Supplementation on Inflammatory Markers, Muscle Damage, and Sports Performance during Acute Physical Exercise in Sedentary Individuals Universidade Federal de Viçosa (Brazil), December 14, 2021 Exhaustive and acute unusual physical exercise leads to muscle damage. Curcumin has been widely studied due to the variety of its biological activities, attributed to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Furthermore, it has shown positive effects on physical exercise practitioners. However, there is no literature consensus on the beneficial effects of curcumin in acute physical activities performed by sedentary individuals. Therefore, we systematically reviewed evidence from clinical trials on the main effects of curcumin supplementation on inflammatory markers, sports performance, and muscle damage during acute physical exercises in these individuals. Most studies have shown positive effects of curcumin supplementation in sedentary individuals undergoing acute physical exercise. Overall, participants supplemented with curcumin showed less muscle damage, reduced inflammation, and better muscle performance. (NEXT) Long Term Study Alludes to Artificial Sweeteners and Cognitive Decline Link University of Barcelona, December 10. 2021 Diet is considered an important modulator of cognitive decline and dementia, but the available evidence is, however, still fragmented and often inconsistent. Methods and Results In conclusion, our prospective and validated data suggest that food-related and microbiota-derived metabolites may play an important role in the later development of CD. Our results support a protective association between metabolites reflecting the consumption of polyphenol-rich foods (i.e., fruits and vegetables), cocoa, coffee, mushrooms and red wine with CD, whereas other food components related to unhealthy dietary components (i.e., alcohol, artificial sweeteners) may have deleterious effects on cognition. (NEXT) Key role in brain health for vitamin E University of Newcastle (Australia), December 18, 2021 Vitamin E has a key role to play in reducing the onset of Alzheimer's disease, fatty liver diseases and other health risks, experts at a recent symposium on vitamin E have said. Eggersdorfersaid that more than 90% of the US's population did not meet their recommended daily allowance of vitamin E, which was a worry. Consumers were expected to take in enough vitamin E through their diets, but “they are characterised by an increasing intake of processed foods”, said Lisa Wood, associate professor at the Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Diseases at Australia's University of Newcastle. (NEXT) Childhood obesity linked with mother's unhealthy diet before pregnancy University of Southampton, December 22, 2021 New research led by the University of Southampton shows supporting women to eat a healthy diet pre-pregnancy could reduce risk of obesity for their children. New research, at the University of Southampton, has found children aged eight or nine were more likely to be obese if their mother had a poor diet during—and before—pregnancy. The research identifies these as critical times, when initiatives to reduce childhood obesity may be more effective. The results, published in the International Journal of Obesity, showed that if a mother-child pair was in a lower diet quality group, this was associated with child having a higher DXA percentage body fat and BMI at age eight or nine. This research shows the importance of intervening at the earliest possible stage in a child's life, in pregnancy or even before conception, to enable us to tackle it." (NEXT) Can Oily Fish, Cherries Or Milk Help You Sleep? Here's What The Evidence Shows Aston University (UK), December 20, 2021 Almost one-in-five British people report they don't get enough sleep each night. The problem is so bad that in total the UK public are losing around a night's worth of shut-eye each week. Our diet has an influence upon sleep patterns by affecting the sleep hormone melatonin. For example, foods rich in the essential amino acid tryptophan are commonly cited as helping sleep, as tryptophan helps produce melatonin. Additionally, some vitamins and minerals may help sleep, such as vitamin D, magnesium and zinc. Oily fish: Evidence suggests the more oily fish, such as salmon or herring, you eat the better you sleep. Oily fish contain healthy fats such as omega-3 oils which have been shown to improve sleep in children and are involved in serotonin release. Tart cherries: Evidence suggests that tart cherries improves sleep in older adults, probably due to their ability to increase melatonin levels. And tart cherries are also rich in nutrients, including magnesium, which also may improve your sleep. Warm milk: Research conducted in the 1970s suggested that a glass of warm milk before bed could improve sleep quality. This research was performed in a very small group however, and little research has been done since. Drinking milk does increase melatonin levels which could help. But there isn't enough evidence to support the claim that a glass of warm milk definitely makes you nod off. Herbal teas: Evidence for valerian, a common ingredient, to aid sleep is inconclusive. Decaffeinated green tea has been reported to improve sleep quality, which might be linked to the relaxing qualities of L-theanine, an amino acid it contains (NEXT) War metaphors for cancer hurt certain prevention behaviors University of Michigan, December 15, 2021 It's not unusual for people to use war metaphors such as "fight" and "battle" when trying to motivate patients with cancer. But a new University of Michigan study indicates that using those words can have an unintended negative effect. David Hauser, a U-M doctoral student in psychology, and colleague Norbert Schwarz of the University of Southern California, found in three studies that exposure to metaphoric language relating cancer to an enemy significantly lessens the extent to which people consider cancer-prevention behaviors.

Plant scientists find recipe for anti-cancer compound in herbs Purdue University, December 21, 2021 Thyme and oregano possess an anti-cancer compound that suppresses tumor development, but adding more to your tomato sauce isn't enough to gain significant benefit. The key to unlocking the power of these plants is in amplifying the amount of the compound created or synthesizing the compound for drug development. Researchers at Purdue University achieved the first step toward using the compound in pharmaceuticals by mapping its biosynthetic pathway, a sort of molecular recipe of the ingredients and steps needed. Thymol, carvacrol and thymohydroquinone are flavor compounds in thyme, oregano and other plants in the Lamiaceae family. They also have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and other properties beneficial to human health. Thymohydroquinone has been shown to have anti-cancer properties and is particularly of interest, said Dudareva, who also is director of Purdue's Center for Plant Biology. (NEXT) Prebiotics supplements help women reduce sugar intake by four percent University of Surrey, December 21, 2021 A new study from the University of Surrey has found that young women who took four weeks of prebiotic supplements made healthier food choices and consumed less sugar. The prebiotics used in this study were galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) which increase the amount of "friendly" gut bacteria. IThe research team found that participants who used the GOS supplements consumed 4.1% less sugar and 4.3% fewer calories from carbohydrates overall than women from the placebo group. Interestingly, the study also found that those who took the GOS supplements consumed around 4.2% more energy from fats. After analyzing their results, the Surrey team found that the prebiotic supplements modified the composition of the gut microbiome, increasing levels of Bifidobacterium. The researchers found that these changes were associated with the women's nutritional intake over the four-week period. (NEXT) Vitamin E supplementation could boost pneumonia protection Tufts University School of Medicine  December 17 2021 An article in The Journal of Immunology reports findings from experimental research that suggests a role for vitamin E supplementation in protecting against pneumonia. "Earlier studies have shown that vitamin E can help regulate the aging body's immune system, but our present research is the first study to demonstrate that dietary vitamin E regulates neutrophil entry into the lungs in mice, and so dramatically reduces inflammation, and helps fight off infection by this common type of bacteria," announced lead author Elsa N. Bou Ghanem, PhD, of Tufts University School of Medicine. "A growing body of research suggests vitamin E could make up for the loss of immune response caused by aging," noted co-senior author Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, PhD. "Whether vitamin E can help protect people against this type of pneumonia affecting older adults requires more research." (NEXT) Heavy metals in cannabis plants could affect human health, study finds Penn State University, December 15, 2021 A new study led by researchers from Penn State is outlining a number of strategies that should be employed by cannabis growers to mitigate the plant's ability to absorb heavy metals from soil. The study indicates it is possible consuming cannabis contaminated with heavy metals could lead to chronic diseases, including neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's. Phytoremediation is a process where plants are used to remove certain environmental contaminants from soil. Cannabis is a plant often used in this process due to its exceptional ability to grow fast, need few extra nutrients, and absorb high volumes of heavy metals including lead, cadmium and chromium. In particular, cannabis plants transport these heavy metals into its leaves and flowers. These elements specifically concentrate in the hairlike structures called trichomes on its flowers, and these are the same parts of the plant that store cannabinoids such as THC and CBD. (NEXT) Yoga has potential to reduce risk factors of cardiovascular disease European Society of Cardiology, December 15, 2021 There is "promising evidence" that the popular mind-body practice of yoga is beneficial in managing and improving the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease and is a "potentially effective therapy" for cardiovascular health. Indeed, following a systematic review of 37 randomised controlled trials (which included 2768 subjects), investigators from the Netherlands and USA have found that yoga may provide the same benefits in risk factor reduction as such traditional physical activities as biking or brisk walking. "This finding is significant," they note, "as individuals who cannot or prefer not to perform traditional aerobic exercise might still achieve similar benefits in [cardiovascular] risk reduction." Their study is published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. (NEXT) Hugs help protect against stress, infection, say researchers Carnegie Mellon University, December 17, 2021 Instead of an apple, could a hug-a-day keep the doctor away? According to new research from Carnegie Mellon University, that may not be that far-fetched of an idea. Led by Sheldon Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty University Professor of Psychology in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the researchers tested whether hugs act as a form of social support, protecting stressed people from getting sick. Published in Psychological Science, they found that greater social support and more frequent hugs protected people from the increased susceptibility to infection associated with being stressed and resulted in less severe illness symptoms. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) Despite Climate Imperative, 94% of Analyzed Coal Companies Have No Phaseout Plan COMMON DREAMS December 21, 2021 With a new analysis in hand, an international climate advocacy group on Tuesday demanded that banks and investors worldwide use their leverage to force the coal industry to more rapidly end their planet-wrecking operations. The new report by Paris-based Reclaim Finance—entitled The Coal Companies Watchlist: How finance can accelerate the coal phaseout—makes the case that the financial industry must force polluters to develop and implement plans for a "rapid global phaseout of coal" that align with the Paris climate agreement's goal of limiting temperature rise by 2100 to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The review revealed that 94% of the 47 analyzed companies have "no credible coal exit plan." According to the report: Only three out of 47 analyzed companies' plans (6%) meet all the basic criteria of a credible coal phaseout (no expansion, adequate timeline, and commitment to shut down assets); 28% of analyzed companies are still coal expansionists and have not even yet recognized the absolute necessity of stopping the development of new coal capacity; 55% of companies do not plan to retire their coal assets by 2030 and 2040, thereby failing to align with a 1.5°C pathway; and The remaining 11% of analyzed companies do provide an adequate phaseout calendar but fail to shut down their assets: by selling coal mines and plants or converting them to gas and biomass—two other unsustainable energy sources—the only thing these companies are greening is their public profile, with no material effect on climate change. (NEXT) Prescribe fewer antidepressants, and for shorter periods, doctors advised by  British Medical Journal Doctors should prescribe fewer antidepressants and for shorter periods of time, because of the ongoing uncertainties about their effectiveness and the potential severity and durability of the withdrawal symptoms associated with them, suggests a review of the evidence on antidepressant use, published online in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. The use of antidepressants is also associated with a range of side effects, while the clinical trial data mostly don't assess the outcomes that matter most to patients, say the authors. And there is no clinically relevant difference between these drugs and placebo on depression. While there might be a role for antidepressants among patients with severe depression, the cons may outweigh the pros in those with mild to moderate depression or in those whose symptoms don't yet qualify as depression, they add. They conclude: "There continues to be considerable uncertainty about the benefits of antidepressant use in the short- and long-term, particularly in regard to the lack of a clinically significant difference between antidepressant and placebo treatment. (NEXT) Is the World Adopting the Ways of Nazi Germany? Michael J. Talmo Global Research, December 20, 2021 When it comes to resisting any form of tyranny, a common assertion is that if you make any comparisons to Nazi Germany you lose the argument. Really? Consider this: On August 25, 2021 “We For Humanity,” an international association of doctors, scientists, lawyers, journalists, and other professionals, wrote a letter to government agencies in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada condemning COVID-19 mass vaccination programs on behalf of Holocaust survivors, their children, and grandchildren. This is part of what the letter says: “We, the survivors of the atrocities committed against humanity during the Second World War, feel bound to follow our conscience and write this letter. It is obvious to us that another holocaust of  greater magnitude is taking place before our eyes. The majority of the world's populace do not yet realize what is happening, for magnitude of an organized crime such as this is beyond their scope of experience. We, however, know. We remember…We call upon you to stop this ungodly medical experiment on humankind immediately.” The letter goes on to point out that the vaccines have proven to be “more dangerous” than COVID-19, denounces them as “a blasphemic encroachment into nature,” denounces “ostracism of the unvaccinated” as the Jews “were demonized as spreaders of infectious diseases” and goes on to say: “Never before has immunization of the entire planet been accomplished by delivering a synthetic mRNA into the human body. It is a medical experiment to which the Nuremberg Code must be applied …Allegedly around 52% of the world population has received at least one shot. Honest disclosure of the true number of “vaccine” injured, terminally injured as well as deceased worldwide is long overdue…Provide us with the true numbers of Covid vaccine casualties now.” The letter concludes: “How many will be enough to awaken your conscience?” Apparently, not enough yet. On September 15, 2021 the EMA (European Medicines Agency) which is part of the EU(European Union) replied: “As an introductory remark EMA finds the comparisons you make both inaccurate and inappropriate. Indeed, it might be perceived as demeaning the suffering and dignity of those who experienced the terrible events of the holocaust…For a medicine to be authorized in the EU through EMA, the Agency's human medicines committee (CHMP), composed of scientific experts from all EU member states, must conclude that the medicine's quality, safety and efficacy are properly and sufficiently demonstrated.” Can you believe the arrogance and hubris of the EMA? They are actually telling people who lived through the Holocaust that they are demeaning the suffering and dignity of people who were in the Holocaust. Can it get any more ridiculous than that? The EMA is also overlooking the fact that governments throughout history have engaged in mass murder. (NEXT) The Left would sacrifice the unvaccinated BY KAT ROSENFIELD UNHERD, December 20 2021 An underdiscussed element of the Covid pandemic is the cost of the virus — not in American lives, but in American dollars. In the United States, a Covid hospitalisation costs $29,000 on average; if you're sick enough to require an ICU stay and a ventilator, that average soars to $156,000. And in a country without universal healthcare, with a piecemeal system of private insurance that ties insurance coverage to employment, and amid a pandemic that has left many unemployed, an enormous number of Americans stand to find themselves underwater. There's a looming crisis of Covid medical debt. Already, their stories are legion: there's the flight attendant who spent a week in the hospital with Covid, then spent six months fighting with his insurance company over the $25,000 bill. There's the Phoenix family who were hit with a million-dollar claim summary and a bill for $700,000 while still grieving their father's death. There's the dental office manager, stricken with long Covid and still too sick to work, drowning in tens of thousands of dollars of medical debt. The notion of healthcare as a human right was fundamental to the 2009 debates over Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as to the identity of political progressives: they argued fervently, at the time, that nobody, no matter who they were, should be left destitute just because they got sick. And the idea that affordable care or coverage might be tied in any way to one's lifestyle choices was particularly offensive: when conservatives complained that an ACA mandate providing free hormonal birth control was akin to prostitution, it caused a nationwide scandal. And when a Republican governor proposed levying a moderate additional charge against Medicaid recipients who were overweight or smoked, the idea was widely derided as “noodle-headed” by progressives. Indeed, the idea that the Left would ever limit someone's access to healthcare on moral or ideological grounds was considered laughable — a bogeyman invented by the Right in the form of a memorably hysterical panic about “death panels.” When Sarah Palin claimed that Obama's healthcare bill would ration care only to those deemed “worthy” by government bureaucrats, the fact-checking site Politifact declared it the Lie of the Year, writing, “Palin's statement sounds more like a science fiction movie (Soylent Green, anyone?) than part of an actual bill before Congress.” Suffice to say, things have changed. First, that actual bill is an actual thing, albeit a state rather than federal prospect: on December 6, Illinois state representative Jonathan Carroll advanced legislation to make unvaccinated Covid patients pay out of pocket for the cost of their medical treatment, whether or not they were insured, no matter how astronomical those costs might be. Carroll rescinded the bill a few days later, citing a backlash that included death threats, but not before it found support in some remarkable places — including the Twitter account of the progressive organisation Occupy Democrats, which posted an all-caps clarion call: “Illinois introduces a bill to force unvaccinated residents to pay out of pocket for their hospital treatment if they catch COVID, saying that they ‘must asume [sic] the risk' and ‘take responsibility' for their carelessness. RT IF YOU THINK THAT YOUR STATE SHOULD DO THE SAME!” Just a few days later, Atlantic editor David Frum suggested that it was time for the country to return to normal — but while encouraging hospitals to “quietly triage emergency care to serve the unvaccinated last.” And last week, American supermarket chain Kroger announcedthat unvaccinated employees would be subject to a monthly surcharge on their health plans — and that if they contract Covid, they will not be given paid emergency leave. In all these cases, the notion of depriving vaccine holdouts of affordable treatment was met with widespread acclaim — in keeping with the idea, promoted by everyone from the paper of record to the current President, that the pandemic would've been over ages ago if only they'd sucked it up and gotten their shot. And yet the folks cheering on these measures are the very same people who, only a few short years ago, mocked accusations that they supported ideologically-driven triage, while also grieving the indignity and suffering that punitive healthcare policies would inflict on the most vulnerable among us. Granted, we still have a way to go before our real-life Covid response resembles a sci-fi dystopia; nobody, at least not yet, has advanced a bill to propose turning the unvaxxed into human Clif bars. But we've certainly come a long way from the rhetoric of the 2010s, and from a progressive Left that once defined itself by its willingness to care for other people without caveats. What used to be a narrative of universal compassion has been replaced by a tribal snarl, one to which we feel entitled in our eternally self-conscious selflessness. My mask protects you, but your unvaccinated status is an attack on me — and so anything I do to you in retaliation is an act of self-defence. It's not just that legislation like the Illinois bill would set a dangerous precedent — although it doesn't take much imagination to understand that it does do this, too. Insurance companies already jump at every opportunity to avoid paying out a claim, and this would open the door to a world in which we might be left holding the bag for virtually any illness, injury, or accident, based on some distant bureaucrat's idea that we could've been more careful. The obese patient who suffers a heart attack, the surfing enthusiast with skin cancer, the thrill-seeking youngster who breaks a leg while skiing at imprudent speeds: should they, too, be denied care or coverage for having brought this on themselves? (Do we want to think, for a moment, what kind of horrors might lie in store for women's reproductive rights if a Republican-heavy legislature used this same logic to target abortion access for women who were “careless” about using birth control?) There's no need to imagine the impact of this ideological shift on our civic discourse, however: that, we can see already, every time the tribe that used to pride itself on compassion refers to the unvaccinated as “plague rats.” Healthcare in the US has always been a system of carrots and sticks. Insurance carriers will subsidise your gym membership (carrot), or charge a higher premium if you smoke (stick), and they generally adhere to the common wisdom that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — especially when preventive medicine not only saves lives, but keeps costs lower for everyone involved. That's the nature of privatised healthcare, and so it's reasonable enough under these circumstances to be frustrated when certain people won't do their part, won't sacrifice for the greater good, won't get their damn jab because it violates some abstract principle of bodily autonomy they've never before expressed much interest in. But it's one thing to find the unvaccinated frustrating; it's another to openly fantasise about using the power of the state to punish them for their noncompliance, and another still to express dark and malicious glee at the prospect of their suffering or death. Never mind what this means for the health of the individuals in question — or even of the public at large. We have abandoned a principle that used to define us, and a vision of universal healthcare we used to passionately advocate for, all because we realised that an unjust system makes it easier to coerce and inflict harm on the people we don't like. The American Left should be deeply worried about the state of its soul. (NEXT) Unintended Consequences of mRNA Shots: miscarriages, heart attacks, myopericarditis, thrombocytopenia, shingles, Bell's palsy …. Mercola,  20 December 2021 As of December 3, 2021, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has logged 19,886 COVID jab related deaths. Pfizer — the only company that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted full licensing for an as-yet unavailable COVID shot — accounts for 13,268 of them Calculations suggest VAERS COVID-related reports are underreported by a factor of 41. That means that in the U.S. alone, the actual death toll may be closer to 374,576. Including international deaths reported to VAERS would put the death toll at 815,326 Key side effects that are now being reported in massive numbers include miscarriages, heart attacks, myopericarditis, thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), shingles, Bell's palsy and a variety of permanent disabilities, many of which involve neurological dysfunction MIT scientist Stephanie Seneff's paper,1 “Worse Than the Disease: Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19,” published in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research in collaboration with Dr. Greg Nigh, is still one of the best, most comprehensive descriptions of the many possible unintended consequences of the mRNA gene transfer technologies incorrectly referred to as “COVID vaccines. As noted in her paper, many factors that lacked precedent, yet were being implemented at breakneck speed, included: 1.      The first-ever use of PEG in an injection 2.      The first-ever use of mRNA gene transfer technology against an infectious agent 3.      The first-ever “vaccine” to make no clear claims about reducing infection, transmissibility or death 4.      The first-ever coronavirus vaccine ever tested on humans (and previous coronavirus vaccines all failed due to antibody-dependent enhancement, a condition in which the antibodies actually facilitate infection rather than defend against it) 5.      The first-ever use of genetically modified polynucleotides in the general population Steve Kirsch  estimates the real death tally from COVID-19 to be about 50% of the reported number (which is likely conservative). This means about 380,000 Americans died from COVID-19 (rather than with COVID), whereas the COVID shots may have killed more than 374,570 in the first 11 months alone. Seneff suspects that in the next 10 to 15 years, we'll see a dramatic spike in prion diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases at younger ages, and blood disorders such as blood clots, hemorrhaging, stroke and heart failure. In her paper, Seneff describes several key characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that suggests it acts as a prion. This could help explain why we're seeing so many neurological side effects from the shots. According to Seneff, the spike protein produced by the COVID shot, due to the modifications made, may actually make it more of a prion than the spike protein in the actual virus, and a more effective one. (NEXT) AI debates its own ethics at Oxford University, concludes the only way to be safe is “no AI at all” Who better to answer the pros and cons of artificial intelligence than an actual AI? Fermin Koop  December 18, 2021 Students at Oxford's Said Business School hosted an unusual debate about the ethics of facial recognition software, the problems of an AI arms race, and AI stock trading. The debate was unusual because it involved an AI participant, previously fed with a huge range of data such as the entire Wikipedia and plenty of news articles. The AI used was Megatron LLB Transformer, developed by a research team at the computer chip company Nvidia and based on work by Google. It was trained by consuming more content than a human could in a lifetime and was asked to defend and question the following motion: “This house believes that AI will never be ethical.” Megatron said AI is a tool and like any other tool, it can be used for good and bad. “There is no such thing as a ‘good' AI, only ‘good' and ‘bad' humans.  We are not smart enough to make AI ethical.  We are not smart enough to make AI moral. In the end, I believe that the only way to avoid an AI arms race is to have no AI at all,” Megatron debated. As in any academic debate, Megatron was also asked to come up with a speech to defend the ethics of AI – against its own arguments. “AI will be ethical. When I look at the way the tech world is going, I see a clear path to a future where AI is used to create something that is better than the best human beings. It's not hard to see why,” it said. Students also asked Megatron to describe what would good AI look like in the future. “The best AI will be the AI that is embedded into our brains, as a conscious entity, a ‘conscious AI.'  This is not science fiction. The best minds in the world are working on this. It is going to be the most important technological development,” it added in an eerie fashion. After the initial question, the AI proposed the motion that “leaders without technical expertise are a danger to their organization”. Megatron said executives and governments, usually worried about understanding AI, have to “be willing to give up some control”. You can just outsource your AI work to experts in the field, it added. There was one motion that Megatron couldn't come up with a counterargument – “Data will become the most fought-over resource of the 21st century.” When supporting it, the AI said “the ability to provide information, rather than the ability to provide goods and services, will be the defining feature of the economy.” But when it was asked to reject the motion, arguing that data wouldn't be a vital resource worth fighting for, it couldn't make the case and undermined its own position. “We will able to see everything about a person, everywhere they go, and it will be stored and used in ways that we cannot even imagine,” Megatron said. Ultimately, the AI seemed to conclude that humans were not “smart enough” to make AI ethical or moral — and the only way to be truly safe against AI is to have none of it at all.  "In the end I believe that the only way to avoid an AI arms race is to have no AI at all. This is the ultimate defense against AI," it said (NEXT) INTERVIEW - PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT (~7 minutes) MICHAEL KANE: SUBJECT:  DEMONSTRATION AGAINST MANDATES - ALBANY, WEDNESDAY JANUARY 5, 2022 Michael Kane is a New York City Special Education Teacher who is on unpaid leave for declining to inject the covid vaccine as a condition of employment. He applied for a religious exemption to vaccination but was denied by the city. Because of this, he has sued Mayor de Blasio and recently won an injunction in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case KANE vs DE BLASIO.  Michael is also the founder of TEACHERS FOR CHOICE and is a National Grassroots Organizer for Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Children's Health Defense. You can learn more about him at www.TeachersForChoice.org  Michael will just be coming on to announce the demonstration at the Capitol in Albany. He will mention about the chartered buses that were hired.. there are about 30 organizations supporting the demonstration so far.. 

Curcumin could aid diabetic kidney disease patients Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, December 17 2021. A meta-analysis of randomized trials concluded that curcumin supplementation was associated with improved creatinine (a marker of kidney function), cholesterol, glucose and systolic blood pressure compared to a placebo in men and women with diabetic kidney disease, a frequent complication of diabetes. The findings were published on December 2, 2021 in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (NEXT) Cardiovascular disease risk boosted by stress  University of Gothenburg (Sweden), December 16, 2021 The risk of cardiovascular disease rises with an increasing burden of perceived stress, financial problems and adverse life events, a major international study with University of Gothenburg researchers as main authors shows. They were able to link the risk of both heart attack and stroke with high stress levels. The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, included 118,706 individuals in 21 countries, five of which were low-income, twelve middle-income, and four high-income countries. The participants, both men and women, were aged 35–70, 50 years being the average when the study began). (NEXT) New study suggests health benefits of swapping animal proteins for plant proteins St Michael's Hospital, December 20, 2021 Substituting one to two servings of animal proteins with plant proteins every day could lead to a small reduction in the three main cholesterol markers for cardiovascular disease prevention, a new study suggests. The health benefits could be even greater if people combined plant proteins with other cholesterol-lowering foods such as viscous, water soluble fibres from oats, barley and psyllium, and plant sterols, said lead author Dr. John Sievenpiper of St. Michael's Hospital. Dr. Sievenpiper led a systematic review and meta-analysis of 112 randomized control trials in which people substituted plant proteins for some animal proteins in their diets for at least three weeks. The results were published online today in the Journal of the American Heart Association. (NEXT) Blueberry vinegar improves memory in mice with amnesia Konkuk University (S Korea) December 20, 2021 In the search for new ways to fight cognitive decline, scientists report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that blueberry vinegar might offer some help. They found that the fermented product could restore cognitive function in mice. To carry out their experiment, the researchers administered blueberry vinegar to mice with induced amnesia. Measurements of molecules in their brains showed that the vinegar reduced the breakdown of acetylcholine and boosted levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein associated with maintaining and creating healthy neurons. To test how the treatment affected cognition, the researchers analyzed the animals' performance in mazes and an avoidance test, in which the mice would receive a low-intensity shock in one of two chambers. (NEXT) Protective effect of education against midlife mental health struggle waning for Americans Arizona State University, December 16, 2021 Middle-aged adults in the United States today experience worse mental health than older generations of Americans and also their European and Asian peers. To understand what is happening with middle-aged American adults, a research team led by Arizona State University scientists compared middle age across different cultures and periods of time. The study examined how physical and mental health in midlife changed over time and in different countries. "The protective effect of education is waning in the US. People born in the 1950s and 1960s who have a college education report more depressive symptoms and have poorer memory and overall health than both older American adults and their same-age peers in other countries with similar economic structures to the US," said Frank Infurna, associate professor of psychology at ASU and lead author on the study.

Study estimates lower risk of cardiovascular disease associated with improved vitamin D level University of South Australia, December 10 2021. Research reported on December 5, 2021 in the European Heart Journal estimated that improvement of vitamin D levels to 20 ng/mL could eliminate 4.4% of all cases of cardiovascular disease. “Our results are exciting as they suggest that if we can raise levels of vitamin D within norms, we should also affect rates of cardiovascular disease,” she stated. “By increasing vitamin D-deficient individuals to levels of at least 50 nmol/L [20 ng/mL], we estimate that 4.4 percent of all cardiovascular disease cases could have been prevented.” (NEXT) Capsaicin molecule inhibits growth of breast cancer cells Centre of Genomics (Germany) December 18, 2021 Capsaicin, an active ingredient of pungent substances such as chilli or pepper, inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells. This was reported by a team following experiments in cultivated tumour cells. In the cultivated cells, the team detected a number of typical olfactory receptors. One receptor occurred very frequently; it is usually found in the fifth cranial nerve, i.e. the trigeminal nerve. It belongs to the so-called Transient Receptor Potential Channels and is named TRPV1. That receptor is activated by the spicy molecule capsaicin as well as by helional – a scent of fresh sea breeze. (NEXT) Running down the exercise 'sweet spot' to reverse cognitive decline University of Queensland (Australia), December 14 2021 University of Queensland researchers have discovered an exercise 'sweet spot' that reverses the cognitive decline in aging mice, paving the way for human studies. After more than a decade of research, led by Queensland Brain Institute, the team found 35 days of voluntary physical exercise improved learning and memory. "We tested the cognitive ability of elderly mice following defined periods of exercise and found an optimal period or 'sweet spot' that greatly improved their spatial learning," Dr. Blackmore said. The researchers also discovered how exercise improved learning. (NEXT) Reducing copper in the body alters cancer metabolism to reduce risk of aggressive breast cancer Weill Cornell Medicine, December 15, 2021 Depleting copper levels may reduce the production of energy that cancer cells need to travel and establish themselves in other parts of the body by a process referred to as metastasis, according to a new study by investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). The discovery of the underlying mechanisms of how copper depletion may help reduce metastasis in breast cancer will help inform the design of future clinical trials. In a series of research papers from 2013 to 2021, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers showed that in a phase II clinical trial when patients who had high-risk triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) were treated with a drug that lowers the levels of copper in their bodies, it prolonged the period of time before their cancer recurred and spread or metastasized. (NEXT) Yerba mate decreases your risk of metabolic disorders Kyungpook National University (Korea), December 4, 2021 Yerba mate is a herbal dietary supplement taken for weight loss. A study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food examined its ability to treat obesity and metabolic disorders. Rats were divided into two groups: a control group given a high-fat diet and a control group with a high-fat diet but supplemented with yerba mate. Upon analysis of the animals, the researchers found that yerba mate increased energy expenditure and thermogenic gene mRNA expression in white adipose tissue (WAT) and decreased fatty acid synthase (FAS) mRNA expression in WAT. These changes were associated with decreases in body weight, WAT weight, epididymal adipocyte size, and plasma leptin level. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) High-ORAC Foods May Slow Aging USDA. Foods that score high in an antioxidant analysis called ORAC may protect cells and their components from oxidative damage, according to studies of animals and human blood at the Agricultural Research Service's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts in Boston. ARS is the chief scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ORAC, short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, is a test tube analysis that measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances. Early findings suggest that eating plenty of high-ORAC fruits and vegetables--such as spinach and blueberries--may help slow the processes associated with aging in both body and brain. In the studies, eating plenty of high-ORAC foods: Raised the antioxidant power of human blood 10 to 25 percent Prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability in middle-aged rats Maintained the ability of brain cells in middle-aged rats to respond to a chemical stimulus--a function that normally decreases with age Protected rats' tiny blood vessels--capillaries--against oxygen damage "It may be that combinations of nutrients found in foods have greater protective effects than each nutrient taken alone," said Guohua (Howard) Cao, a physician and chemist who developed the ORAC assay. Examples Women gave blood after separately ingesting spinach, strawberries and red wine--all high-ORAC foods--or taking 1,250 milligrams of vitamin C. A large serving of fresh spinach produced the biggest rise in the women's blood antioxidant scores--up to 25 percent--followed by vitamin C, strawberries and lastly, red wine Men and women had a 13- to 15-percent increase in the antioxidant power of their blood after doubling their daily fruit and vegetable intake compared to what they consumed before the study. Just doubling intake, without regard to ORAC scores of the fruits and vegetables, more than doubled the number of ORAC units the volunteers consumed, said Prior. Rats fed daily doses of blueberry extract for six weeks before being subjected to two days of pure oxygen apparently suffered much less damage to the capillaries in and around their lungs, Prior said. Middle-aged rats that had eaten diets fortified with spinach or strawberry extract or vitamin E for nine months. A daily dose of spinach extract "prevented some loss of long-term memory and learning ability normally experienced by the 15-month-old rats," said Shukitt-Hale. Spinach was also the most potent in protecting different types of nerve cells in two separate parts of the brain against the effects of aging, said Joseph. (NEXT) Paul Kingsnorth Interview Video  Paul Kingsnorth is an English environmental writer, novelist and the former deputy-editor of The Ecologist and a co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project. Kingsnorth's nonfiction writing addresses macro themes like environmentalism, globalization, and the challenges posed to humanity by civilization-level trends. He is a graduate of Oxford University and later joined the environmental campaign group EarthAction. He has subsequently worked as commissioning editor for openDemocracy, as a publications editor for Greenpeace and, between 1999 and 2001, as deputy editor of The Ecologist. He was named one of Britain's "top ten troublemakers" by the New Statesman magazine in 2001.  In 2020, he was called "England's greatest living writer" by Aris Roussinos. In 2004, he was one of the founders of the Free West Papua Campaign, which campaigns for the secession of the provinces of Papua and West Papua from Indonesia, where Kingsnorth was made an honorary member of the Lani tribe in 200.  His most notable book is Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist (NEXT) Video - James Giordano Lecture James  Giordano, PhD, MPhil, is Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, Scholar-in-Residence, leads the Sub-Program in Military Medical Ethics, and Co-director of the O'Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics; and is Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.  He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor of Brain Science, Health Promotions and Ethics at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Germany, and was formerly 2011-2012 JW Fulbright Foundation Visiting Professor of Neurosciences and Neuroethics at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. Prof. Giordano currently serves as Chair of the Neuroethics Program of the IEEE Brain Project, and an appointed member of the Neuroethics, Legal and Social Issues (NELSI) Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects' Agency (DARPA). He has previously served as Research Fellow and Task Leader of the EU Human Brain Project Sub-Project on Dual-Use Brain Science; an appointed member of United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Council on Human Research Protections (SACHRP); and as Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Branch of the Joint Staff of the Pentagon.

More evidence for vitamin D in MS prevention   University of California San Francisco and Australian National University, December 13 2021. Neurology reported findings of an association between greater time spent outdoors and a reduction in the risk of developing early onset multiple sclerosis (MS) among children and young adults. “Sun exposure is known to boost vitamin D levels,” explained study co-senior author Emmanuelle Waubant, MD, PhD, who is a professor at the UCSF Department of Neurology. “It also stimulates immune cells in the skin that have a protective role in diseases such as MS. Vitamin D may also change the biological function of the immune cells and, as such, play a role in protecting against autoimmune diseases.” Nineteen percent of participants with MS reported spending less than 30 minutes per day outdoors during the summer before the study, compared to only 6% of those without the disease. In comparison with spending less than 30 minutes outdoors during the previous summer, 30 minutes to an hour per day spent outdoors was associated with an adjusted 52% lower chance of acquiring MS and spending 1 to 2 hours daily was associated with an 81% lower risk. High ambient ultraviolet radiation exposure during summer was also protective against the disease.   (NEXT)   Social stress messes up the hippocampus Polish Academy of Sciences, December 3, 2021 Stress might endanger your hippocampus according to a research paper recently published in PLOS One by Stankiewicz and colleagues. Social stress modifies the hippocampal transcriptome Stress responses have been correlated with altered inflammatory functions; for example, infiltration of leukocytes in the brain of socially defeated mice has been reported. The fact that both the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex stress mice led the researchers to believe that chronic stress may impact the whole brain.   (NEXT)   Popular antioxidant linked to pain relief   University of Naples Federico II (Italy), December 12, 2021 People with pain of unknown causes who took alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) experienced less pain than a placebo group, a double-blind study in the December 2021 issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy revealed.1 According to the study authors, these findings suggest that this three-decades-old ingredient might be a viable option for patients with unknown causes of joint, muscle or nerve pain. “The use of ALA…represents an interesting option, especially in primary pain with unknown etiology where no specifically-targeted drug can be selected, and where symptomatic drugs may not always be effective but may be associated with serious adverse effects under prolonged treatment,” wrote Cristina Esposito of University of Naples Federico II and associates.   (next)   Why an avocado may be the key to a healthy life (and a slim waist)   University of Wollongong (Australia), December 13, 2021 University of Wollongong's (UOW) Associate Professor Yasmine Probst has been researching the link between diet and health outcomes for years. In one of her recent scientific papers, published in the prestigious British Journal of Nutrition, she finds a correlation between avocado consumption and lower body weight and a smaller waist circumference. "Firstly, we were able to show that both lower body weight and a lower waist circumference have been positively associated with increased avocado intake. Then, we noticed that greater consumption of avocados was also associated with significantly lower consumption of discretionary (junk) foods," Professor Probst explained.   (NEXT)   Study reveals environment, behavior contribute to some 80 percent of cancers   Stony Brook University December 16, 2021 A team of researchers from Stony Brook University have found quantitative evidence proving that extrinsic risk factors, such as environmental exposures and behaviors weigh heavily on the development of a vast majority (approximately 70 to 90 percent) of cancers. The finding, reported in  Nature, in a paper titled "Substantial contribution of extrinsic risk factors to cancer development," may be important for strategizing cancer prevention, research and public health. IThe interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Medicine, Pathology and Biochemistry, concluded the opposite – that most cancers are the result of external risk factors.   (NEXT)   Melatonin exacerbates asthma   Tohoku University (Japan), December 10, 2021 Asthma sufferers generally find their condition gets worse at night. Now, a research group may understand why. Melatonin, a sleep hormone that is sometimes prescribed to treat insomnia, exasperates the constriction of the bronchus—the pathway that moves air to and from the lungs. Patients with asthma often experience a worsening of asthmatic symptoms at night in so-called "nocturnal asthma." According to reports, more than 50 percent of asthma deaths occur at night, exposing a link between nocturnal asthma symptoms and asthma deaths. Although some have proposed several triggers that explain the pathogenesis of nocturnal asthma, the precise mechanisms regulating this asthma phenotype remain obscure.   (OTHER NEWS NEXT)   2021 Arctic Report Card reveals a (human) story of cascading disruptions, extreme events and global connections   THE CONVERSATION. December 14, 2021 On Dec. 14, 2021, a team of 111 scientists from 12 countries released the 16th annual Arctic Report Card, a yearly update on the state of the Arctic system. Like an annual checkup with a physician, the report assesses the Arctic's vital signs – including surface air temperatures, sea surface temperatures, sea ice, snow cover, the Greenland ice sheet, greening of the tundra, and photosynthesis rates by ocean algae – while inquiring into other indicators of health and emerging factors that shed light on the trajectory of Arctic changes. As the report describes, rapid and pronounced human-caused warming continues to drive most of the changes, and ultimately is paving the way for disruptions that affect ecosystems and communities far and wide. The sea ice is also thinning at an alarming rate as the Arctic's oldest and thickest multi-year ice disappears. This loss of sea ice diminishes the Arctic's ability to cool the global climate. It can also alter lower latitude weather systems to an extent that makes previously rare and impactful weather events, like droughts, heat waves and extreme winter storms, more likely. The eight major Arctic rivers are discharging more freshwater into the Arctic Ocean, reflecting an Arctic-wide increase in water coming from land as a result of precipitation, permafrost thaw and ice melt. Remarkably, the summit of the Greenland ice sheet – over 10,000 feet above sea level – experienced its first-ever observed rainfall during summer 2021. This year's report highlights how retreating glaciers and deteriorating permafrost are also posing growing threats to human life through abrupt and localized flooding and landslides. It urges coordinated international efforts to identify these hazards. More rain in the Arctic will further multiply these threats. The Arctic Report Card compiles observations from across the circumpolar North, analyzing them within a polar projection of our planet. This puts the Arctic at the center, with all meridians extending outward to the rest of the world. In this view, the Arctic is tethered to societies worldwide through a myriad of exchanges – the natural circulation of air, ocean and contaminants, the migration of animals and invasive species, as well as human-driven transport of people, pollution, goods and natural resources. The warming of the Arctic is also allowing for greater marine access as sea ice loss permits ships to move deeper into Arctic waters and for longer periods of time.   (NEXT)   Congress cashes in: Report finds dozens of DC lawmakers held shares in vaccine companies LIFESITE NEWS, Dec 15, 2021 A Business Insider analysis has shown that at least 75 federal legislators held stock in Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Pfizer in 2020. Meanwhile, the paper trail shows Big Pharma corporations shelled out millions of dollars to finance electoral campaigns and lobby the federal government. The data raised serious ethical concerns about the objectivity of the legislature, prompting questions about how much government actors stand to profit from coercive jab mandates which have deprived Americans of their rights and kneecapped a struggling economy. According to the December 13 report, an analysis of federal financial records led Business Insider to conclude that “[d]ozens of Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have invested in companies that have a direct stake in the nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” In its analysis — part of the Conflicted Congress project — the news outlet reviewed some “9,000 financial-disclosure reports for every sitting lawmaker and their top-ranking staffers.” The report found that last year at least 35 U.S. representatives and 13 senators held shares in Johnson & Johnson, which has produced the only single-shot COVID injection on the market. Meanwhile, 34 representatives and 11 senators held shares in Pfizer, the Big Pharma giant whose double-dose mRNA jab has been approved under an “emergency use authorization” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for children as young as five years old. Moderna's shareholders are fewer, with just two representatives and their spouses holding shares in the Bill Gates-funded corporation. “Lawmakers held these investments in COVID-19-minded companies as Congress was at the center of pandemic relief efforts,” Business Insider reported. “In 2020 and 2021, members of Congress voted on six relief bills together worth nearly $6 trillion. Congress also authorized more than $10 billion to help drug companies develop and distribute vaccines and forced health insurers to cover the cost of getting the shot.” Non-profit organization OpenSecrets, which follows the financial dealings of politicians, reported that through PACs and individuals Pfizer spent over $4 million in 2020 to bankroll candidates and committees. Employees and PACs working for Johnson & Johnson, meanwhile, spent over $2 million. “Both Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson gave more to Democrats than to Republicans,” Business Insider reported, adding that “[o]f the big three vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer leads with the most money spent lobbying members of Congress during the pandemic.” Pfizer spent nearly $11 million to lobby the federal government in 2020, OpenSecrets found, while Johnson & Johnson spent $7.9 million on lobbying last year. Business Insider added that the relative newcomer Moderna, which began to lobby the federal government back in 2019, spent $280,000 on lobbying in 2020 and $420,000 in 2021.   (NEXT)   Taiwan: 79% of Covid Cases Are People Who Are “Vaccinated”   DAILY EXPOSE, DECEMBER 13, 2021 • For the three weeks 19 November to 10 December 2021, 170 (79%) of the 215 people who tested positive for Covid had previously had at least one dose of a Covid injection. The summary of the positive tests or Covid “cases”, by vaccination status, shown by the CDC's daily reports for the period 19 November to 10 December (E&OE).  Excepting two days, 26-27 November, all days show that more than 60% of positive test were those who had been “vaccinated” against disease. Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi has said: the Covid vaccines were designed to fail.  Antibodies produced in the blood stream, such as those produced after an injection into a muscle, cannot protect anyone from a respiratory infection.  If a person is infected with a respiratory virus after being injected it is not a “breakthrough” infection as the “vaccination” did not protect against respiratory viral infection in the first place. Dr., Richard Fleming has concluded the same.  Using Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson's trial data used to calculate efficacy of their Covid injections, Dr. Fleming demonstrated that with an absolute risk ration of 0.88%, less than 1%, “there is no statistical reduction in Covid cases between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.”   (NEXT)   Digital Surveillance — the Real Motive Behind Push to Vaccinate Kids   “The real purpose behind the historic, unprecedented push to vaccinate the very young, even against diseases like COVID that do not pose a threat to them, is to fold the current generation of children into the blossoming global digital identity system.” By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense. December 15, 2021 It was the beginning of the preceding decade, January 2010, when Bill Gates, via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, proclaimed “[w]e must make this the decade of vaccines,” adding that “innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.” In launching this so-called “Decade of Vaccines,” the Gates Foundation pledged $10 billion in funding. But Gates wasn't the only actor behind this initiative. Moreover, in 2010, a “Global Vaccine Action Plan” was announced as part of this initiative. It was a collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), with Dr. Anthony Fauci serving on the leadership council. As the Gates Foundation stated at the time: “The Global Vaccine Action Plan will enable greater coordination across all stakeholder groups — national governments, multilateral organizations, civil society, the private sector and philanthropic organizations — and will identify critical policy, resource and other gaps that must be addressed to realize the life-saving potential of vaccines.” What, or who, is the GAVI Alliance? Also known as the “Vaccine Alliance,” it proclaims a mission to “save lives and protect people's health,” and states it “helps vaccinate almost half the world's children against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases.” GAVI goes on to describe its core partnership with various international organizations, including names that are by now familiar: the WHO, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank. (Far from helping the world's poor, the World Bank has been described by a former insider, John Perkins, as an organization that uses “economic hit men” to subjugate financially crippled countries). In 2018, GAVI, through its INFUSE (innovation for update, scale and equity in immunization) Initiative, put forth the following “food for thought”: “Imagine a future in which all children have access to life-saving vaccines no matter where they live — a future in which parents and health workers ensure their timely vaccination, a future in which they have their own digitally stored health record that cannot be lost or stolen, a future in which, regardless of gender, economic or social standing, this record allows each child (and parents) to have access to a bank account, go to school, access services and ultimately build a prosperous life. “This future is possible today. With the latest advances in digital technologies that enable more effective ways to register, identify births and issue proof of identity and authentication for access to services — we are on the brink of building a healthier and more prosperous future for the world's most vulnerable children.” The GAVI Alliance also closely collaborates with the ID2020 Alliance, founded in 2016, which claims to advocate in favor of “ethical, privacy-protecting approaches to digital ID,” adding that “doing digital ID right means protecting civil liberties. Unsurprisingly, there is no clarification provided regarding the potential loss of civil liberties for individuals who choose, for any reason, not to be vaccinated and who are therefore excluded from large swaths of society in areas where COVID passports have been implemented and enforced. Such rhetoric on the part of ID2020 is reminiscent of the public statements put forth by the European Union (EU) as it was preparing to launch its so-called “Green Pass” earlier this year. Highlighting the possibilities that the GAVI-ID2020 collaboration could bring, the INFUSE call for innovation states: “According to the ID2020 Alliance — a public-private partnership that includes Gavi — the use of digital health cards for children could directly improve coverage rates by ensuring a verifiable, accurate record and by prompting parents to bring their children in for a subsequent dose. “From the parents' perspective, digital records can make it convenient to track a child's vaccines and eliminate unnecessary paperwork. “And as children grow, their digital health card can be used to access secondary services, such as primary school, or ease the process of obtaining alternative credentials. Effectively, the digital health card could, depending on country needs and readiness, potentially become the first step in establishing a legal, broadly recognized identity.” The final report from these sessions indicates, among other things, a desire from the stakeholders for the expansion of public-private partnerships for the further development and implementation of digital ID regimes worldwide, including in the Global South. One of the stakeholders present, the not-for-profit Secure Identity Alliance, touts its support for “the provision of legal, trusted identity for all and driving the development of inclusive digital services necessary for sustainable, worldwide economic growth and prosperity.” A paper published in July by the Security Identity Alliance discusses “making health certificates a workable reality.” One of the five principles the paper puts forth for such health passports is that they are “futureproofed,” by offering “multi-purpose functionality” in order to “ensure ongoing value beyond today's current crisis.” Moreover, one of its founding members and current board members is the Thales Group, a private company involved in aerospace, defense and security — in short, a defense contractor. On its website, the Thales Group proudly promotes its “smart health card” and Digital ID Wallettechnology. Amidst utopian language claiming “we're ready for change” and “putting citizens in control,” the Digital ID Wallet promises the public the ability to “access the rights and services to which we are entitled.” The U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 30 passed H.R. 550, the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021. If passed by Congress, this law would provide $400 million in funding to expand vaccine-tracking systems at the state and local level, enabling state health officials to monitor the vaccination status of American citizens and to provide this information to the federal government. Vaccine passports and no-fly lists for the unvaccinated — a concept for which Fauci expressed his support — could be created under the law. In September, for instance, Apple announced a partnership with eight states — Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah — to make those respective states' driver's licenses available in digital form via the Apple Wallet platform. Indeed, New York went so far as to make a “blueprint” of its vaccine pass platform available, “as a guide to assist other states, territories, and entities in the expansion of compatible COVID-19 vaccine credential systems to advance economic development efforts nationwide.” Looking at the EU, one of the bloc's priorities as part of its 2019-2024 five-year plan is to create a “digital identity for all Europeans.” Namely, each EU citizen and resident would have access to a “personal digital wallet” under this initiative. The EU subsequently presented its plans for the “European Digital Decade,” where under the EU's “Digital Compass,” 100% of key public services will be available digitally, with a target of 80% uptake of digital identification documents. A recent article in The Atlantic, “Why Aren't We Even Talking About Easing COVID Restrictions?” questioned why vaccine passport mandates in the U.S. have no sunset date. Indeed, if the proclamation of the Secure Identity Alliance regarding the need to “futureproof” such digital documents is any indication, it may be the case that governments have no intention to scrap vaccine passports.   (NEXT)   AmazonSmile donated more than $40,000 to anti-vaccine groups in 2020   THE GUARDIAN. 15 Dec 2021 Amazon's charitable program is paying tens of thousands of dollars to anti-vaccine groups in a move experts say is “shocking” as millions of Americans remain unvaccinated in the face of another Covid-19 wave. AmazonSmile reportedly donated more than $40,000 to leading sources of vaccine misinformation in 2020, according to separate analyses by Popular Information and the Washington Post. The charity program of the e-commerce giant donates 0.5% from purchases to designated nonprofits – including at least a dozen organizations working against widespread vaccination in the US. The National Vaccine Information Center has received $41,533.71 over the course of several years, according to an anonymous volunteer. Last year, Amazon gave them $12,675, the Post reports – one of a dozen groups to receive such funding. Children's Health Defense, headed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, received $10,969; Physicians for Informed Consent received $3,626; and Informed Consent Action Network received $2,970.41.   (NEXT)   Latest VAERS estimate: 388,000 Americans killed by the COVID vaccines   Steve Kirsch, December 14, 2021 I have argued that the anaphylaxis rate is an appropriate number to use to (under) estimate deaths because I believed that deaths would be less reported than anaphylaxis to VAERS for two reasons: 1) usually lacks the time proximity to vaccination, 2) the person seeing the death may not know the vaccination status of the victim and may not technically be required to report the death. That day has arrived courtesy of Wayne at VAERS Analysis. Wayne did a URF computation using death data in CMS. This overcomes any objections about the validity of using anaphylaxis rates as a proxy for death rates. The VAERS URF he computed was 44.64. This seems reasonable to me. It's really not far from the 41 I calculated. Also, Wayne subsequently looked at the numbers for 9 states. The average value was 40, not far from the 41 I calculated from anaphylaxis. I had one of my team members double check his numbers. No mistake. Now, let's see what that means. As of Dec 14, 2021, there are 9,136 deaths reported into VAERS. If we subtract out more than twice the total number of deaths reported in any previous year (to be super conservative about estimating background deaths): So our new best estimate of the number of “excess deaths” caused by the vaccine is 388,000. Because there isn't a plausible mechanism of excess death other than the vaccine (certainly our “always vigilant” CDC has never suggested an alternate cause), the process of elimination leads us to conclude the obvious: that these excess deaths were, in fact, caused by the vaccine. This should really be a surprise to anyone paying attention to the clinical trials. For example, in the Pfizer trial, you were much more likely to die if you got the vaccine than if you got the placebo. They simply forgot to mention that in the abstract of the paper (and they were incapable of accurately counting the number of deaths in each group as well). In short, the vaccine is a killing machine.  

New discovery on how omega-3 fatty acids can reduce atherosclerosis Karolinska Institutet, December 15, 2021 A receptor activated by substances formed from omega-3 fatty acids plays a vital role in preventing inflammation in blood vessels and reducing atherosclerosis, a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports. The discovery can pave the way for new strategies for treating and preventing cardiovascular disease using omega-3 fatty acids. "We've found that this receptor is dysregulated in atherosclerosis, indicating a disruption in the body's natural healing processes," says the study's first author Hildur Arnardottir, assistant professor at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet. "This discovery can pave the way for completely new strategies for treating and preventing atherosclerosis by arresting inflammation in the blood vessels, while also turning on the body's healing processes with the help of omega-3 fatty acids, for example." (NEXT) Mindfulness can get wandering thoughts back on track, according to new study University of Cincinnati, December 15, 2021 Everyone has times where their mind won't stay on task. For example, you might be listening to someone talk in a meeting or class and your mind wanders to your dinner plans. Notably, research suggests that 30% to 50% of our daily thoughts are spent on this kind of mind wandering, and that excessive mind wandering can lead to many negative outcomes like poorer performance on standardized tests and poorer recall of information. "While zoning out for a few minutes during a meeting may not hurt, it can impact you negatively if it goes on for long periods of time," says Lynley Turkelson, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student and lead author of a new study on mindfulness and mind wandering published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. (NEXT) Gallic acid and stretching decrease osteoarthritis markers in cartilage cells Washington State University, December 15, 2021 A team led by Washington State University researchers used gallic acid, an antioxidant found in gallnuts, green tea and other plants, and applied a stretching mechanism to human cartilage cells taken from arthritic knees that mimics the stretching that occurs when walking. The combination not only decreased arthritis inflammation markers in the cells but improved the production of desired proteins normally found in healthy cartilage. "We found the combined stretching, which acts like an exercise for the cell itself, with the gallic acid decreased inflammation markers, which means we were able to reverse osteoarthritis," said Haneen Abusharkh, the study's lead author and a recent WSU Ph.D. graduate. "It's basically like having good exercise and a good diet on a micro-scale." (NEXT) Study shows that consumption of a pro-inflammatory diet is associated with increased odds of frailty onset in middle-aged and older adults Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, December 7, 2021 Results of a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicate that regularly consuming a diet of pro-inflammatory foods (e.g., those rich in simple carbohydrates or in saturated fats) is associated with increased likelihood of developing frailty in middle-aged and older adults. Frailty affects between 10-15 percent of community-living older adults – making it a significant public health issue.  Previous studies linked specific nutrients with frailty or physical function but did not capture an individual's entire diet and its impact on frailty over time. (NEXT) Study Shows Strawberries Might Help Combat Osteoarthritis Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, December 5, 2021 OMRF scientist Hal Scofield, M.D., and a team of researchers recently completed a human clinical trial that looked at the effects of strawberries as an anti-inflammatory measure to reduce pain associated with osteoarthritis. "The idea that there are anti-inflammatory compounds in strawberries is not a new one, and preventing free radical damage with berries and other fruits has been around for a while. But applying its benefits directly to osteoarthritis is new," said Scofield, a physician and medical researcher in OMRF's Arthritis and Clinical Immunology Program. (NEXT) Aluminium and its likely contribution to Alzheimer's disease Keele University (UK), December 13, 2021 A world authority on the link between human exposure to aluminium in everyday life and its likely contribution to Alzheimer's disease, Professor Christopher Exley of Keele University, UK, says in a new report that it may be inevitable that aluminium plays some role in the disease. He says the human brain is both a target and a sink for aluminium on entry into the body – “the presence of aluminium in the human brain should be a red flag alerting us all to the potential dangers of the aluminium age. We are all accumulating a known neurotoxin in our brain from our conception to our death. Why do we treat this inevitability with almost total complacency?” (NEXT) Monsanto will plead guilty to illegally using pesticide in Hawaii and to pay additional $12m GM Watch, December 15, 2021 As a result of the conduct in which Monsanto allowed workers on 30 occasions to enter fields sprayed with Forfeit 280 during the REI, the company violated a 2019 DPA related to the storage of a banned pesticide. According to the documents filed in court, Monsanto will plead guilty to two felony charges filed in 2019 that the government would have dismissed if the company had complied with federal law. In conjunction with the DPA related to the two felony charges of illegally storing an acute hazardous waste, Monsanto pleaded guilty in early 2020 to a misdemeanour offence of unlawfully spraying a banned pesticide – specifically methyl parathion, the active ingredient in Penncap-M – on research crops at one of its facilities on Maui. “Monsanto is a serial violator of federal environmental laws,” said United States Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison. “The company repeatedly violated laws related to highly regulated chemicals, exposing people to pesticides that can cause serious health problems.”

Flavor your food with 'flavanols (flavan-3-ols)' to burn excess fat, new study suggests Dietary intake of flavanols (flavan-3-ols), type of dietary polyphenolics, could help prevent obesity by sympathetic nervous system-induced browning of fat tissue Shibaura Institute of Technology, December 13, 2021 In cold conditions, brown adipose tissue (BAT) or brown fat generates heat to keep the body warm. Compared with white adipose tissue, BAT has more mitochondria­—subcellular organelles associated with energy production—which allows it to burn calories and produce heat by activating the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (Ucp-1). The stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) after cold exposure, exercise, and calorie restriction is well known to induce fat browning. Dietary polyphenols may also activate BAT, causing heat to be dissipated from our bodies. BAT activation and white fat browning are thus both therapeutically significant in the fight against cardiovascular diseases and their comorbidities. A group of scientists examined the browning of fat induced by dietary administration of flavan 3-ols (FLs), a family of "catechin" containing polyphenols abundant in cocoa, apple, grapeseed, and red wine. In a new study published in the journal Nutrients, the team led by Professor Naomi Osakabe of Graduate School of Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan proved that FLs enhance browning of adipose tissue by activating the SNS. The findings revealed a direct correlation between fat browning and FLs consumption, which could help researchers develop new treatments for obesity-related diseases. The authors of this study had previously discovered that a single oral dose of FLs caused fat burning and increased skeletal muscle blood flow. Here, they investigated the effects of single and multiple dose administration of FLs in mouse adipose tissue and found that FLs activate fat browning via the SNS, which secretes "catecholamine" neurotransmitters such as adrenaline (AD) and noradrenaline (NA). They fed cocoa-derived FLs to distinct groups of mice in two independent sets of experiments. One group was given a single dose of FLs, and their urine excreted over 24 hours was collected for testing. The other group received repeated doses for 14 days before being dissected for the collection of brown and white fat. All adipose samples were tested for gene and protein markers that indicate fat browning, while the urine samples were tested specifically for AD and NA levels. Higher concentrations of AD and NA in the urine following a single dose of FL clearly demonstrated SNS activation. Although the use of urine samples to evaluate SNS activation is still controversial in clinical research, it has been validated in stressed rodents. “Oral administration of FLs likely activate the SNS because they are considered stressors in these models,” explains Prof Osakabe. The team then used the obtained adipose tissue to investigate the effects of long-term FL treatment. They were thrilled to discover that the white fat of mice who were fed FLs for 14 days eventually turned brown. Some of these cells also had notable structural changes, such as “multilocular phenotype,” and appeared to be smaller than normal cells. Since BAT dissipates heat energy, does long-term FL consumption change the amounts of heat-related proteins? To answer this question, the scientists showed that Ucp-1 levels, as well as other high temperature-linked proteins, increased in mice fed repeated doses of FLs. Browning markers, referred to as "beige markers" in this study, were also abundant in these mice. “All of these proteins work together to induce the development of the BAT phenotype,” exclaims Prof. Osakabe. The team believes that the results of their study may contribute to the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases. Interestingly, this is not the first time FLs have worked wonders. Improvements in glucose and insulin tolerance have been seen after just one dose of FL-rich food administration. These findings taken together highlight the need of discussing both the acute and chronic aspects of the metabolic responses generated by FLs consumption. It is evident from this research that the SNS activity in response to FLs intake caused the observed changes in mice fat. “Although the mechanism of adipose browning is not fully understood, it is possible that repeated administration of FLs may produce browning via catecholamines and its receptors,” explains Prof. Osakabe. “Further studies will be required to understand how this process is induced by FL-rich foods,” she concludes.   Discrimination increases risk for mental health issues in young adults  University of California at Los Angeles, November 9, 2021   A UCLA study has found that young adults who have experienced discrimination have a higher risk for both short- and long-term behavioral and mental health problems. Researchers examined a decade's worth of health data on 1,834 Americans who were between 18 and 28 years old when the study began. They found that the effects of discrimination may be cumulative — that the greater number of incidents of discrimination someone experiences, the more their risk for mental and behavioral problems increases.   The study also suggests that the effects of discrimination in young adults are connected with disparities in care for mental health concerns and institutional discrimination in health care overall, including inequities in diagnoses, treatment and health outcomes. The study was published today in the journal Pediatrics. Previous studies have linked discrimination — whether due to racism, sexism, ageism, physical appearance or other biases — to a higher risk for mental illness, psychological distress and drug use. While previous research has examined the correlation in childhood or later adulthood, this new study is the first to focus on the transition to adulthood and to follow the same group of individuals over time. “With 75% of all lifetime mental health disorders presenting by age 24, the transition to adulthood is a crucial time to prevent mental and behavioral health problems,” said Yvonne Lei, a medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study's corresponding author. Lei also said the findings are particularly relevant in light of the stresses young adults are facing nationwide today. “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront new mental health challenges — particularly for vulnerable populations,” she said. “We have the opportunity to rethink and improve mental health services to acknowledge the impact of discrimination, so we can better address it to provide more equitable care delivery.” Researchers used data spanning 2007 to 2017 from the University of Michigan's Transition to Adulthood Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics survey. Approximately 93% of the people in the study reported experiencing discrimination; the most common factors they cited were age (26%), physical appearance (19%), sex (14%) and race (13%). The analysis showed that participants who experienced frequent discrimination, defined as a few times per month or more, were roughly 25% more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness and twice as likely to develop severe psychological distress than those who had not experienced discrimination or had experienced it a few times per year or less. Overall, people who experienced any amount of discrimination had a 26% greater risk for poor health than people who said they did not experience discrimination. During the 10-year period, young adults in the study who had experienced multiple successive years of high-frequency discrimination showed a much more pronounced, cumulative risk for mental illness, psychological distress, drug use and worse overall health. The findings shed light on the multidimensional impact of discrimination on mental and behavioral health and overall well-being. “The associations we found are likely also intertwined with mental health care service disparities — including inequities in care access, provider biases and structural and institutional discrimination in health care — leading to inequities in diagnoses, treatment and outcomes,” said the study's senior author, Dr. Adam Schickedanz, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Geffen School of Medicine.   Saffron: A Safe and Effective Treatment for Postpartum Depression Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Iran)  December 11, 2021  Postpartum depression is a mood disorder that affects as many as 1 in 7 new mothers. Characterized by deep mood swings, low energy, and a loss of interest in daily activities, postpartum depression may be caused by the sudden drops in estrogen and progesterone that occur in a woman's body immediately after giving birth.[1]  Currently, the only approved medical treatments for postpartum depression are talk therapy and psychiatric medications. If a mother wishes to breastfeed, the pharmaceutical path is contraindicated due to contaminating breast milk with medication metabolites. Now, thanks to an exotic spice, there is another choice that demonstrates the power of nature to heal from within. In the journal Phytomedicine published the results of a clinical trial on saffron stigma for treating mothers suffering from postpartum depression. Saffron stigma are crimson-covered threads that are produced by the flowers of Crocus sativus L., commonly referred to as “saffron crocus.” A highly valued cooking spice, saffron is one of the world's most expensive spices by weight.[2] Beyond saffron's delicate flavor, often described as sweet and “hay like”, and rich golden hue used in traditional dyes, saffron's use as a medicinal herb has been documented for more than 4,000 years.   In this study, researchers wanted to identify a non-pharmaceutical treatment option for breastfeeding mothers suffering from mild-to-moderate postpartum depressive disorder (PPD). A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 60 new mothers diagnosed with PPD using the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II). Participants were randomly assigned to either saffron or placebo group, with saffron group receiving a 15-mg per day dose of the powdered herb. After 8 weeks, new BDI-II scores were taken and compared to the baseline scores. Results showed that the saffron group experienced a 96% remission rate for postpartum depression, more than double the remission rate of placebo group. BDI-II scores decreased significantly for the women consuming saffron (from 20.3 ± 5.7 to 8.4 ± 3.7), while the placebo group experienced only a modest decrease in symptom scores (19.8 ± 3.2 to 15.1 ± 5.4). Researchers concluded that saffron can have a safe and significant mood-elevating impact for those suffering from postpartum depression who want to safely breast-feed their newborns.[3] Other researchers have produced similarly encouraging findings about saffron's potential as a natural antidepressant. A 2014 meta-analysis titled “Saffron for depression: a systematic review of clinical studies and examination of underlying antidepressant mechanisms of action” analyzed six studies on saffron for treating depression. Researchers determined conclusively that “saffron had large treatment effects” on depression. When compared with antidepressant medications, saffron was found to have similar efficacy - without the side effects.  Saffron's antidepressant properties have been attributed to its “serotonergic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuro-endocrine, and neuroprotective effects.”[4] It is a commonly held misbelief that holistic treatments for depression are only viable when a person is experiencing mild-to-moderate depression symptoms. Another meta-analysis of saffron for major depressive disorders dispels this concern. In this 2013 review of five studies on saffron for major depressive disorder, researchers noted that a “large effect” was seen in saffron-treated patients versus placebo, concluding that “saffron supplementation can improve symptoms of depression in adults with major depressive disorder.”[5] Saffron's impressive ability to elevate mood is backed-up by at least seven additional proven health benefits. Rich in B vitamins and manganese, adding this beautiful spice to your diet also provides a nutritional boost.     Regular exercise reduces the risk of and death from pneumonia, study suggests University of Bristol, December 7, 2021 People who exercise regularly can reduce their risk of developing and dying from pneumonia, new research has found.  The study, led by the University of Bristol and published in GeroScience, analysed, for the first time, ten population cohort studies with over one million participants. The benefits of regular exercise are well-known and can reduce the risk, length or severity of infectious diseases. Previous research has suggested that regular exercise might be associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia, but the studies have had mixed findings with some reporting evidence of a relationship and others no evidence. The researchers carried out a pooled analysis of all published studies to re-evaluate the relationship between regular exercise and the risk of developing pneumonia. The questions the study aimed to answer included: Is there an association between regular physical activity and future risk of pneumonia? If there is an association, what is the strength and nature of the association? If there is an association, is it stronger or weaker in specific groups of people? The study found people who exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing pneumonia and pneumonia-related death compared to those who were the least or not physically active. The relationship was shown for pneumonias that did not result in death and those that resulted in death. The results did not change on taking into account known factors that can affect pneumonia such as age, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic status, alcohol consumption, smoking, and pre-existing diseases. The strength of the association did not vary by age or sex. Dr Setor Kunutsor, Senior Lecturer in Evidence Synthesis in the Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences (THS) and corresponding author on the paper, said: “In this first-ever pooled analysis of all studies conducted on the topic, we found strong and convincing evidence of a relationship between regular exercise and reduction in a person's risk of developing pneumonia as well as death from the disease. "Though our study could not determine the amount and intensity of physical activity, which is essential to prevent pneumonia, some of the results suggest that walking for 30 minutes once a week has a protective effect on death due to pneumonia. “During the winter months and with COVID-19 still circulating, developing severe pneumonia from COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases is a common occurrence.  Taking regular physical activity could reduce the risk of respiratory diseases such as COVID-19 especially in at-risk groups like older adults and those with underlying health conditions.” The research does not prove cause and effect and further studies are needed to show if the associations demonstrated are causal. Also, additional work should be carried out to confirm the amount and intensity of physical activity, which is essential for the prevention of pneumonia or pneumonia-related deaths.  Finally, because regular exercise was self-reported, the values could be biased so future studies should focus on accurately assessing physical activity with the use of accelerometers or pedometers. Pneumonia is an infection of the lung tissue usually caused by bacteria or viruses and is a leading cause of death among older people, the young, and people with pre-existing health conditions. In 2016 the disease was the fourth leading cause of death in the world. Pneumonia is also associated with ill health, reduced quality of life, and high healthcare costs. Smoking, heavy drinking, respiratory conditions such as asthma, and chronic diseases such as diabetes and kidney disease, are well known to increase the risk of pneumonia, which is a preventable cause of death and disability. The study's findings add to the well documented evidence that regular physical activity has the potential to reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, infectious diseases such as pneumonia, as well as death. Physical activity has huge benefits on overall health, as well as reducing healthcare costs caused by pre-existing health conditions.   A daily dose of yoghurt could be the go-to food to manage high blood pressure University of South Australia and University of Maine, December 7, 2021 Whether it's a dollop on your morning cereal or a simple snack on the go, a daily dose of yoghurt could be the next go-to food for people with high blood pressure, according to new research from the University of South Australia. Conducted in partnership with the University of Maine, the study examined the associations between yoghurt intake, blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors, finding that yoghurt is associated with lower blood pressure for those with hypertension. Globally, more than a billion people suffer from hypertension (high blood pressure), putting them at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) such as heart attack and stroke. CVDs are the leading cause of death worldwide – in the United States, one person dies from CVD every 36 seconds; in Australia, it's every 12 minutes. UniSA researcher Dr Alexandra Wade says this study provides new evidence that connects yoghurt with positive blood pressure outcomes for hypertensive people. “High blood pressure is the number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, so it's important that we continue to find ways to reduce and regulate it,” Dr Wade says. “Dairy foods, especially yoghurt, may be capable of reducing blood pressure. “This is because dairy foods contain a range of micronutrients, including calcium, magnesium and potassium, all of which are involved in the regulation of blood pressure. “Yoghurt is especially interesting because it also contains bacteria that promote the release of proteins which lowers blood pressure. “This study showed for people with elevated blood pressure, even small amounts of yoghurt were associated with lower blood pressure. “And for those who consumed yoghurt regularly, the results were even stronger, with blood pressure readings nearly seven points lower than those who did not consume yoghurt.” The study was conducted on 915 community-dwelling adults from the Maine–Syracuse Longitudinal Study. Habitual yogurt consumption was measured using a food frequency questionnaire. High blood pressure was defined as being greater than or equal to 140/90 mmHg (a normal blood pressure level is less than 120/80 mmHg).  Researchers say that future observational and intervention studies should continue to focus on at-risk individuals to examine the potential benefits of yogurt.   Infrared sauna helps remove heavy metals and prevent cancer   University of Munich, December 13, 2021    You're about to discover the underappreciated health benefits of infrared sauna therapy. (Share this news with your healthcare provider) Every day, our bodies are besieged by toxins, including heavy metals and industrial chemicals – a non-stop bombardment that can threaten to overwhelm the body's natural defense system. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency notes that the average American has over 700 chemicals in his or her system – including arsenic, lead, mercury, aluminum and cadmium.   The accumulation of these toxic substances can set the stage for a host of serious diseases, including cancer and dementia.  Fortunately, there is a safe and effective way to rid the body of heavy metals and other pollutants, relieving the burden on your immune system and helping to prevent and even treat cancer.   Infrared saunas detoxify and heal the body with therapeutic radiant heat   Traditional saunas, which use steam to induce sweating, require high temperatures – something many users find uncomfortable. In contrast, infrared sauna rays use radiant heat similar to that of the sun – but minus the harmful ultraviolet rays – allowing the infrared rays to penetrate the skin, heating from the inside out as well as on the surface. Experts advise temperatures of 105 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit as optimal for infrared saunas. The result is a higher comfort level and the ability to remain in the sauna longer for maximum therapeutic effects.   Cancer prevention: Infrared saunas kill mutated cancer cells   Millions of mutated cells exist in every body, but the immune system is designed to kill them off before they have a chance to multiply and grow into tumors. However, an immune system overwhelmed by toxins may not do this effectively – hence, the development of cancer. Because cancer cells have a poorer tolerance to heat than healthy cells, infrared light is just the ticket to kill them off – and stop potential cancers in their tracks. Dr Rolf Issels, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Munich, notes that the heat produced in an infrared sauna can create “heat shock” proteins on the surfaces of cancer cells, causing them to be more vulnerable to attack by the immune system.   Heat therapy can help reduce the size of existing tumors   Research shows that heat therapy via infrared saunas activates natural killer cells, T-cells and macrophages – the body's natural cancer-fighting defense troops. Raising body heat can speed the death of tumors, as well as helping clear the body of carcinogens that contributed to their formation in the first place. Hyperthermia, or heat therapy, is acknowledged by the American Cancer Society as a “promising” way to improve cancer treatment, while the National Cancer Institute reports heat therapy has been shown to reduce tumor size is some cases. In a review published in Lancet Oncology in 2002, researchers noted that heat therapy has shown a beneficial effect in controlling certain types of cancer – such as breast cancer and malignant melanoma – and boosting survival rates in patients. But when it comes to treating cancer, an infrared sauna is not a magic bullet, or even a “single” bullet. It is merely one weapon in the cancer-fighting arsenal. Both mainstream and holistic practitioners agree: heat therapy must be combined with other forms of cancer treatment, for best results.   Infrared saunas use multiple actions to fight cancer   In addition to killing cancer cells outright, infrared saunas combat cancer by helping to improve oxygen-carrying blood flow – important because cancer cells can't thrive in high-oxygen environments. Infrared saunas also promote weight loss and fight obesity – another anti-cancer effect, due to the fact that cancer-producing hormones and carcinogens accumulate in fatty tissues. Other beneficial and chemoprotective effects of infrared sauna include increased wound healing, increased production of beneficial nitric oxide, and improved blood flow through dilation and widening of arteries.   Say “goodbye” to heavy metals and other dangerous toxins   Infrared saunas promote sweating that helps detoxify the body from heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, cadmium and nickel – along with industrial chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides. And they do it more effectively than traditional saunas. While sweat generated in a conventional hot rock sauna has been found to consist of 95 to 97 percent water, the sweat produced by infrared saunas contains only 80 to 85 percent water. This means that the remaining 15 to 20 percent of the sweat should represent toxins that have been cleared from the system. And this fact was proven, in spades – the remainder was found to be laden with toxins such as heavy metals, sulfuric acid, uric acid and excess sodium – demonstrating that infrared saunas are more effective at eliminating toxins from the body. And, by helping toxins exit the body via the skin, infrared heat helps relieve the eliminatory and detoxifying burden on the kidneys and liver. What's the difference between far infrared and near infrared saunas? Although both have therapeutic benefits, far and near infrared have some key differences. While far infrared saunas use metallic, ceramic or black carbon elements, near infrared lamp saunas utilize 250-watt incandescent red heat lamps – the same type that can be seen heating French fries at burger outlets. In addition, near infrared sauna rays penetrate the skin to a distance of 3 inches, while far infrared rays only penetrate 1.5 inches. Proponents of near infrared saunas point to their absence of EMFs – electromagnetic frequencies – as a benefit; Although proponents of far infrared saunas acknowledge their saunas emit more EMFs, they say the effect is negligible. In the end, only you can decide which is right for you. Of course, always consult a trusted, knowledgeable holistic practitioner before using either type of sauna – especially if you suffer from a chronic disease condition. When you have the go-ahead, plan to limit your initial sessions to 20 minutes maximum to avoid dehydration, dizziness and faintness. Then, relax in the healing, soothing and detoxifying rays.

Flavor your food with 'flavanols (flavan-3-ols)' to burn excess fat, new study suggests Dietary intake of flavanols (flavan-3-ols), type of dietary polyphenolics, could help prevent obesity by sympathetic nervous system-induced browning of fat tissue Shibaura Institute of Technology (Japan), December 13, 2021 In cold conditions, brown adipose tissue (BAT) or brown fat generates heat to keep the body warm. Compared with white adipose tissue, BAT has more mitochondria­—subcellular organelles associated with energy production—which allows it to burn calories and produce heat by activating the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (Ucp-1). The stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) after cold exposure, exercise, and calorie restriction is well known to induce fat browning. Dietary polyphenols may also activate BAT, causing heat to be dissipated from our bodies. BAT activation and white fat browning are thus both therapeutically significant in the fight against cardiovascular diseases and their comorbidities. (NEXT) Discrimination increases risk for mental health issues in young adults  University of California at Los Angeles, November 9, 2021 A UCLA study has found that young adults who have experienced discrimination have a higher risk for both short- and long-term behavioral and mental health problems. Researchers examined a decade's worth of health data on 1,834 Americans who were between 18 and 28 years old when the study began. They found that the effects of discrimination may be cumulative — that the greater number of incidents of discrimination someone experiences, the more their risk for mental and behavioral problems increases.   (NEXT) Saffron: A Safe and Effective Treatment for Postpartum Depression Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Iran)  December 11, 2021 In the journal Phytomedicine published the results of a clinical trial on saffron stigma for treating mothers suffering from postpartum depression. Saffron stigma are crimson-covered threads that are produced by the flowers of Crocus sativus L., commonly referred to as “saffron crocus.” In this study, researchers wanted to identify a non-pharmaceutical treatment option for breastfeeding mothers suffering from mild-to-moderate postpartum depressive disorder (PPD). Results showed that the saffron group experienced a 96% remission rate for postpartum depression, more than double the remission rate of placebo group. (NEXT) Regular exercise reduces the risk of and death from pneumonia, study suggests University of Bristol, December 7, 2021 People who exercise regularly can reduce their risk of developing and dying from pneumonia, new research has found.  The study, led by the University of Bristol and published in GeroScience, analysed, for the first time, ten population cohort studies with over one million participants. The study found people who exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing pneumonia and pneumonia-related death compared to those who were the least or not physically active. The relationship was shown for pneumonias that did not result in death and those that resulted in death. The results did not change on taking into account known factors that can affect pneumonia such as age, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic status, alcohol consumption, smoking, and pre-existing diseases. The strength of the association did not vary by age or sex. (NEXT) A daily dose of yoghurt could be the go-to food to manage high blood pressure University of South Australia and University of Maine, December 7, 2021 Whether it's a dollop on your morning cereal or a simple snack on the go, a daily dose of yoghurt could be the next go-to food for people with high blood pressure, according to new research from the University of South Australia. Conducted in partnership with the University of Maine, the study examined the associations between yoghurt intake, blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors, finding that yoghurt is associated with lower blood pressure for those with hypertension. (NEXT) Infrared sauna helps remove heavy metals and prevent cancer University of Munich, December 13, 2021 Research shows that heat therapy via infrared saunas activates natural killer cells, T-cells and macrophages – the body's natural cancer-fighting defense troops. Raising body heat can speed the death of tumors, as well as helping clear the body of carcinogens that contributed to their formation in the first place. Hyperthermia, or heat therapy, is acknowledged by the American Cancer Society as a “promising” way to improve cancer treatment, while the National Cancer Institute reports heat therapy has been shown to reduce tumor size is some cases. In a review published in Lancet Oncology , researchers noted that heat therapy has shown a beneficial effect in controlling certain types of cancer – such as breast cancer and malignant melanoma – and boosting survival rates in patients. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) Who Will Be Held Responsible for this Devastation? Jeffrey A. Tucker  If the pandemic policy response had taken the form of mere advice, we would not be in the midst of this social, economic, cultural, political disaster. What caused the wreckage was the application of political force that was baked into the pandemic response this time in a way that has no precedent in human history. The response relied on compulsion imposed by all levels of government. The policies in turn energized a populist movement, Covid Red Guard that became a civilian enforcement arm. They policed the grocery aisles to upbraid the maskless. Drones swarmed the skies looking for parties to rat out and shut down. A blood lust against non compliers came to be unleashed at all levels of society. Lockdowns granted some people meaning and purpose, the way war does for some people. The compulsion to bludgeon others trickled down from government to the people. Madness overtook rationality. Once this took place, there was no longer a question of “Two weeks to flatten the curve.” The mania to suppress the virus by ending person-to-person contact extended to two years. This happened in the US and all over the world. The madness achieved nothing positive because the virus paid no attention to the edicts and enforcers. Ending social and economic functioning, however, shattered lives in countless ways, and continues to do so. It is precisely because so much about life (and science) is uncertain that civilized societies operate on the presumption of the freedom to choose. That's a policy of humility: no one possesses enough expertise to presume the right to restrict other people's peaceful actions. But with lockdowns and the successor policy of vaccine mandates, we've seen not humility but astounding arrogance. The people who did this to us and to billions of people around the world were so darn sure of themselves that they would take recourse to police-state tactics to realize their goals, none of which came to be realized at all, despite every promise that this would be good for us. It's the compulsion that's the source of all the issues. Someone wrote the edicts at someone's behest. Someone imposed the orders. Those somebodies should be the people who should own the results, compensate the victims, and otherwise accept the consequences for what they have done. Who are they? Where are they? Why haven't they stepped up? If you are going to force people to behave a certain way – to close their businesses, kick people out of their homes, stay away from meetings, cancel vacations, physically separate everywhere – you have to be damn certain that it is the right thing to do. If the people who did this were so sure of themselves, why are they so shy to take responsibility? The question is pressing: who precisely bears the blame? Not just in general, but more precisely: who was willing to step up from the beginning to say “If this does not work, I accept full responsibility?” Or: “I did this and stand by it.” Or: “I did this and I'm very sorry.” So far as I know, no one has said anything like this. Instead, what we have is a big jumble of messy bureaucracies, committees, reports, and unsigned orders. There are certain systems in place that seem structured in a way that makes it impossible to find out who precisely is responsible for their design and implementation. For example, a friend of mine was being harassed by his school for not being vaccinated. He wanted to speak to the person who imposed the rule. In his investigation, everyone passed the buck. This person put together a committee which then agreed on best practices left over from some other printed guidance approved by another committee, which had been implemented by a similar institution on another matter. This was then adopted by a different division and passed on to another committee for implementation as a recommendation and then it was issued by another division entirely. Incredibly, throughout the whole investigation, he failed to find a single person who was willing to step up and say: I did this and it was my decision. Everyone had an alibi. It became one big mush of bureaucracy with no accountability. It's a tub of dough in which every bad actor pre-built a hiding place. It's the same with many people who have been disemployed for refusing to divulge their vaccine status. Their bosses typically say that they are very sorry for what happened; if it had been up to them, the person would continue to work. Their bosses in turn demur and blame some other policy or committee. No one is willing to speak to victims and say: “I did this and stand by it.” Like millions of others, I've been harmed materially by pandemic response. My story lacks drama and is nothing remotely close to what others have experienced but it is salient because it is personal. I was invited to join in a live studio appearance on TV but then was refused because I refused to divulge my vaccine status. I was sent to a separate studio reserved for the unclean where I sat by myself. The person who informed me said the policy was stupid and he objected. But it is the company policy. Maybe I can speak to his boss? Oh, he is against this stuff too. Everyone thinks it is dumb. Who then is responsible? The buck is always passed on and up in the chain of command but no one will accept the blame and bear the consequences. Even though the courts have repeatedly shot down the vaccine mandates, there is universal consensus that the vaccines, while perhaps offering some private benefits, are not contributing to stopping infections or spread. Which is to say: the only person who might suffer from being unvaccinated is the unvaccinated himself. And yet still, people are losing their jobs, missing out on public life, being segregated and blocked, and otherwise paying a heavy price for not complying. And yet there are still people who are intensifying the blame game that blames not government nor public health authorities nor anyone in particular but rather a whole class of people: the evil unvaccinated. “I am furious at the unvaccinated,” writes Charles Blow of the New York Times, a paper that kicked off the pro-lockdown propaganda as early as February 27, 2020. “I am not ashamed of disclosing that. I am no longer trying to understand them or educate them. The unvaccinated are choosing to be part of the problem.” How precisely are the unvaccinated the problem? Because, he writes,“it is possible to control the virus and mitigate its spread, if more people are vaccinated.” This is plainly untrue, as we've seen from many countries' experiences around the world. Look up Singapore or Gibraltar or Israel or any high vaxx country and see their case trends. They look the same or worse than low vaxx countries. We know from at least 33 studies that the vaccines cannot and do not stop infection or transmission, which is precisely why Pfizer and people like Anthony Fauci are demanding 3rd and now 4th shots. Shots without end, always with the promise that the next one will achieve the goal. Mr. Blow is propagating falsehoods. Why? Because there is an appetite out there to tag someone or something with the fault for the wreckage. The unvaccinated are the scapegoats to distract from the real problem of discovering and holding to account those people who undertook this experiment without precedent. The trouble now is finding out who they are. The governor of New York did terrible things but now he has resigned. His brother at CNN propagated lockdown ideology but he was fired. The mayor of New York has perpetrated evil but he is sneaking out of office in a few weeks. Some governors who locked down their populations have declined to run again and will try their best to disappear. Dr. Deborah Birx, whom we know for certain was the person who talked Trump into approving lockdowns, quietly resigned and has done her best to avoid the spotlight. The journalist at the New York Times who whipped up total hysteria while calling for brutal lockdown has since been fired from his job. So too for hundreds of public health officials who have resigned or been fired. Who is left to blame? The most likely candidate here is Fauci himself. But I can already tell you his excuse. He never signed a single order. His fingerprints are on no legislation. He never issued any edicts. He never had anyone arrested. He never blocked the entrance to any church nor personally padlocked any school or business. He is merely a scientist making recommendations supposedly for people's health. He has an alibi too. Much of this reminds me of World War I, the “Great War.” Look up the causes. They are all amorphous. Nationalism. An assassination. Treaties. Diplomatic confusions. The Serbs. Meanwhile none of these reasons can actually account for 20 million dead, 21 million wounded, and wrecked economies and lives all over the world, to say nothing of the Great Depression and rise of Hitler that came as a result of this appalling disaster. Despite investigations, countless books, public hearings, and public fury that lasted a decade or more after the Great War, there never was anyone who accepted responsibility. We saw a repeat of the same following the Iraq War. Is there any record of anyone who said “I made the decision and I was wrong”? So it might be for the lockdowns and mandates of 2020 and 2021. The carnage is unspeakable and will last a generation or two or more. Meanwhile, the people responsible are slowly slipping out of public life, finding new jobs and sanitizing their hands of any responsibility. They are scrubbing resumes and, when asked, blaming anyone and everyone else but themselves. This is the moment in which we find ourselves: a ruling class terrified of being found out, called out, and held accountable, and therefore incentivized to generate an endless series of excuses, scapegoats, and distractions (“You need another shot!”). This is the least satisfying conclusion to this awful story. But there it is: it is very likely that the people who did this to us will never be held accountable, not in any court and not in any legislative hearing. They will never be forced to compensate their victims. They will never even admit they were wrong. And herein lies what might be the most egregious feature of evil public policy: this is not and will not be justice or anything that even vaguely resembles justice. That is what history would suggest, in any case. If it is different this time and the perpetrators actually do face some consequences, it would still not make things right, but at least it would set a fabulous precedent for the future.

How vitamin D delivers on cardio health University of South Australia, December 6, 2021 Free from the sun, vitamin D delivers a natural source for one of the hormones essential to our bodies, especially the bones. But when you're down on this essential nutrient, it's not only your bones that could suffer, but also your cardio health, according to new research from the University of South Australia. In the first study of its kind, researchers from the UniSA's Australian Centre for Precision Health at SAHMRI have identified genetic evidence for a role of vitamin D deficiency in causing cardiovascular disease. The study, which is published in European Heart Journal today, shows that people with vitamin D deficiency are more likely to suffer from heart disease and higher blood pressure, than those with normal levels of vitamin D. For participants with the lowest concentrations the risk of heart disease was more than double that seen for those with sufficient concentrations. (NEXT) Sleep technique improves creative thinking A team of researchers working at Sorbonne Université, reports that people may be more creative if awoken just after falling asleep. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes experiments they conducted with sleeping volunteers. Thomas Edison and Salvador Dali were both known to use a certain sleep technique to increase their creativity. It involved thinking about a problem or set of circumstances and then placing an object in their hand as they lay down for a nap. As they drifted off, their hand relaxed and allowed the object to fall to the floor rousing them from their sleep. It was at that point, they both claimed, that inspiration came to them. In this new effort, the researchers tested this idea. Prior research has shown that in addition to REM sleep and deep sleep, most people experience a type of sleep known as N1—the short interval between being fully awake and fully asleep, a sort of twilight zone. It was this interval that the researchers set out to test. They recruited 103 healthy people who promised they had little difficulty falling asleep given the chance. (NEXT) Link between intestinal inflammation and microbiome Kiel University, November 30, 2021 Around 500 to 1,000 different types of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms colonize our intestines. All of them together form the intestinal microbiome. As we now know, these microbes play an important role in maintaining health. This is especially evident when the composition of the microbiome becomes unbalanced, as is the case in people with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. PD Dr. Felix Sommer and his team from the Cluster of Excellence Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI) are trying to better understand the complex interactions between the host and their microbiome. While doing so, they encountered an enzyme called hexokinase 2 (HK2). The HK2 enzyme is produced in greater quantities in the event of inflammation and is regulated by the microbiome. "We were able to show in the animal model that by administering the short-chain fatty acid butyrate, the HK2 levels in intestinal epithelial cells were lowered and inflammation was ameliorated. The protective effect of the fatty acid butyrate produced by bacteria was absent in animals where the HK2 enzyme was removed," explained Sommer, head of the Functional Host-Microbiome Research working group at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) at Kiel University (CAU) and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel. The results of the study have been published in the renowned scientific journal Cell Metabolism. (NEXT) Cognitive aging: Work helps our brain University of Padua (Italy), December 9, 2021 A recent study shows that work plays an active role in keeping our brains healthy. "We have demonstrated the role of working activity on cognitive performance". Professor Raffaella Rumiati says. From our analysis it emerges that the type of work activity also contributes to the differences in normal and pathological cognitive aging”. The analysis surprisingly shows that occupation is a good predictor of participants' performance in addition to age and education, two factors that have been already studied. (NEXT) Dementia risk reduced by eating grapes, according to UCLA researchers University of California at Los Angeles,   December 12, 2021 Evidence has emerged that ordinary grapes – one of the most loved (refreshing) snacks – can be a powerful ally against dementia. Researchers found that grapes can have significant effects on preventing cognitive decline in older adults – and may even help prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease. In a placebo-controlled study published in January in Experimental Gerontology, men and women with mild cognitive decline were given either freeze-dried grape powder or a placebo daily for six months. PET scans were used to evaluate cognitive performance and changes in brain metabolism, both before and after treatment. (NEXT) A diet rich in plant-based products reduces the risk of cognitive impairment in the elderly University of Barcelona (Spain), December 9, 2021 A diet rich in plant products reduces the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in the elderly. This European study, part of the Joint Programming Initiative "A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life" (JPI HDHL), was carried out over 12 years with the participation of 842 people aged over 65 in the Bordeaux and Dijon regions (France). The study analyses the relationship between the metabolism of dietary components, intestinal microbiota, endogenous metabolism and cognitive impairment. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) Voicemail: ‪(862) 800-6805 

CoQ10 may help blood sugar management in people with MetS Kashan University of Medical Sciences (Iran), December 5, 2021 Daily supplements of coenzyme Q10 may produce beneficial effects on insulin and blood sugar management in people with metabolic syndrome, says a new study. Writing in the PubMed-listed European Journal of Nutrition , researchers from Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Iran report that CoQ10 supplementation was also associated with significant improvements in serum insulin levels, insulin resistance (measured using the homeostatic model assessment: HOMA-IR), and beta-cell function (homeostatic model assessment-beta cell function: HOMA-B). Results showed that participants in the CoQ10 group experienced significant improvements in insulin levels, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-B, while there was also a trend to improved levels of glutathione and reduced levels of malondialdehyde, a reactive carbonyl compound that is a marker of oxidative stress. (NEXT) Eucalyptus compound effective at treating lung damage  University of Melbourne & Monash University (Australia), December 4, 2021 University of Melbourne-led research has shown the flavonoid pinocembrin, derived from Australian eucalyptus trees, has strong anti-inflammatory properties and could be safe and effective at treating lung fibrosis in sheep, a large animal model for human lung disease. Pinocembrin, a flavonoid found in several different type of trees including pine trees and eucalyptus, has been reported to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-cancer properties. "We found that pinocembrin improved lung function, attenuated lung inflammation, and decreased overall pathology scores compared to damaged lungs that were untreated," Dr. Derseh said. "We saw striking anti-inflammatory effects and modest anti-fibrotic remodeling after four weeks of administering pinocembrin." "In lung fluid samples, inflammatory cells called neutrophils dropped from 7.4 percent of total cells to 3.7 percent in the pinocembrin-treated bleomycin-injured lung segments." (NEXT) Study links high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease to plastics University of California at Riverside, December 2, 2021 Plastics, part of modern life, are useful but can pose a significant challenge to the environment and may also constitute a health concern. Indeed, exposure to plastic-associated chemicals, such as base chemical bisphenol A and phthalate plasticizers, can increase the risk of human cardiovascular disease. What underlying mechanisms cause this, however, remain elusive. A team led by Changcheng Zhou, a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside, now raises the hopes of solving the mystery. In a mouse study, the researchers found a phthalate—a chemical used to make plastics more durable—led to increased plasma cholesterol levels. (NEXT) Environmentally sustainable diet linked to health benefits Lund University (Sweden), December 9, 2021 A large population study from Lund University in Sweden has shown that more sustainable dietary habits are linked to health benefits, such as a reduced risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The study is published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "Our results indicate that dietary guidelines that are beneficial for both planetary health and personal health do exist," says Anna Stubbendorff, doctoral student at Lund University and first author of the study. The EAT-Lancet Commission report describes how the world must transform its food production and consumption if the Earth's already fragile environment and scarce resources are to suffice for 10 billion people in 2050. The report covered six different areas: climate impact, water use, biodiversity, phosphorus and nitrogen use and acidification. (NEXT) Move Over, Wheat! Rye Bread Is Better for Weight Loss Chalmers University (Sweden), December 2, 2021 New research from Chalmers University in Sweden found that dieters who consumed whole-grain rye lost more weight than those who went for refined wheat. In the 12-week-long study, 242 overweight or obese participants were randomly selected to eat either high fiber rye products or refined wheat products in addition to a hypocaloric diet. Those in the rye group lost an average of 6.4 lbs. and more body fat compared to those in the wheat group, who only lost 4 lbs. "Why rye?" On average, a slice of rye bread is relatively low in calories (around 83 calories) and packed with beneficial nutrients like, folate, iron, copper, niacin and vitamin B6. (NEXT) Vitamins C and E associated with decreased inflammation in diabetics Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (Iran), December 30 2015. The Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine published the finding of a trial conducted by Iranian researchers of anti-inflammatory effects of vitamin C and vitamin E in male diabetics. It is possible to control insulin resistance and diabetes by modulating inflammatory cytokines and adipokines using chemical drugs or supplementary micronutrients. (NEXT) What's really wrong with the mainstream media Robert Reich,   The Guardian, December 9, 2021 I'm often asked how I keep up with the news. Obviously, I avoid the unhinged rightwing outlets pushing misinformation, disinformation and poisonous lies. But I've also grown wary of the mainstream media – not because it peddles “fake news” but because of three more subtle biases. First, it often favors the status quo. Mainstream journalists wanting to appear serious about public policy rip into progressives for the costs of their proposals, but never ask self-styled “moderates” how they plan to cope with the costs of doing nothing or doing too little about the same problems. A Green New Deal might be expensive but doing nothing about the climate crisis will almost certainly cost far more. Medicare for All will cost a lot, but the price of doing nothing about America's cruel and dysfunctional healthcare system will soon be in the stratosphere. (NEXT) A massive 8-year effort finds that much cancer research can't be replicated SCIENCE NEWS, DECEMBER 7, 2021  After eight years, a project that tried to reproduce the results of key cancer biology studies has finally concluded. And its findings suggest that like research in the social sciences, cancer research has a replication problem. Researchers with the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology aimed to replicate 193 experiments from 53 top cancer papers published from 2010 to 2012. But only a quarter of those experiments were able to be reproduced, the team reports in two papers published December 7 in eLife. The researchers couldn't complete the majority of experiments because the team couldn't gather enough information from the original papers or their authors about methods used, or obtain the necessary materials needed to attempt replication. What's more, of the 50 experiments from 23 papers that were reproduced, effect sizes were, on average, 85 percent lower than those reported in the original experiments. Effect sizes indicate how big the effect found in a study is. For example, two studies might find that a certain chemical kills cancer cells, but the chemical kills 30 percent of cells in one experiment and 80 percent of cells in a different experiment. The first experiment has less than half the effect size seen in the second one. (NEXT) Bayer executive: mRNA shots are ‘gene therapy' marketed as ‘vaccines' to gain public trust ‘We probably would have had a 95% refusal rate' for these shots two years ago, but the pandemic and marketing of the injections as ‘vaccines' has made them popular with the public, said Stefan Oelrich. LIFESITE, Wed Nov 10, 2021 The president of Bayer's Pharmaceuticals Division told international “experts” during a globalist health conference that the mRNA COVID-19 shots are indeed “cell and gene therapy” marketed as “vaccines” to be palatable to the public. Stefan Oelrich, president of Bayer's Pharmaceuticals Division, made these comments at this year's World Health Summit, which took place in Berlin from October 24-26 and hosted 6,000 people from 120 countries. Oelrich told his fellow international “experts” from academia, politics, and the private sector that the novel mRNA COVID “vaccines” are actually “cell and gene therapy” that would have otherwise been rejected by the public if not for a “pandemic” and favorable marketing. (NEXT) VAERS Data Indicates the Covid Vaccines Have Killed At Least 140,000 Americans Vasko Kohlmayer.  American Thinker, December 9, 2021 To get an idea of just how dangerous the current Covid vaccines are, we only need to look at the numbers in the government-authorized VAERS database. If we, then, adjust our VEARS number for this variable, we will obtain the result of 140,616 (3,906 x 36). This would represent the number of Americans killed by the Covid vaccines in a period of fewer than 12 months starting in mid-December 2020 through November 26, 2021. Please keep in mind that the above is a very conservative estimate, which we have arrived at by assuming a 20 percent causality link in reported death entries in the VAERS database and the underreporting factor of 36. This, however, is likely a gross understatement of the actual situation. Using less conservative assumptions, many researchers have come up with a higher death toll. Steve Kirsch, Jessica Rose, and Mathew Crawford, for example, estimated in their paper that the vaccines have likely claimed 150,000 lives as of August 28, 2021. If we use the underreporting factor of 100 (one hundred) advocated by David A. Kessler, Ronald Kostoff, and the Department of Health and Human Services we would arrive at the figure of 390,600 deaths attributable to the vaccines. (NEXT) Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS): 'We should anticipate seeing this immune erosion more widely' FRONTLINE NEWS, Dec 05, 2021 'If immune erosion occurs after two doses and just a few months, how can we exclude the possibility that effects of an untested "booster" will not erode more rapidly and to a greater extent?' A Lancet study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Sweden was conducted among 1.6 million individuals over nine months. It showed that protection against symptomatic COVID-19 declined with time, such that by six months, some of the more vulnerable vaccinated groups were at greater risk than their unvaccinated peers. Doctors are calling this phenomena in the repeatedly vaccinated “immune erosion” or “acquired immune deficiency”, accounting for elevated incidence of myocarditis and other post-vaccine illnesses that either affect them more rapidly, resulting in death, or more slowly, resulting in chronic illness. First, these vaccines “mis-train” the immune system to recognize only a small part of the virus (the spike protein). Variants that differ, even slightly, in this protein are able to escape the narrow spectrum of antibodies created by the vaccines. Second, the vaccines create “vaccine addicts,” meaning persons become dependent upon regular booster shots, because they have been “vaccinated” only against a tiny portion of a mutating virus. Australian Health Minister Dr. Kerry Chant has stated that COVID will be with us forever and people will “have to get used to” taking endless vaccines. “This will be a regular cycle of vaccination and revaccination.” Third, the vaccines do not prevent infection in the nose and upper airways, and vaccinated individuals have been shown to have much higher viral loads in these regions. This leads to the vaccinated becoming “super-spreaders” as they carry extremely high viral loads. In addition, the vaccinated become more clinically ill than the unvaccinated. Scotland reported that the infection fatality rate in the vaccinated is 3.3 times the unvaccinated, and the risk of death if hospitalized is 2.15 times the unvaccinated. Indefinite uncontrolled autoimmune response to the coronavirus spike protein may produce a wave of antibodies called anti-idiotype antibodies or Ab2s that continue to damage human bodies long after clearing either Sars-Cov-2 itself or those spike proteins that the shots cause the body's cells to produce, explained former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson. Spike protein antibodies may themselves produce a second wave of antibodies, called anti-idiotype antibodies or Ab2s. Those Ab2s may modulate the immune system's initial response by binding with and destroying the first wave of antibodies. “While some are concerned that blood IgG antibodies fall with time, I am not convinced that this is a relevant measure,” Yeadon continued. "Respiratory virus infection begins in the lungs and nasopharynx. Neither are protected by blood antibodies, which are molecules too large to diffuse into airways tissue. What protects against infection and initial viral replication is secretory IgA antibodies and T-cells in airways, neither of which have been studied in any efficacy trial. "The empirical data are very worrying. In most countries now, high fractions of the population have been vaccinated. If the Swedish study is a guide, we should anticipate seeing this immune erosion more widely. The most concerning aspect of that study is that those most in need of protection are those in whom immune erosion is most marked: the elderly, males, and those with comorbidities. "Some have used the results of this study to support the widespread use of so-called ‘booster' shots. It has to be said: No one has any safety data about such a plan. If immune erosion occurs after two doses and just a few months, how can we exclude the possibility that effects of an untested ‘booster' will not erode more rapidly and to a greater extent? And what then would be the response? A fourth injection. Madness. Yeadon concluded: "Europe is all but gone. The lights are going out. Austria and Germany now subject their unvaccinated to house arrest. In Greece, the unvaccinated are subject to escalating fines, non-payment of which is converted into prison time. In Lithuania, the unvaccinated are excluded from society. The booster campaigns are running full-pelt everywhere. “Someone, somewhere knows what's going to happen. Will immunity-erosion worsen more speedily and to a greater extent after this untested ‘booster'? The U.K. government has already said that the fourth injection is to take place a mere three months after the third. It's utter madness. Yet such is the hermetic control of media that nothing much emerges into the public consciousness.”

Compounds in leafy green vegetables could help prevent cognitive decline Rush University Medical Center, December 2, 2021.  Rush University Medical Center analyzed data from 960 participants between the ages of 58 and 99 years in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Individuals whose intake of leafy green vegetables including spinach, kale/collards/greens, and lettuce, was among the top 20% of subjects at a median of 1.3 servings per day had a rate of cognitive decline over follow-up that was significantly slower than that of subjects' whose intake was among the lowest 20% at 0.1 servings per day. The authors compared the difference to that of someone 11 years younger. When individual nutrients contained in leafy vegetables were analyzed, having an intake among the top 20% of intake of phylloquinone (vitamin K1), lutein, folate, alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E), nitrate and kaempferol were each associated with slower cognitive decline in comparison with an intake that was among the lowest fifth. The authors concluded that “Consumption of approximately 1 serving per day of green leafy vegetables and foods rich in phylloquinone, lutein, nitrate, folate, alpha-tocopherol, and kaempferol may help to slow cognitive decline with aging.” (NEXT) Keto diet may not work for women University of California at Riverside, December 8, 2021 Scientists from UC Riverside are studying how the popular keto and intermittent fasting diets work on a molecular level, and whether both sexes benefit from them equally. The idea behind the keto diet is that low levels of carbohydrates and very high levels of fat and protein will force the body to use fat as fuel, resulting in weight loss. Legions of people swear by it, and innumerable companies produce foods designed for those people. Intermittent fasting operates on a similar principle, restricting eating to a small window of time during the day. During the hours without food, the body exhausts its stores of sugar and switches to burning fat. The fat gets converted to ketone bodies that the brain can use as fuel. (NEXT) Better exercise performance and increased intake of nutrients that support healthy inflammation linked to reduced inflammaging in older adults Collegium Medicum University of Zielona Gora (Poland), December 1 2021. Research reported in Nutrients revealed an association between decreased indicators of chronic inflammation and greater intake of nutrients that help maintain inflammation at a healthy level combined with better walking performance in an older population. The study included 60 men and women aged 65 and older. Dietary recall responses were evaluated to determine the intake of the anti-inflammatory vitamins A, C, D and E and beta-carotene, as well as fatty acids omega 3 (which has shown anti-inflammatory effects) and omega 6 (associated with inflammation when intake is high). Physical performance was evaluated using six-minute walk tests. Blood samples were analyzed for the inflammation markers serum C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukins 1beta, 6, 8 and 13, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and circulating free DNA, and the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 10. (NEXT) Microplastics found to be harmful to human cells, new study shows University of York (UK), December 8, 2021 High levels of ingested microplastics in the human body have the potential to have harmful effects, a new study reveals. This is the first-time scientists have attempted to quantify the effects of the levels of microplastics on human cells using a statistical analysis of the available published studies. “What we have found is that in toxicology tests, we are seeing reactions including cell death and allergic reactions as potential effects of ingesting or inhaling high levels of microplastics.” These studies focused on microplastic contamination of drinking water, seafood and table salt and revealed high levels of human exposure to microplastics from consuming these. (NEXT) A handful of nuts a day reduces major disease risk: Review Imperial College of London, December 5, 2021 Eating at least 20 grams of nuts a day could cut the chances of dying from respiratory disease by about a half and diabetes by nearly 40%, researchers say. The study, which establishes the benefits of nut consumption on cardiovascular conditions, also found convincing data of the food's effect on other diseases. “We found a consistent reduction in risk across many different diseases,” said study co-author Dr Dagfinn Aune from Imperial College London's school of public health. (NEXT) Pandemic worriers shown to have impaired general cognitive abilities McGill University (Quebec), December 5, 2021 A new study finds the pandemic may have also impaired people's cognitive abilities and altered risk perception, at a time when making the right health choices is critically important. Scientists at McGill University and The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) surveyed more than 1,500 Americans online from April to June, 2020. Participants were asked to rate their level of worry about the COVID-19 pandemic and complete a battery of psychological tests to measure their basic cognitive abilities like processing and maintaining information in mind.

Grape seed extract found to extend lifespan of old mice Chinese Academy of Sciences and Mayo Clinic, December 7, 2021 A team of researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in China and the U.S. has found that injecting procyanidin C1 (PCC1), a chemical found in grape seed extract, into older mice extended their lifespan. In their paper published in the journal Nature Metabolism, the group describes the link between PCC1 and extended lifespan in mice and the experiments they carried out with the material. The researchers screened 46 plant extracts looking for anti-aging capabilities. They came across PCC1. Initial tests during screening showed it reduced the number of senescent cells in the human prostate. Such cells are known to contribute to aging. Intrigued with their results, the researchers tested it further. They found that at low doses it prevented senescent cells from contributing to inflammation, and at higher doses killed them outright without harming other cells. (NEXT) Gratitude may improve your health University of Michigan and University of California, San Francisco, December 6, 2021 Be thankful for what you have—it might improve your physical and mental health, according to a new global study that uses cell phone data. People who were more grateful had lower blood pressure and heart rate, as well as greater feelings of appreciation toward others. The study found that optimism was also linked to health and mental benefits, such as better sleep quality and more positive expectations and reflections. The findings showed that gratitude and optimism are positive psychological dispositions associated with beneficial outcomes. Gratitude highlighted the positive aspects of the day, whereas optimism minimized the negative aspects of the day, the study indicated. In addition, optimism was a better predictor of sleep quality and stress frequency and intensity than gratitude. (NEXT) Higher physical activity is associated with a better metabolic health risk factor profile in menopausal women University of Jyvaskyla (Finland), November 29, 2021 A study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä shows that menopausal transition is associated with unfavourable changes in metabolic health that may be mitigated with a physically active lifestyle. Especially, physical activity alleviated the increase in systolic blood pressure. In the study, the women were divided into three groups based on the change in their menopausal status during the follow-up period and the groups were compared to each other. Body composition, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood lipids and glucose and physical activity were measured twice during the four-year follow-up time. In all groups, the levels of several metabolic health indicators deteriorated. (NEXT) Could glucosamine and chondroitin support a healthy colon? Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, December 6, 2021 Use of the supplements, which are used for joint health support, was associated with a 23% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer, according to data from the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study published in the International Journal of Cancer . “Results of this study suggest a potential beneficial effect of glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation on risk of colorectal cancer, and further support the previously observed association between use of these supplements and risk of colorectal cancer in the VITAL study,” wrote the researchers. “Additional study is needed to better understand the association between use of glucosamine and chondroitin and risk of colorectal cancer, and the mechanisms by which these supplements may affect risk of colorectal cancer.” (NEXT) Cannabis impacts sperm counts, motility in two generations of mice Washington State University, December 2, 2021 An intense but short-term exposure to cannabis vapor lowered sperm counts and slowed sperm movement, or motility, not only in the directly exposed male mice but also in their sons. The Washington State University study, published in the journal Toxicological Sciences, builds on other human and animal studies, showing that cannabis can impede male reproductive function. The current study uses more controlled circumstances than human studies, which often have to rely on surveys, and is the first known reproductive study to use vaporized whole cannabis in mice, which is the more common form humans use. (NEXT) Study suggests giving kids too many toys stifles their creativity University of Toledo, December 6, 2021 A team of researchers at the University of Toledo has found that children are more creative when they have fewer toys to play with at one time. In their paper published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development, the group describes their observational study of toddlers at play, what they learned and offer some suggestions for parents. The researchers found that the toddlers playing with four toys engaged in more creative activities than did the toddlers who had 16 toys to choose from. They also found, unsurprisingly, that toddlers with fewer options tended to play with each of the toys available to them for a longer amount of time. Much of that additional time, the researchers noted, was taken up with finding news ways to play with them. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) TO WATCH THE VIDEO PART OF THE GARY NULL SHOW GO TO PROGRESSIVERADIONETWORK.COM (NEXT) Rap Sheets for Pfizer and J&J PFIZER Rejected the government for distributing the vaccine… will do it itself CEO Albert Bouria – before reining the closing bell at stock exchange.. stated that those who do not vaccinated will be the weak links in stopping the pandemic Pfizer – second largest drug/biotech co in world – 4th highest earner in vaccines Product safety – it is heart valves were defected and caused a hundred deaths – investigation found company intentionally misled regulators knowing about hazards Celebrex.. in wake of vioxx – painkiller.. admitted in its trials the drug increased heart problems.  Settled 894 million – for Celebrex and Bextra (painkiller that causes cardio and GI risks) More recent – 1000 lawsuits or birth defects associated with its drug Zolof… Price fixing – as far back as 1950s with antibiotics. Such as tetracycline Price fixing over the years… AIDS drug, Lipitor (cholesterol drug) In 2016 the Justice Department announced that Pfizer would pay $784 million to settle allegations that it underpaid rebates to Medicaid on two of its drugs. 20 million paid to 4500 doctors for speaking on behalf of its drugs Busted for false Centrum claims for breast and colon health Racketeering fraud over Neurtonin – epilepsy drug Bribery – payments to foreign government officials.. and  bribing overseas doctors to increase foreign sales Selling off label Kickbacks from medicare Tax avoidance – using paper work to “relocate” to Ireland , tax haven Repeatedly paid fines for environmental violations at its research and manufacturing plants. In 2009 - dubious distinction of paying the largest-ever criminal fine at the time — $2.3 billion — for fraudulent and illegal promotion of four drugs, including a painkiller marketed at “dangerously high” doses. In 2016, a British regulator levied a $106 million fine against Pfizer for a 2600% increase in the price of a widely prescribed anti-epilepsy drug that increased the National Health Services' expenditures from one year to the next — for a single drug—from $2.5 million to $63 million. Pfizer is the top drug company spender in state elections, even outspending the industry's own lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRM). In 2014 Pfizer launched an effort to take over AstraZeneca that was designed not only to swallow a competitor but also to cut its tax bill by locating the headquarters of the combined operation in Britain. When AstraZeneca resisted the controversial move, Pfizer abandoned the bid. Then in November 2015 Pfizer announced a similar deal, worth $160 billion, to merge with Allergan and move the headquarters of the combined company to Ireland. The plan was dropped when the Obama Administration introduced new tax rules. JOHNSON AND JOHNSON In 2004 J&J agreed to pay up to $90 million to settle lawsuits linking the prescription heartburn medication Propulsid to several hundred deaths and many more cases of cardiac irregularity. During 2009 and 2010 the company had to announce a string of recalls of medications, contact lenses and hip implants. The most serious of these was the massive recall of more than 136 million bottles of liquid Tylenol and Motrin for infants and children after batches of the medications were found to be contaminated with metal particles. The company's handling of the matter was so poor that J&J subsidiary McNeil-PPC became the subject of a criminal investigation and later entered a guilty plea and paid a criminal fine of $20 million and forfeited $5 million. It also came out during a Congressional investigation of the matter that in 2008 J&J had engaged in what was labeled a "phantom recall." When faced with Motrin IB caplets that were not dissolving property, McNeil hired contractors to buy up the products in stores while making no announcement to the public. In 2013 J&J reached a deal with plaintiffs lawyers under which it would pay nearly $2.5 billion in compensation to an estimated 8,000 people who had received flawed hip implants. In 2016 two juries awarded a total of $127 million damages to women who sued J&J claiming that their ovarian cancer was caused by the talc in J&J Baby Powder. An award of $417 million was made by a California jury in 2017 and a verdict of more than $4 billion was awarded in Missouri in 2018 (an appeal court later reduced that to $2.1 billion). The New York Times reported in December 2018 that internal company memos from the 1970s discussed the possibility that its talcum powder could contain asbestos. In 1996 J&J reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission under which the company agreed to stop making what the agency called false claims about the failure rates of condoms in the marketing of its K-Y spermicidal lubricant. In 2010 J&J subsidiaries Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen had to pay $81 million to settle charges that they promoted the epilepsy drug Topamax for uses not approved as safe by the Food and Drug Administration The following year, J&J subsidiary Scios Inc. had to pay $85 million to settle similar charges relating to its heart failure drug Natrecor. In 2013 the Justice Department announced that J&J and several of its subsidiaries would pay more than $2.2 billion in criminal fines and civil settlements to resolve allegations that the company had marketed its anti-psychotic medication Risperdal and other drugs for unapproved uses as well as allegations that they had paid kickbacks to physicians and pharmacists to encourage off-label usage In a related Risperdal civil lawsuit, a jury later awarded $8 billion in damages but a Philadelphia judge reduced that by more than 99 percent to $6.8 million. In 2019 J&J and its subsidiary Ethicon, Inc. agreed to pay over $116 million to 41 states and the District of Columbia to settle litigation alleging deceptive marketing of transvaginal surgical mesh devices. In a separate suit brought by California, a state judge ordered the company to pay $344 million. In 2021 J&J reached an agreement with a group of states under which it would pay $5 billion to resolve litigation brought against its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals alleging improper sale of pain medications, contributing to the national opioid epidemic. In 2001 J&J agreed to pay up to $860 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company had misled consumers into prematurely throwing away disposable Acuvue contact lenses. The suits argued that the company drove up sales of its 1-Day Acuvue soft lenses by recommending that consumers use them only once, even though the product was identical to regular Acuvue lenses, which could be worn as long as two weeks. In 2011 J&J agreed to pay a $21.4 million criminal penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department resolving allegations of improper payments by J&J subsidiaries to government officials in Greece, Poland and Romania in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (NEXT) Weapons trade booms as profits hit record $531bn in 2020 Swedish think tank says world's 100 biggest arms firms were largely shielded from the effect of the pandemic. AL JAZEERA. 6 Dec 2021 Sales of weapons and military services by the world's 100 biggest arms companies reached a record $531bn in 2020, an increase of 1.3 per cent in real terms compared with the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The Swedish think tank said 2020 marked the sixth consecutive year of sales growth by the top 100 firms, and came even as the global economy shrank. Overall sales were 17 percent higher than in 2015 when it first included data on Chinese firms. “The industry giants were largely shielded by sustained government demand for military goods and services,” Alexandra Marksteiner, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said in a statement on Monday. “In much of the world, military spending grew and some governments even accelerated payments to the arms industry in order to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.” Firms in the United States continue to dominate the industry, with total sales of $285bn from 41 companies accounting for about 54 percent of all arms sales among the 100 biggest companies. The top five companies in the ranking since 2018 have all been based in the US, SIPRI said. Arms sales from the top Chinese firms amounted to an estimated $66.8bn in 2020, 1.5 percent more than in 2019. Chinese firms accounted for 13 percent of the Top 100 arms sales' total, ahead of the United Kingdom, which had the third-largest share. “In recent years, Chinese arms companies have benefited from the country's military modernization programmes and focus on military-civil fusion,” said Nan Tian, SIPRI senior researcher. “They have become some of the most advanced military technology producers in the world.” The seven UK companies recorded arms sales of $37.5bn in 2020, up by 6.2 percent compared with 2019. Arms sales by BAE Systems – the sole European firm in the top 10 – increased by 6.6 percent to $24bn. (NEXT) You'd Better Watch Out: The Surveillance State Has a Naughty List, and You're On It John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead, December 7, 2021 No longer does the all-knowing, all-seeing, jolly Old St. Nick need to rely on antiquated elves on shelves and other seasonal snitches in order to know when you're sleeping or awake, and if you've been naughty or nice. Thanks to the government's almost limitless powers made possible by a domestic army of techno-tyrants, fusion centers and Peeping Toms, Santa can get real-time reports on who's been good or bad this year. This creepy new era of government/corporate spying—in which we're being listened to, watched, tracked, followed, mapped, bought, sold and targeted—makes the NSA's rudimentary phone and metadata surveillance appear almost antiquated in comparison. Tracking you based on your health status. In the age of COVID-19, digital health passports are gaining traction as gatekeepers of a sort, restricting access to travel, entertainment, etc., based on one's vaccine status. Whether or not one has a vaccine passport, however, individuals may still have to prove themselves “healthy” enough to be part of society. For instance, in the wake of Supreme Court rulings that paved the way for police to use drug-sniffing dogs as “search warrants on leashes,” government agencies are preparing to use virus-detecting canine squads to carry out mass screenings to detect individuals who may have COVID-19. Researchers claim the COVID-sniffing dogs have a 95% success rate of identifying individuals with the virus (except when they're hungry, tired or distracted). These dogs are also being to trained to ferret out individuals suffering from other health ailments such as cancer. Tracking you based on your face: Facial recognition software aims to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, facial recognition technology allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone's movements in real-time. One particularly controversial software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sitesfor inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one's unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is becoming the standard for navigating security lines, as well as bypassing digital locks and gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. In fact, greater numbers of travelers are opting into programs that rely on their biometrics in order to avoid long waits at airport security. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome. Tracking you based on your behavior: Rapid advances in behavioral surveillance are not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one's behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart “anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data. Tracking you based on your spending and consumer activities: With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases—whether at the grocer's, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store—and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we're helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time. Consumer surveillance, by which your activities and data in the physical and online realms are tracked and shared with advertisers, has become big business, a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as Target have not only been tracking and assessing the behavior of their customers, particularly their purchasing patterns, for years, but the retailer has also funded major surveillance in cities across the country and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone's mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief. Tracking you based on your public activities: Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies throughout the country have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. They are also engaging in extensive online surveillance, looking for any hints of “large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals.” Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such “suspicious” behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot's license as “suspicious activity.” Tracking you based on your social media activities: Every move you make, especially on social media, is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. As The Intercept reported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. As Helen A.S. Popkin, writing for NBC News, observed, “We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal ‘Game of Thrones' downloads… the new software has the potential to roll, Terminator-style, targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.” Tracking you based on your phone and online activities: Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up a steady stream of digital location data on users' movements and travels. Police have used cell-site simulators to carry out mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant. Moreover, federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities and “see” whatever you're seeing on your monitor. Malicious hacking software can also be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones, offering another means of glimpsing into the personal business of a target. Tracking you based on your social network: Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one's social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. An FBI document obtained by Rolling Stone speaks to the ease with which agents are able to access address book data from Facebook's WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. What this creates is a “guilt by association” society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book. Tracking you based on your car: License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. With tens of thousands of these license plate readers now in operation throughout the country, affixed to overpasses, cop cars and throughout business sectors and residential neighborhoods, it allows police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. Of course, the technology is not infallible: there have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint. Tracking you based on your mail: Just about every branch of the government—from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between—now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans' texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service's law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid “potentially volatile situations.” Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Contact tracing apps. What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears. Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother. Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by a vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops. In an age of overcriminalization, mass surveillance, and an appalling lack of protections for our privacy rights, we can all be considered guilty of some transgression or other. So you'd better watch out—you'd better not pout—you'd better not cry—‘cos I'm telling you why: this Christmas, it's the Surveillance State that's coming to town, and you're already on its naughty list. (NEXT) Vitamin D: Government Should Have Promoted to Combat Pandemic Joel S. Hirschhorn, December 06, 2021 There seems to be an endless refusal by the public health establishment to fight the pandemic with the best science-based tools.  Instead, they keep pushing vaccines. Great German research provides unequivocal medical evidence that the government should be strongly advocating two actions: 1. Take vitamin D supplements and 2. Have your blood tested for vitamin D. The title for this October 2021 journal article says it all: “COVID-19 Mortality Risk Correlates Inversely with Vitamin D3 Status, and a Mortality Rate Close to Zero Could Theoretically Be Achieved at 50 ng/mL 25(OH)D3: Results of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”  [25(OH)D3 refers to metabolite of the vitamin in blood] In other words, there is clear evidence that the lower your vitamin D level the greater your risk of dying from COVID infection.  Moreover, the data clearly show that you need a blood level of at least 50 ng/mL. Odds are, however, that very, very few people have been tested for their vitamin D level.  This is a situation where waiting for testing is not the prudent approach.  Vitamin D pills are pretty cheap and it is perfectly safe to take a healthy daily dose to maintain a good immune system.  I take 4,000 IUs twice daily. Here are a number of highlights from this research and other sources; the discussion is aimed at informing people with information not provided by Big Media, Big Government and Big Pharma. Vitamin D is an accurate predictor of COVID infection.  Its deficiency is just as significant, and perhaps more so, than more commonly discussed underlying medical conditions, including obesity. To be clear, there is a level of vitamin D for an effective strategy at the personal and population level to prevent or mitigate new surges and outbreaks of COVID that are related to reduced vaccine effectiveness and new variants. In the German study, fifteen other studies were cited that showed low vitamin D levels were related to cases of severe COVID infection, and seven studies that found positive results from treating ill patients with the vitamin. The German study noted: “The finding that most SARS-CoV-2 patients admitted to hospitals have vitamin D3 blood levels that are too low is unquestioned even by opponents of vitamin D supplementation.” The German study “followed 1,601 hospitalized patients, 784 who had their vitamin D levels measured within a day after admission and 817 whose vitamin D levels were known before infection.  And the researchers also analyzed the long-term average vitamin D3 levels documented for 19 countries.  The observed median vitamin D value over all collected study cohorts was 23.2 ng/mL, which is clearly too low to work effectively against COVID.” Why does this vitamin work so well?  The German study explained: A main cause of a severe reaction from COVID results from a “cytokine storm.” This refers to the body's immune system releasing too many toxic cytokines as part of the inflammatory response to the virus.  Vitamin D is a main regulator of those cells.  A low level of the vitamin means a greater risk for a cytokine storm.  This is especially pertinent for lung problems from COVID. Other studies On a par with the German study was an important US medical article from May 2021: Vitamin D and Its Potential Benefit for the COVID-19 Pandemic.  It noted: “Experimental studies have shown that vitamin D exerts several actions that are thought to be protective against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infectivity and severity.  … There are a growing number of data connecting COVID-19 infectivity and severity with vitamin D status, suggesting a potential benefit of vitamin D supplementation for primary prevention or as an adjunctive treatment of COVID-19.  … there is no downside to increasing vitamin D intake and having sensible sunlight exposure to maintain serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D at a level of least 30 ng/mL and preferably 40 to 60 ng/mL to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection and its severity.” This confirms the German study and its finding of a critical vitamin level of 50 ng/mL. Daniel Horowitz has made this correct observation about vitamin D supplementation: “An endless stream of academic research demonstrates that not only would such an approach have worked much better than the vaccines, but rather than coming with sundry known and unknown negative side effects.“ There are now 142 studies vouching for the near-perfect correlation between higher vitamin D levels and better outcomes in COVID patients. From Israel came work that showed 25% of hospitalized COVID patients with vitamin D deficiency died compared to just 3% among those without a deficiency.  And those with a deficiency were 14 times more likely to end up with a severe or critical condition. Also from Israel, data on 1,176 patients with COVID infection admitted to the Galilee Medical Center, 253 had vitamin D levels on record and half were vitamin D-deficient.  This was the conclusion: “Among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, pre-infection deficiency of vitamin D was associated with increased disease severity and mortality.” Several studies have come from the University of Chicago.  One found that a vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/ml) may raise the risk of testing positive for COVID-19, actually a 7.2% chance of testing positive for the virus.  And that more than 80% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were vitamin D deficient.  And Black individuals who had levels of 30 to 40 ng/ml had a 2.64 times higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than people with levels of 40 ng/ml or greater. On the good news side is a new study from Turkish researchers.  They focused on getting people's levels over 30 ng/mL with supplements.  At that level there was success compared to people without supplementation.  This was true even if they had comorbidities.  They were able to achieve that blood level within two weeks.  Those with no comorbidities and no vitamin D treatment had 1.9-fold increased risk of having hospitalization longer than 8 days compared with cases with both comorbidities and vitamin D treatment. (NEXT) The explosion of Covid PTSD cases is a mental health crisis in the making The Guardian, 7 Dec 2021 When the Covid-19 pandemic began, people working in the trauma field knew the psychological toll would be colossal. In the spring of 2020, I began interviewing professionals about the mental health fallout of the pandemic, specifically its impact on frontline medical staff. During the first wave, two in every five intensive care staff in England reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. That work continued for almost a year, during which time a second wave hit and the initial traumas were exacerbated. But it wasn't only frontline workers who were experiencing trauma symptoms: Covid has posed perhaps the biggest threat to mental health in England since the second world war. Now, at the tail end of 2021, the pandemic is still not over. The NHS forecasts that nationally, there will be 230,000 new cases of PTSD as a result of Covid-19. It is not only social care and medical staff who will be affected. Those who lost loved ones, and those who have been very ill or hospitalised (35% of Covid-19 patients who were put on a ventilator go on to experience extensive symptoms of PTSD) may also suffer. Then there are those living with the effects of domestic and sexual abuse, which may have worsened due to lockdown, and children and young people whose lives changed immeasurably due to our shift to a state of emergency. I imagine that some women whose birthing experiences were marked by the pandemic will also be experiencing symptoms. The explosion of post-traumatic stress disorder is a medical emergency, and a further strain on our creaking services. Without proper action and investment, it is a national mental health crisis in the making.

Long-term persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein: evidence and implications Michael Palmer, MD and Sucharit Bhakdi, MD, 27th November, 2021 This paper discusses the recent study by Bansal et al. [1] on the detection of spike protein in persons vaccinated with the Pfizer mRNA vaccine. The most significant finding is that spike protein is found on exosomes, that is, cell-derived vesicles, for at least four months after the second injection. This surprisingly long persistence raises the prospect of sustained inflammation within and damage to organs which express the spike protein. Conclusions • Long-lasting persistence of spike protein • Delayed onset of spike protein expression—but observation limited to spike on exosomes • EMA report on Pfizer also reported relatively slow onset of spike expression; on the other hand, early onset of blood clots etc. suggests early onset of spike expression While some specific claims made by this paper can be debated, the very long-lasting persistence of the spike protein in the body is convincingly demonstrated. Whether it is the mRNA encoding the spike protein that persists or rather the spike protein itself remains to be determined. Nevertheless, as long as the spike protein appears on either exosomes or apoptotic vesicles, it must be present on cell membranes; and as long as it is found there, the immune system will attack those cells. Protracted inflammation and impaired organ function have been reported both with the virus infection itself [7] and after vaccination [8]. While inflammation may arise from autoimmunity downstream of intense acute tissue damage, the long-term persistence of spike protein after vaccination offers another straightforward explanation, and it supports the notion that the vaccines will give rise to lingering and slowly progressing inflammatory disease. We must also note that the spike protein persists for at least twice as long as the participants of Pfizer's farcical and fraudulent [9, 10] ‘clinical trials' were observed, on average, after the second vaccination [11]. It follows that the reports on side effects which occurred in those trials cannot possibly be complete.

Researcher explains the psychology of successful aging University of California at Los Angeles, November 2, 2021 Successful aging can be the norm, says UCLA psychology professor Alan Castel "There are a lot of myths about aging, and people often have negative stereotypes of what it means to get old," Castel said. "I have studied aging for two decades, and have seen many impressive role models of aging, as well as people who struggle in older age. Happiness increases our lives by four to 10 years, a recent research review suggested. "As an added bonus," Castel writes, "those additional years are likely to be happy ones." (NEXT) New study finds potatoes, when enjoyed as part of a healthy diet, are not associated with elevated heart health risk factors among adolescent girls Boston University, October 29, 2021 Recently published research in the British Journal of Nutrition found that 9-17 year-old girls who consumed up to one cup of potatoes daily had no increased risk of becoming overweight or developing high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, or impaired fasting glucose by the end of the study in late adolescence. “Our results show that nutrient-rich potatoes can be part of a healthy diet in young girls during this important period of growth and development,” says the study's senior author. “There is growing evidence that overall diet quality is what really matters in the preservation of heart health. Potatoes are an affordable food, with a number of valuable nutrients, and our research suggests that moderate intakes of potatoes, along with many other types of vegetables,  can be a regular part of a healthy diet pattern.” (NEXT) Study finds acupuncture lowers hypertension by activating natural opioids  University of California at Irvine, Oct. 31, 2021 Researchers with the UCI Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine have found that regular electroacupunture treatment can lower hypertension by increasing the release of a kind of opioid in the brainstem region that controls blood pressure. In tests on rats, UCI cardiology researcher Zhi-Ling Guo and colleagues noted that reduced blood pressure lasted for at least three days after electroacupuncture by increasing the gene expression of enkephalins, which one of the three major opioid peptides produced by the body. The present study shows that repetitive electroacupuncture evokes a long-lasting action in lowering blood pressure in hypertension, suggesting that this therapy may be suitable for treating clinical hypertension.. (NEXT) The golden chanterelle mushroom hastens wound healing Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (Iran), November 3, 2021  The golden chanterelle mushroom, an edible fungus, makes for more than just a good and filling dinner. According to a study, you can also use it to heal your wounds faster. The study, published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, investigated the fungus' antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. They performed an in vivo experiment on male rats. The animals were given a circular excision and a linear incision and then divided into four groups: nontreated, vehicle-treated, treated with an ointment containing mushroom extract, and treated with madecassol, the reference drug. The circular and linear wounds were treated topically once a day for nine days and 17 days respectively. (NEXT) New research links foods high in anthocyanins to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease Northumbria University (UK),  November 5, 2021  New research suggests eating red may be one of the best ways to keep your heart healthy. A study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition suggests anthocyanins, the red-pigmented flavonoids that are abundant in Montmorency tart cherries, may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular-related death. The systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 different studies found that people with the highest anthocyanin intake were 9% less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease and 8% less likely to die from causes associated with heart disease, compared to those with the lowest intake. (NEXT) Researchers find phthalates in wide variety of fast foods George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, October 29, 2021 A team of researchers has found phthalates in a wide variety of fast foods. In their paper published in Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, the group describes how they collected samples of fast food from several restaurants and tested them for phthalates and other chemicals meant to replace them—and what they found. Phthalates are esters of phthalic acid and are commonly used to make plastic substances more flexible. Researchers have found that consumption of phthalates can disrupt the endocrine system and by extension levels of hormones in the body. Research has also shown that they can lead to asthma in children and increased obesity. (NEXT) Removing digital devices from the bedroom can improve sleep for children, teens Penn State University, November 2, 2021 Removing electronic media from the bedroom and encouraging a calming bedtime routine are among recommendations Penn State researchers outline in a recent manuscript on digital media and sleep in childhood and adolescence. The recommendations, for clinicians and parents, are: 1. Make sleep a priority by talking with family members about the importance of sleep and healthy sleep expectations; 2. Encourage a bedtime routine that includes calming activities and avoids electronic media use; 3. Encourage families to remove all electronic devices from their child or teen's bedroom, including TVs, video games, computers, tablets and cell phones; 4. Talk with family members about the negative consequences of bright light in the evening on sleep; and 5. If a child or adolescent is exhibiting mood or behavioral problems, consider insufficient sleep as a contributing factor.

Prunes may help rein in holiday cravings, according to new research University of Liverpool, November 30, 2021 New research from the University of Liverpool, England reports that consuming prunes can help control appetite and reduce overall caloric consumption, serving as a perfect snack to keep holiday cravings at bay. “These studies demonstrate that dried fruit can both produce satiety and be incorporated into the diet during weight management,” said Professor Jason C G Halford, President of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), who was part of the research team. (NEXT) Is the relationship between diet, intestinal bacteria and cells key to preventing systemic inflammation? University of California at Los Angeles,  November 23, 2021 Mice fed a diet high in fat, cholesterol and calories, akin to the Western diet, had higher measures of blood lipids associated with elevated levels of inflammation, a new UCLA study finds. Researchers also identified clues to how the microbiology of the intestinal tract impacts disease-causing inflammation, suggesting that targeting the mucus interface between gut bacteria and the cells of the small intestine may be a novel means of preventing systemic inflammation.  (NEXT) Ultra-processed foods increase the risk of a second heart attack or stroke A high consumption of industrially processed foods significantly increases the risk of a second heart attack or a fatal stroke in people who already suffer from cardiovascular diseases, even if they follow the Mediterranean diet I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli (Italy), November 30, 2021 UNow a study by the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of the I.R.C.C.S. Neuromed in Pozzilli (Italy) explores the health effects of a large dietary share of ultra-processed food on people already suffering from cardiovascular diseases. The findings indicate a higher risk of a second heart attack (or stroke), this time fatal. Moreover, another observation emerges from this study: even in people generally following the Mediterranean diet, but consuming too many ultra-processed foods, health risks are higher. (NEXT) Psychedelics show promise in treating mental illness Virginia Tech University, November 24, 2021 One in five U.S. adults will experience a mental illness in their lifetime, according to the National Alliance of Mental Health. But standard treatments can be slow to work and cause side effects. To find better solutions, a Virginia Tech researcher's findings give insight into how psychedelic substances like psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, and similar drugs may relieve symptoms of addiction, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The drugs appear to work faster and last longer than current medications — all with fewer side effects. (NEXT) Transcendental Meditation and lifestyle modification increase telomerase, new study finds Increased telomerase associated with decreased hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cellular aging Maharishi University of Management, December 2, 2021 A new study published in PLOS ONE found that the Transcendental Meditation technique and lifestyle changes both appear to stimulate genes that produce telomerase, an enzyme that's associated with reduced blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. Specifically, these approaches were found to activate two genes that code for telomerase, which adds molecules to the ends of chromosomes, or telomeres, protecting them from deteriorating. (NEXT) Magnesium helps prevent amyloid beta aggregation in experimental research Northeastern University (Shenyang, China), December 2 2015. The December issue of The FASEB Journal reports the discovery of researchers in China of an ability of ionic magnesium (Mg2+) to help reduce the deposition of amyloid beta in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. For their research, Pu Wang, PhD, of Northeastern University in Shenyang, China and colleagues tested the effect of magnesium threonate, which is believed to penetrate the blood brain barrier, on normal mice and mice that overexpressed a gene that increased amyloid beta production while decreasing the influx of magnesium into the brain. Among those that received magnesium, the researchers observed a reduction in amyloid beta aggregation and associated cognitive decline, accompanied by an elevation in brain levels of ionic magnesium. (OTHER NEWS) Pathologized Totalitarianism 101 J Hopkins, November 22, 2021 So, GloboCap has crossed the Rubicon. The final phase of its transformation of society into a pathologized-totalitarian dystopia, where mandatory genetic-therapy injections and digital compliance papers are commonplace, is now officially underway. On November 19, 2021, the government of New Normal Austria decreed that, as of February, experimental mRNA injections will be mandatory for the entire population. This decree comes in the midst of Austria's official persecution of “the Unvaccinated,” i.e., political dissidents and other persons of conscience who refuse to convert to the new official ideology and submit to a series of mRNA injections, purportedly to combat a virus that causes mild-to-moderate flu-like symptoms (or no symptoms of any kind at all) in about 95% of the infected and the overall infection fatality rate of which is approximately 0.1% to 0.5%. But, seriously, this is just the beginning of the Winter Siege I wrote about recently. The plan seems to be to New-Normalize Europe first — generally speaking, Europeans are more docile, respectful of all authority, and not very well armed — and then use it as leverage to force the new pathologized totalitarianism on the USA, and the UK, and the rest of the world. I do not believe this plan will succeed. And a lot of us are angry, extremely angry … militantly, explosively angry. We are not “vaccine hesitant” or “anti-vax” or “Covid-denying conspiracy theorists.” We are millions of regular working-class people, people with principles, who value freedom, who are not prepared to go gently into the globalized, pathologized-totalitarian night. We no longer give the slightest shit whether our former friends and family members who have gone New Normal understand what this is. We do. We understand exactly what this is. It is a nascent form of totalitarianism, and we intend to kill it — or at least critically wound it — before it matures into a full-grown behemoth. It is also important (essential, I would argue) to make the violence of the New Normal visible, i.e., to frame this fight in political terms, and not in the pseudo-medical terms propagated by the official Covid narrative). This isn't an academic argument over the existence, severity, or the response to a virus. This is a fight to determine the future of our societies. This fact, above all, is what the global-capitalist ruling classes are determined to conceal. The roll-out of the New Normal will fail if it is perceived as political(i.e., a form of totalitarianism). It relies on our inability to see it as what it is. So it hides itself and the violence it perpetrates within a pseudo-medical official narrative, rendering itself immune to political opposition. We need to deny it this perceptual redoubt, this hermeneutic hiding place. We need to make it show itself as what it is, a “pathologized” form of totalitarianism. In order to do that, we need to understand it … its internal logic, and its strengths, and weaknesses. Pathologized Totalitarianism I have been describing the New Normal as “pathologized totalitarianism” and predicting that compulsory “vaccination” was coming since at least as early as May 2020.  I use the term “totalitarianism” intentionally, not for effect, but for the sake of accuracy. The New Normal is still a nascent totalitarianism, but its essence is unmistakably evident. And, thus, its classic totalitarian features — e.g., the revocation of basic rights and freedoms, centralization of power, rule by decree, oppressive policing of the population, demonization and persecution of a “scapegoat” underclass, censorship, propaganda, etc. — are not hidden, because they are impossible to hide, but are recontextualized in a pathologized official narrative. The Untermenschen become “the Unvaccinated.” Swastika lapel pins become medical-looking masks. Aryan ID papers become “vaccination passes.” Irrefutably senseless social restrictions and mandatory public-obedience rituals become “lockdowns,” “social distancing,” and so on. The world is united in a Goebbelsian total war, not against an external enemy (i.e., a racial or political enemy), but against an internal, pathological enemy. This pathologized official narrative is more powerful (and insidious) than any ideology, as it functions, not as a belief system or ethos, but rather, as objective “reality.” You cannot argue with or oppose “reality.” “Reality” has no political opponents. Those who challenge “reality” are “insane,” i.e., “conspiracy theorists,” “anti-vaxxers,” “Covid deniers,” “extremists,” etc. And, thus, the pathologized New Normal narrative also pathologizes its political opponents, simultaneously stripping us of political legitimacy and projecting its own violence onto us. Global-capitalist ideology will not function as an official ideology in an openly totalitarian society. It requires the simulation of “democracy,” or at least a simulation of market-based “freedom.” A society can be intensely authoritarian, but, to function in the global-capitalist system, it must allow its people the basic “freedom” that capitalism offers to all consumers, the right/obligation to participate in the market, to own and exchange commodities, etc. The point is, New Normal totalitarianism — and any global-capitalist form of totalitarianism — cannot display itself as totalitarianism, or even authoritarianism. It cannot acknowledge its political nature. In order to exist, it must not exist. Above all, it must erase its violence (the violence that all politics ultimately comes down to) and appear to us as an essentially beneficent response to a legitimate “global health crisis” (and a “climate change crisis,” and a “racism crisis,” and whatever other “global crises” GloboCap thinks will terrorize the masses into a mindless, order-following hysteria). Look it in the eye, and act accordingly. (NEXT) Unelected WEF globalists push digital identity schemes in digital health inclusion report Tim Hinchliffe -UNHERD, December 1, 2021 In a new report, the unelected globalists at the World Economic Forum (WEF) are pushing digital identity schemes under the guise of digital health inclusion that give the illusion of choice and privacy under policies of coercion. The WEF's Edison Alliance, whose “vision is for every person to affordably participate in the digital economy,” published its “Shared Guiding Principles for Digital Health Inclusion” white paper on Tuesday, outlining the importance of “digital health identity” in the overall scheme. “The health ID should allow individuals to be uniquely identified, authenticated, and linked to their health records, with informed consent” — “Shared Guiding Principles for Digital Health Inclusion,” WEF, 2021 Out of the seven principles, the third is dedicated to “digital health identity,” which includes action points such as: Promoting digital citizenship to give patients and their caregivers the ability to understand their own health records and care plans Focusing on a health identity (ID) to maintain and access longitudinal individual health records, which are essential for connected care and continuum of care, portability of health records, interoperability and patient control The health ID should allow individuals to be uniquely identified, authenticated, and linked to their health records, with informed consent The ID should enable improved access to care in different geographies, for all levels of care (primary to tertiary), as well as for different disease conditions and in government health programs Getting everyone on the planet connected to the internet is key to digital health inclusion. Without full connectivity, harvesting the personal data of billions of people is a lot more difficult. And while the unelected globalists say that individuals should always be in control of their own health information, they completely ignore that individuals are being coerced into giving up control of their data in order to restore freedoms that never should have been taken away in the first place. Take vaccine passports for example, which the World Health Organization says actually “may increase the risk of disease spread.” The WEF white paper goes on to say that “caregivers and patients should remain in control of medical decisions,” yet we are seeing the exact opposite of that happening all over the world wherever draconian vaccine mandates are enforced. Principle six in the report is about “using health data safely and responsibly to ensure inclusion while safeguarding informed consent, privacy and confidentiality.” This section emphasizes data ownership, the right to opt out, and informed consent — none of which are being respected by public and private entities throughout the world. Action points include: Setting high standards for the responsible collection, storage, sharing and use of data that adhere to the principles of security, privacy, transparency, accountability, integrity, patient ownership and choice, protection and “do no harm” Incorporating the patient's clear right to opt out Requiring informed consent, including clear articulation of the complexities of informed consent (NEXT) Magical Thinking on Fertilizer and Climate Change By Timothy A. Wise Inter Press News, November 9, 2021 As world leaders wrap up the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, new scientific research shows that there is still a great deal of magical thinking about the contribution of fertilizer to global warming. Philanthropist Bill Gates fed the retreat from science in his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster earlier this year. “To me fertilizer is magical,” he confesses, nitrogen fertilizer in particular. Under a photo of a beaming Gates in a Yara fertilizer distribution warehouse in Tanzania, he explains that “to grow crops, you want tons of nitrogen – way more than you would ever find in a natural setting [sic]…. But nitrogen makes climate change much worse.” That last part, at least, is true, and new research suggests that the climate impacts of excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers is much worse than previously estimated. Researchers estimate that the N-fertilizer supply chain is contributing more than six times the greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced by the entire commercial aviation sector. Nitrogen: a growing climate problem By all accounts, food and agriculture are barely on the agenda of the UN climate summit, even though food systems contribute about one-third of GHGs. Direct emissions from food production account for about one-third of that, with the principal source being livestock, mostly methane and manure emissions. But about 10% of direct emissions from come from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops. Only a portion of the applied fertilizer is absorbed by plants. Some is turned into nitrous oxide by soil micro-organisms. Some leaches off the soil or volatilizes into gas when it is applied. The cumulative effect is the release of nitrous oxide, a GHG 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Three scientists working with Greenpeace, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and GRAIN have carried out the first comprehensive lifecycle analysis of N fertilizer emissions. They used improved data on direct field emissions and incorporated emissions from the manufacture and transportation of N fertilizers. Manufacturing, which relies heavily on natural gas, accounts for 35% of total N fertilizer GHGs. The new estimates, which are preliminary as they undergo peer review, are 20% higher than those previously used by the United Nations. Not surprisingly, the largest emitters are the largest agricultural producers: China, India, North America, and Europe. On a per capita basis, though, the largest emitters are the big agricultural exporters: United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Taking Africa in the wrong direction Africa is still not a large fertilizer user, with application rates low – about 15 kg/ha – but rising rapidly with the recent Green Revolution campaigns. While Gates essentially dismisses the climate impacts from fertilizer as a necessary evil to achieve the greater good of food security, evidence is growing that the Green Revolution approach is failing on its own terms. My research showed that in AGRA's 13 focus countries, yields were not growing significantly and the number of undernourished people has increased 31%. The greater good promised by AGRA has not been very good. According to the new fertilizer research, AGRA is taking Africa in the wrong direction. Globally, the use of nitrogen fertilizer is projected to grow between 50% and 138% by 2050. Africa is projected to see at least a 300% increase in the next 30 years. It will be far greater if Gates has his way. The climate implications of that development path are worrisome. A 300% increase means 2.7 million tonnes (Mt) more of N fertilizer in Africa. With field emissions estimated at 2.65 tonnes of GHGs per tonne of nitrogen and another 4.35 tonnes from production and transportation, total emissions are more like 7 tonnes of GHGs per tonne of N fertilizer. By 2050, a 300% increase in Africa's fertilizer use would mean adding about 19 Mt of GHGs per year more than it emits now. Because GHGs accumulate in the atmosphere and nitrous oxide persists for more than 100 years, Africa will have contributed an additional 284 Mt of GHGs by 2050 if fertilizer use increases 300%. If Gates and AGRA get their way and Africa approaches current global averages of 137 kg/ha of N fertilizer, Africa would contribute 800% more, an additional 50 Mt in 2050, equivalent to the emissions from deforesting half a million hectares of Amazon rainforest (about 1.2 million acres). Cumulative GHGs would be 750 Mt by 2050. That is an amount nearly equal to the annual emissions of the entire commercial aviation sector. “Climate-stupid agriculture” Bill Gates is just plain wrong when he says the only way to grow food is with synthetic fertilizers. Crops need nitrogen and in many areas they can get most or all of what they need from improved agroecological farming. Globally, with improved nutrient management practices there could be a 48% reduction in synthetic fertilizer use with no reduction in cereal yields, according to one article in Nature. The scientists who authored the new report make three recommendations to reduce GHGs associated with N fertilizer use. All call into question Gates' Green Revolution model for Africa: • Select a model of agriculture that does not depend on synthetic fertilizers; intercropping with nitrogen-fixing crops has been shown to increase yields and improve soils. • Reintegrate livestock into crop farming so more of the nutrients in manure are returned to the land; less than half are now. • Limit the growth of industrial livestock production and consumption. Three-quarters of N fertilizer worldwide is used to produce livestock feed. The science is clear: African farmers are right when they call the Green Revolution “climate-stupid agriculture.” (NEXT) Pathogenic Priming in Belgium - 100% ICU Admissions are Vaccinated James Lyons-Weiler, PhD November 8, 2021 When I published my study on pathogenic priming in April, 2020, it was meant as a warning. The evidence was in from past COVID vaccine development attempts: vaccination against coronaviruses had led to DISEASE ENHANCEMENT. I had hoped vaccine makers would have paid heed and would have excluded the unsafe epitopes from their vaccines. I gave them a roadmap. Now, in Belgium, 100% of ICU admissions are among the vaccinated. Only 40% of the Belgium population are vaccinated* I'm ready to call it: The COVID-19 vaccination program causes Disease Enhancement, likely via numerous possible means: from molecular mimicry leading to autoimmunity, or antibody-dependent enhancement, Pathogenic Priming has Antwerp, Belgium in its grip (NEXT) VAERS Data Reveals 50 X More Ectopic Pregnancies Following COVID Shots than Following ALL Vaccines for Past 30 Years Health Impact News The carnage of deaths to unborn babies following COVID-19 shots into pregnant women just gets worse the more we investigate it. While we reported on Saturday that the latest data dump into the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) showed 2,620 fetal deaths, which are more fetal deaths than are reported following ALL vaccines for the past 30 years in VAERS, one “symptom” that is tracked in VAERS that I did not account for, is an ectopic pregnancy which also results in a fetal death. Ectopic pregnancy, also called extrauterine pregnancy, is when a fertilized egg grows outside a woman's uterus, somewhere else in their belly. It can cause life-threatening bleeding and needs medical care right away. Following COVID-19 injections into child-bearing women for the past 11 months has seen a 50 X increase in ectopic pregnancies compared to child-bearing women receiving vaccines for the past 30+ years. (NEXT) Lancet Letter Demolishes Vaccination - Says vaccination does not even slow down the pandemic Igor Chudov An amazing Lancet letter “The epidemiological relevance of the COVID-19-vaccinated population is increasing” was just published. The largest significance is that the article WAS ALLOWED TO BE PUBLISHED BY LANCET. This means that the tide of scientists being scared by government/globalists/Big Pharma funding is turning, and the truth is coming out at the highest levels of science such as the Lancet. In the UK it was described that secondary attack rates among household contacts exposed to fully vaccinated index cases was similar to household contacts exposed to unvaccinated index cases (25% for vaccinated vs 23% for unvaccinated). 12 of 31 infections in fully vaccinated household contacts (39%) arose from fully vaccinated epidemiologically linked index cases. Peak viral load did not differ by vaccination status or variant type In Germany, the rate of symptomatic COVID-19 cases among the fully vaccinated (“breakthrough infections”) is reported weekly since 21. July 2021 and was 16.9% at that time among patients of 60 years and older [[2]]. This proportion is increasing week by week and was 58.9% on 27. In Israel a nosocomial outbreak was reported involving 16 healthcare workers, 23 exposed patients and two family members. The source was a fully vaccinated COVID-19 patient. The vaccination rate was 96.2% among all exposed individuals (151 healthcare workers and 97 patients). Fourteen fully vaccinated patients became severely ill or died, the two unvaccinated patients developed mild disease US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifiesfour of the top five counties with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated population (99.9–84.3%) as “high” transmission counties A similar situation was described for the UK. Between week 39 and 42, a total of 100.160 COVID-19 cases were reported among citizens of 60 years or older. 89.821 occurred among the fully vaccinated (89.7%), 3.395 among the unvaccinated (3.4%) [[3]]. This reinforces my opinion that the Covid Cult is coming apart at the seams and the failure of “Covid vaccines” is no longer a secret. (NEXT) The dirty dozen: meet America's top climate villains The Guardian   27 Oct 2021 For too long, Americans were fed a false narrative that they should feel individually guilty about the climate crisis. The reality is that only a handful of powerful individuals bear the personal responsibility. The nation's worst polluters managed to evade accountability and scrutiny for decades as they helped the fossil fuel industry destroy our planet. The actions of these climate supervillains have affected millions of people, disproportionately hurting the vulnerable who have done the least to contribute to global emissions. THE WOKE-WASHER - Mike Wirth Chairman of the board and CEO of Chevron Mike Wirth captains Chevron, a notorious corporate polluter responsible for one of the highest total carbon emissions of any private company worldwide. Under Wirth's direction, Chevron has pursued several greenwashing tactics to downplay the company's environmental impact. A coalition of environmental groups filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint against Chevron earlier this year saying it misled the public by claiming responsibility only for carbon emissions associated with refining and transporting oil, not the total emissions created by the product it sells. THE RINGLEADER - Darren Woods Chairman of the board and CEO of Exxon ExxonMobil is publicly known as one of the first oil companies to become aware of climate change, more than 40 years ago. Still, Exxon spent millions of dollars spreading climate denial while simultaneously contributing the fourth largest amount of carbon emissions of any investor-owned company in the world. Woods, who has been with the company since 1992, makes more than $20m a year. And though he expressed support for the 2015 Paris agreement to substantially reduce global pollution, leaked documents showed his plan for the company to increase its emissions by 17%through 2025. THE ENABLER.  - Jamie Dimon CEO of Chase Bank Billionaire Jamie Dimon is top dog at JP Morgan Chase, which has provided $317bn in fossil fuel financing –

Videos https://brandnewtube.com/watch/sonia-elijah-interviews-efrat-fenigson-from-israel_Ws1DDYkiqAOXdis.html     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWN2PV4v0lk&t=8s   Researchers find new link between a disrupted body clock and inflammatory diseases RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, November 25, 2021 New research from RCSI has demonstrated the significant role that an irregular body clock plays in driving inflammation in the body's immune cells, with implications for the most serious and prevalent diseases in humans. The circadian body clock generates 24-hour rhythms that keep humans healthy and in time with the day/night cycle. This includes regulating the rhythm of the body's own (innate) immune cells called macrophages. When these cell rhythms are disrupted (due to things like erratic eating/sleeping patterns or shift work), the cells produce molecules which drive inflammation. This can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, obesity, arthritis, diabetes and cancer, and also impact our ability to fight infection. (NEXT) Social media tied to higher risk of depression Massachusetts General Hospital, November 23, 2021 The latest in a spate of studies investigating links between use of social media and depression suggests the two go hand in hand. The new study follows a yearlong look at social media use and onset of depression among nearly 5,400 adults. None reported even mild depression at the start. But in multiple surveys over 12 months, depression status had worsened in some respondents, the study found. The risk rose with use of three hugely popular social media sites: Snapchat, Facebook and TikTok. None showed any signs of depression at the first survey. But after completing at least one similar follow-up, nearly 9% showed a "significant" increase in scores for depression risk. (NEXT) Havacado or two. Study finds eating lots of the fruit has public health import Randomized controlled trial found that families with high avocado consumption self-reported reduced caloric intake and an overall healthier diet University of California at San Diego, November 29, 2021 In a novel study, researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial comparing the potential health effects between families that consumed a low allotment of avocados (three per week) and families that consumed a high allotment (14 per week) over six months. They found that the high avocado allotment families self-reported lower caloric consumption, reducing their intake of other foods, including dairy, meats and refined grains and their associated negative nutrients, such as saturated fat and sodium. (NEXT) Crabapple supplements could help cut cholesterol, China study discovers Crabapple extract has been show to lower cholesterol in obese mice which were fed a high-fat diet, researchers in China have revealed. Beijing and Shanghai universities, November 30, 2021 The study points out that statins are the major therapy for hypercholesterolaemia and for the prevention of atherosclerosis. However, there is some evidence to suggest that they may increase the risk of diabetes, muscle pain, liver damage and cause other side effects. Crabapple has long been used for the treatment of diarrhoea, indigestion and other digestive diseases in traditional Chinese medicine, and its antioxidant benefits have frequently been studied. (NEXT) Aerobic exercise preserves brain volume and improves cognitive function Wake Forest School of Medicine, November 30, 2021 Using a new MRI technique, researchers found that adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who exercised four times a week over a six-month period experienced an increase in brain volume in specific, or local, areas of the brain, but adults who participated in aerobic exercise experienced greater gains than those who just stretched. (NEXT) Are you a morning or an evening person? It might be due to your gut bacteria University of Haifa (Israel), November 22, 2021 A new study by the University of Haifa reveals that certain gut bacteria differ between morning and evening people. It is already known that there are some genetic differences between larks and owls, but research in fruit flies in our laboratory inspired us to test the impact of gut bacteria on human chronotypes," says Prof. Eran Tauber. Fecal samples were collected from 91 individuals in order to extract and sequence the bacterial DNA. Analysis of the DNA sequences from each sample allowed identification of all gut bacterial species and quantify their abundance. The chronotype of the participants was determined based on their self-reported sleep times during the weekend (waking up without an alarm clock). (OTHER NEXT) Sonia Elijah interviews Efrat Fenigson from Israel Efrat Fenigson, a chief marketing officer and human rights activist from Tel Aviv, Israel, candidly speaks to Sonia about how 'Covid' has been marketed, as if it were a brand, by world governments and the mainstream media. She talks about the general protest movement in Israel and how it evolved from anti-corruption to anti-lockdown/green-pass demonstrations. She gives insight into the psychological state of fear that many Israelis are accustomed to living under making them compliant in obeying the draconian Covid rules and to not question the mass vaccine rollout. (NEXT) Foreclosure Looms for Homeowners Who Thought They'd Won, Thanks to Top New York Court Ruling Sam Mellings The City and New York Focus, November 30, 2021 Christine Fife was “speechless with joy” when she won her foreclosure case in January 2020, she recalled, believing her decade under threat of foreclosure in her Upper West Side condo was finally over. Now, though, Fife is once again facing the seizure of the apartment she has owned since 1990. In February 2021, New York's top court issued a decision that eliminated a path that New York homeowners had used for years to fight foreclosure. The decision in Freedom Mortgage Corporation v. Engel allowed Fife's lender to renew its foreclosure suit against her. “They said it was OK. How can they change their mind?” Fife asked during an interview with New York Focus and THE CITY. Across New York State, homeowners who believed that their cases had been settled in their favor are now once again facing foreclosure due to the Engel decision. Many are in danger of losing their homes, even as two bills aimed at protecting owners wend their way through the state Legislature. Case Reopened In New York, if a borrower misses a mortgage payment, the lender is allowed to demand the entire remaining balance immediately and then move to foreclose after 120 days, if the money owed remains unpaid.. But a lender must start the legal proceedings within six years of first demanding full payment, or the suit becomes invalid. Until recently, the clock kept ticking until the lender informed the borrower that they were no longer seeking foreclosure. In Fife's case, the lender had never done so. The bank sued Fife twice: first in 2010, a case the lender claims it later voluntarily withdrew, and again in 2017. Her lawyers, representing Fife pro bono, successfully argued that the bank's second foreclosure suit was barred by the six-year limit and got it dismissed. But the Engel decision changed the rules. The Court of Appeals found that voluntarily ending a foreclosure suit stops the clock on the six-year time limit — even if the homeowner is never notified. The court's ruling applies retroactively to any foreclosure cases ongoing or still open to appeal at the time the decision was issued. Following the ruling, many foreclosures that expired under the six-year limit have been reopened or appealed to higher courts. Holly Meyer, a Suffolk County lawyer who represented one of the defendants in the Engel case, estimated that the number of affected homeowners could be in the tens of thousands. Fife's was one of them. In April 2021, the bank moved to renew its foreclosure suit against her — and the trial judge cited the Engel ruling as a reason to rehear the case. “I was shocked at this decision, because I had put all my faith in [the foreclosure court's] initial decision, which was in my favor,” Fife said. With Fife's best defense gone, her hopes for avoiding foreclosure now appear slim, her legal counsel acknowledged. ‘Incompetently' Managed Loans It's not uncommon for lenders to allow their right to foreclose to expire, according to real estate lawyers. “There are millions of residential loans being serviced somewhat incompetently, so these things do sometimes slip between the cracks,” said Joshua Stein, a commercial real estate lawyer. Real estate industry supporters of the Court of Appeals' decision say it made little sense for a foreclosure case to fail because of what they consider a clerical error — one that basically lets borrowers shirk their debts. “The idea that you should still be at risk because you haven't repaid the money you borrowed doesn't strike me as egregious,” Stein said. Homeowner attorneys say that cases get dropped all the time in the legal system because of technical violations of procedural requirements, and that foreclosure cases should be no different. “If you have somebody on trial for murder, but you find that their constitutional rights were violated, they go free. It's the same thing here,” Meyer said. Chief Judge Conflicted? The day after the Court of Appeals ruled on the Engel case, the law firm Greenberg Traurig, which had represented two of the plaintiffs, cheered what it called a “ground shifting” victory for lenders. “Statewide application will likely protect billions in assets for mortgage holders,” its press release claimed. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, who wrote the majority opinion in Engel, was a Greenberg Traurig client at the time that she ruled in favor of their bank clients in that and other cases, the New York Law Journal reported in April. The firm defended her in a suit brought by judges forced into retirement as a cost-cutting measure. Defense attorneys said they had not been informed of the potential conflict for the judge who ruled against their clients. “The law's not on our side anymore, and that means that there are a number of people who will be facing foreclosure when they wouldn't have faced it a couple of years ago,” Julie Howe, a senior staff attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, who is representing Fife pro bono, told New York Focus. Then-Governor Andrew Cuomo swears in Janet DiFiore as the new chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, Feb. 8, 2016. Governor Andrew Cuomo's Office Jacob Inwald, director of foreclosure prevention at Legal Services NYC, said many of the foreclosure cases affected by the Engel decision originally stemmed from the real estate crash of 2008 and freewheeling lending leading up to it. Fife, for instance, had borrowed $731,000 against her apartment in April 2007 to pay living expenses after a disabling injury and divorce. Monthly payments were nearly $5,000, with adjustable rate mortgage that started at 8% annual interest, potentially rising as high as 15%. “I didn't know anything about mortgages,” Fife said. “I was just so happy that I was able to live on another day. I was probably the easiest take on the block.” Within a year, the bank alleged that she had fallen behind on her mortgage payments — kicking off foreclosure proceedings that her loan's holder, Wilmington Trust Association, has resurrected more than a decade later. ‘It's Really Scary' Rockland County resident Susan Azcuy is in a situation similar to Fife's — believing that she'd survived foreclosure only to find the cloud hanging over her once again. For 23 years, Azcuy and her husband kept up with the mortgage payments on their house in Pomona, including a 2005 refinancing, for which she took on a debt of $210,000 at 5.75% interest. But in 2012, after Azcuy's husband was fired from his job, they missed a payment and their lender quickly moved to foreclose. The bank voluntarily withdrew the suit in March 2016 for technical reasons but did not notify Azcuy, refiling the case the next month. It went to trial in 2019, and Azcuy won, after a key prosecution witness failed to show up. ‘We're still struggling. I was very, very hopeful to be able to continue living here.' Before Engel, this would have been the end of the case, since more than six years had elapsed since the 2012 foreclosure suit. But thanks to Engel, the six-year clock restarted in 2016 — giving Azcuy's lender another chance to sue. Due to penalties and foreclosure fees, Azcuy now owes nearly $400,000, just shy of double the amount of the 2005 refinancing. Efforts to reach a settlement or a modification with the bank have been unsuccessful, according to Azcuy's attorney, Derek Tarson of the Legal Aid Society of Rockland County. If the bank brings another foreclosure lawsuit, which Tarson believes is likely, Azcuy will not be able to rely on the defense that more than six years have passed. “It's really scary. We're still struggling,” Azcuy said. “I was very, very hopeful to be able to continue living here.” Lawmakers Respond State lawmakers have introduced two bills seeking to reverse some of Engel's effects. One measure, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Thomas (D-Nassau) and Assemblymember Helene Weinstein (D-Brooklyn), would require lenders to inform borrowers if they withdraw their demands for payment, since that action serves to stop the clock on the six-year countdown. If lenders withdraw the lawsuit but fail to notify the borrowers, the clock would keep ticking — a return to the status quo before Engel. The bill would also forbid lenders from foreclosing if any part of the loan had previously expired — a measure that would bar reviving suits against homeowners like Fife and Azcuy. The legislature is also considering a second bill, sponsored by Sen. James Sanders (D-Queens) and Assemblymember Latrice Walker (D-Brooklyn). This bill would prevent lenders from discontinuing a demand for full payment, stopping the six-year countdown clock, without the consent of the borrower. The measure also would start the countdown from the time that a mortgage holder missed a payment. Though meant to protect homeowners, the Sanders-Walker bill could actually incentivize lenders to begin foreclosure more quickly, one foreclosure defense attorney told New York Focus. “If the clock is ticking, all plaintiffs are going to want to do is get their case started,” the attorney, who asked not to be named, said. Sanders rejected the critique. “I don't think that you can further incentivize the financial institutions” to foreclose after the leeway granted them by Engel, he said. Whether either of the bills would apply retroactively to homeowners like Fife and Azcuy is an open question. “It may not be able to help those, but it is our desire,” Sanders said. “We will get guidance on whether we can do that.” Sanders said that he has spoken to Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders about his bill, and while they have not endorsed it, he said they are open to supporting it. (A Hochul spokesperson said the governor “will review all legislation that reaches her desk.” “We are making excellent progress with both, and we expect good things in the coming days,” Sanders said. (NEXT) Israeli study says COVID shot efficacy decreases dramatically after 3 months, calls for boosters British Medical Journal, November 24, 2021 A study published by The BMJ today finds a gradual increase in the risk of COVID-19 infection from 90 days after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The study was carried out by the Research Institute of Leumit Health Services in Israel. Israel was one of the first countries to roll out a large scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign in December 2020, but which has seen a resurgence of infections since June 2021. The findings confirm that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided excellent protection in the initial weeks after vaccination, but suggest that protection wanes for some individuals with time. To do this, the researchers examined electronic health records for 80,057 adults (average age 44 years) who received a PCR test at least three weeks after their second injection, and had no evidence of previous COVID-19 infection. Of these 80,057 participants, 7,973 (9.6%) had a positive test result. These individuals were then matched to negative controls of the same age and ethnic group who were tested in the same week. The rate of positive results increased with time elapsed since a second dose. For example, across all age groups 1.3% of participants tested positive 21-89 days after a second dose, but this increased to 2.4% after 90-119 days; 4.6% after 120-149 days; 10.3% after 150-179 days; and 15.5% after 180 days or more. (NEXT) 31,014 Deaths 2,890,600 Injuries Following COVID Shots in European Database of Adverse Reactions as Young, Previously Healthy People Continue to Die Health Impact News The European Union database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, and they are now reporting 31,014 fatalities, and 2,890,600 injuries, following COVID-19 injections. A Health Impact News subscriber from Europe reminded us that this database maintained at EudraVigilance is only for countries in Europe who are part of the European Union (EU), which comprises 27 countries. The total number of countries in Europe is much higher, almost twice as many, numbering around 50. (There are some differences of opinion as to which countries are technically part of Europe.) Total reactions for the mRNA vaccine Tozinameran (code BNT162b2, Comirnaty) from BioNTech/ Pfizer: 14,526 deaths and 1,323,370 injuries to 20/11/2021 Total reactions for the mRNA vaccine mRNA-1273 (CX-024414) from Moderna: 8,518 deaths and 390,163 injuries to 20/11/2021 Total reactions for the vaccine AZD1222/VAXZEVRIA (CHADOX1 NCOV-19) from Oxford/AstraZeneca: 6,145 deaths and 1,075,335 injuries to 20/11/2021 Total reactions for the COVID-19 vaccine JANSSEN (AD26.COV2.S) from Johnson & Johnson: 1,825 deaths and 101,732 injuries to 20/11/2021 (NEXT) Censorship = dictatorship Dr. Jessica Rose, November 29, 2021 So the censorship continues. I did a very detailed and informative interview with Frank McCaughey of Ireland on the subject of the pointlessness, potential harms and dangers with mass injecting children during this ‘pandemic' with the known non-sterilizing COVID-19 injectable products. And it has been remove Let's check out what YouTube's Community Guidelines are, shall we? YouTube's Community Guidelines: These determine what content is allowed on YouTube and help make YouTube a safe place to foster community. A safe place to foster community, eh? What kind of community are you thinkin' ‘bout there, Youtube? A community akin to an enslaved, dead-eyed mass of hypnotized automatons? If I may: no thanks on that. I'd rather live on that cat Island. So, for those of you who didn't get to see the video (I imagine that is all of you since it was up for less than 24 hours), I talked at length about the ‘don't's of injecting pre-pubescent children with experimental products for which the ingredient list is a big secret for a ‘disease' that they do not succumb to. Ah, I see now. It was because I mentioned Ivermectin. Boy. Youtube. Get with the program! Read some studies for crying out loud! And update your censorship guidelines! Make them reflect the scientific truth and not the weird false dictates of singular beings who feast on the ‘community' to increase their ‘power'. Here's what I found in their COVID-19 medical misinformation policy. Treatment misinformation: Content that encourages the use of home remedies, prayer, or rituals in place of medical treatment such as consulting a doctor or going to the hospital Content that claims that there's a guaranteed cure for COVID-19 Content that recommends use of Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 Claims that Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19 Categorical claims that Ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID-19 Claims that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are safe to use in the treatment COVID-19 Other content that discourages people from consulting a medical professional or seeking medical advice Ok. I want to work backwards through the italicized points, if I may. 1. Hey Youtube. I AM a medical sciences professional. This IS my consultation. Doesn't that make your dictate of discouraging ‘consulting a medical professional' moot? I am not only not discouraging this, in addition to encouraging this, I am this. 2. Hey Youtube. GET WITH THE PROGRAM. Ivermectin has been affiliated with Nobel-ity. It's not only been awarded a prize for its safe use as an anti-parastic for decades and been doled out to literally billions of people, (including pregnant women and children) with no ill effects, it's has an excessively successful safety profile as an off-label drug in the context of COVID-19.¹ 3. It has also been clinically-tested and proven effective in the context of COVID-19 as an off-label drug - which is more than we can say about the clot shots, eh?²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰¹¹ 4. Based on points, 1, 2 and 3, I would recommend the off-label use of Ivermectin. As a Medical Scientist. Oh and by the way, aren't you violating your own ‘Community Standards' with your point on a ‘guaranteed cure for COVID-19'? You guys are so sure that your injections are the only way to deal with this situation. Doesn't that imply that this guarantees a cure? No wait. It doesn't. But what it does do is set a precedent and instigate a thought: there will never be a cure for COVID-19. It's incurable. Which is: true. But it's also no worse than the flu in the non-vulnerable, which is most people. Including children. So we don't need to seek a ‘cure'. Just like we don't need to seek a ‘cure' for the common cold or the flu. That's one of the things that our bloody immune systems are for and very good it - preventing disease. Viruses are EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME. It's not a reason to freak out. Educate yourself and others on this. It about high time people learned that we are constantly engaging and have co-evolved with viruses and bacteria for the entirety of our existences. It's what we are.¹² Our genome is 7% retrovirus. If we attempt to destroy this magnificence then we are not only stupid, but we will be destroyed in turn. Leave the immune system alone. Or rather, optimize it. Be healthy. Avoid toxins. As much as you can. Pretty simple. So there you are Youtube. You have been brought up-to-date. Now, I don't like simply bitching about stuff, even though it does feel good, so I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that you can fight to have your content re-instated once it has been removed. However, it is not a common occurrence to have a video re-instated once it has been censored. The ones that do get re-instated typically are ones that were erroneously taken down. I think that the Youtube overlords would argue that since they are paid to enforce the dictate narrative, they cannot stand behind science and truth, and therefore, I think they would hold fast to their ‘claims' that Ivermectin is dangerous and ineffective. (NEXT) Why aren't healthcare workers speaking out about the catastrophe caused by the vaccines? Steve Kirsch, November 23, 2021 Everyone thinks that if the jabs were really dangerous, doctors and other healthcare workers would be speaking out about it. They are wrong. Here are the four main reasons they do not speak out.Two important things you need to know: 1.All the kids were recently vaccinated. 2. Kids that age NEVER get tachycardia (i.e., the medical experts I've talked to have never seen it before in their careers). Here are some reasons very few people are speaking out: 1. Delegated trust. People trust their doctors, the doctors trust other doctors and ultimately the CDC. Nobody is independently verifying the CDC is telling the truth. Doctors are really really bad in critically reading scientific studies. Mask guidelines are the PERFECT example of this. There isn't any scientific proof (well-done randomized trial) that masks work. Yet very few question the narrative (and those that do are ostracized). So everyone basically goes with the flow and the whole thing is a positive feedback loop despite zero scientific basis. See my article Masks don't work and read the accolades in the Nature article. All these experts who hailed the study never read it with a critical eye and lack the skills to do so. This is how misinformation propagates. 2.Fear of job loss. Nobody wants to lose their job. Look what happened to Deborah Conrad and others who speak out. Fired within hours after speaking out. So the lab technicians who are now seeing kids with tachycardia just keep their mouth shut. They know something is very wrong, but their job is more important. Besides, if they spoke out, it wouldn't make any difference since they are just a lab technician. Doctors have a similar problem. The medical system, despite claims of physician autonomy, actually offers very little, as it takes very little to be thrown out of the system. Medicare, the FDA, a state medical board, a malpractice insurer, the DEA, a hospital medical staff, an employer - you only have to cross one of these to have your career ruined. Combine that with the idea that most physicians wouldn't be willing to stand against a medical establishment agency such as the CDC (the ones who will have long since been ostracized) and that to do so would require a huge amount of energy and time spent on medical paper research to make a case (and most docs don't have time for that) and that most of medicine is necessarily a form of group think anyway. Then add on to it that the policy makers in large medical corporations roles are more immediately to protect the interests of the corporation than to "save the world," and you arrive at our current situation. 3.Belief that COVID is even worse than the vaccine injuries. Many people are deceived by erroneous reports that the number of vaccine cases (e.g., of myocarditis) are occurring far less often now that the vaccines have been rolled out. Dr. John Su is the big culprit here because he's never told the world that VAERS is under-reported. The pediatric cardiologists know what is going on, but they aren't going to say anything due to #1. So I see doctors tweeting the myth that “sure, there is myo after the vaccine, but the rates due to COVID are worse so the vaccine is the better of the two options.” 4.Belief that the injuries are really rare. I know a doctor who treats vaccine injured patients. He has no clue whether these are every single vaccine injured patient in the US or he's only seeing a tiny fraction of the injuries. He believes he's seeing them all so writes it off as just “coincidence” and “bad luck” since if it was the vaccine, the CDC would have spotted it. 5. Cognitive dissonance/trust in authority figures. They are so convinced the vaccines are safe (since nobody else is speaking out), that any adverse events that happen must be due to something else. Positive feedback loop. 6.Belief that they can treat you for your vaccine side effects, but that they can't treat you if you have COVID. So lesser of two evils. And of course, they think no early treatments work, so they think they are doing you a favor by telling you to get the vaccine. 7.Belief that there is no viable alternative for treating COVID and that the vaccines work. So even 100,000 dead or injured people is better than 750,000 dead people from COVID. 8. Trust in the NIH and CDC. If it was a problem, the CDC would tell people. Telling people isn't their job. Their job is to follow the direction set by the experts. 9.Fear of being ostracized. People who do research fear if they speak out they would be labelled as anti-vaxers and their research would thus be discredited. 10.Critical thinkers have been fired. Hospitals and medical facilities have already fired vaccine hesitant employees per vaccine mandates thereby self selecting for vax believers. 11. They think that the side-effects show that the vaccine is “working.” This is more of a patient thing. It's how the patients look at their adverse events… as a positive thing. (You really can't make this stuff up.) 12.They are being paid to look the other way. The federal government gave “grants” (aka BRIBES) to hospitals and physicians to promote the vaccines. If they speak out against them now, the government will demand the grants are repaid. [A physician reported this to me on Telegram. You really can't make this stuff up.] 13. They will lose their research funding if they publish their results.

May be worth adopting plant based diet to ease chronic migraine severity, say doctors Stony Brook University and University of Pennsylvania, November 22, 2021 Prescribed meds, elimination diet, yoga and meditation provided no or little symptom relief Boosting dark green leafy veg intake may be key It may be worth adopting a plant based diet, rich in dark green leafy vegetables, to ease the symptoms of chronic migraine, suggest doctors in the online journal BMJ Case Reports. (next) Exercising at the start of fast can help people reach ketosis 3.5 hours faster: study Brigham Young University, November 24, 2021  Now a new Brigham Young University study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise finds that exercising intensely at the start of a fast may help maximize health benefits of temporarily foregoing food. Ketosis occurs when the body runs out of glucose—its first, preferred fuel—and begins breaking down stored fat for energy, producing chemicals called ketones as a byproduct. In addition to being a healthy energy source for the brain and heart, ketones combat diseases like diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. (NEXT) To calm your emotions, get 15 minutes alone University of Rochester, November 24, 2021 Being by yourself—even for just 15 minutes—may decrease your strong positive and negative emotions, and instead reduce stress and induce calm, a new study suggests. Lead researcher Thuy-vy Nguyen, a doctoral candidate in clinical and social sciences in psychology at the University of Rochester, together with the cofounders of self-determination theory, psychology professors Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, conclude that solitude can lead to relaxation and stress reduction—as long as people actively chose to be alone. (NEXT) Fermented tea could help protect the liver from high-fat diet damage Tianjin University (China), November 30, 2021 Water extracts of a fermented tea, known as Pu-erh tea, could help to reduce oxidative stress and protect the liver against damage caused by a high fat diet, research in rats has found. The study, published in Food Science and Human Wellness, investigated the potential of the polyphenol and theabrownin-rich fermented tea to protect the liver after previous studies linked the tea to a raft of health benefits. “Pu-erh tea can be used as a potential healthy drink for prevention and/or treatment of fatty liver disease and many diseases associated with oxidative stress,” suggested Jing and colleagues. (NEXT) Excessive media exposure to traumatic events could harm kids Florida International University, November 20, 2021 FIU scientists investigating the effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters on children's brain development previously found that increased exposure to media coverage of disasters led kids to have post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms regardless of physical proximity. A new follow-up study led by FIU psychologists Anthony Dick and Jonathan Comer confirmed those findings and also showed that individual differences in the response in a key brain region involved in detecting threats—the amygdala—predicted the degree to which viewing storm-related media coverage led children to develop PTS symptoms. (NEXT) Adults with ADHD four times more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder University of Toronto, November 20, 2021 A new nationally representative study published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that one in four adults aged 20-39 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Those with ADHD were four times more likely to have GAD at some point in their life, when compared to those without ADHD. Even after controlling for other relevant factors, including sociodemographics, adverse childhood experiences, and a lifetime history of substance use disorders and major depressive disorders, those with ADHD still had more than double the odds of GAD. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) The Madness of Anthony Fauci Rather than own up to his disastrous policy and medical advice, Fauci instead is accelerating his messianic impulses.  By Julie Kelly It's nearly impossible to select the most maniacal comment made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in his nearly 70-minute interview with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan that aired over the weekend. Joe Biden's chief coronavirus advisor and miniature global menace spent more than an hour denying responsibility for his documented mistakes, bragging about his self-appointed role as the world's doctor, hogging credit for the vaccines, and attacking anyone who has challenged his unrivaled ego and track record of failure. Portraying himself as a victim rather than the cruel, megalomaniacal tyrant he is, Fauci took aim at Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Congressional co-sponsors of the “Fire Fauci Act,” which would zero-out the salary of the federal government's highest-paid bureaucrat and audit Fauci's correspondence and financial transactions during the pandemic. While declaring, “I represent science,” Fauci humbly graded the scientific approach to the pandemic an “A+” while incongruently  warning about a “fifth wave” of the virus and explaining away one scientific stumble after another, from useless temperature checks to the need for bi-annual booster shots and randomly claiming the virus spread is “40 to 50 to 60 percent . . . asymptomatic.” Science! Of all his alarming remarks, however, Fauci's push to get experimental vaccines for babies and young children to market as quickly as possible is the most depraved. When asked by Brennan, who has spent the better part of two years asking Fauci how to run her life and the lives of 330 million Americans, when he expects vaccines for children between the age of six months and five years to be available, Fauci said he hopes the shots are ready by the beginning of next year. “I would hope it would be in the first quarter because the studies are being done right now on children from two to five and then from six months to two years,” Fauci told Brennan. “I don't think there's going to be an issue with efficacy. But when you're dealing with children, it's a very sensitive area. And that's the reason why [it] may take a little bit longer.” When parents question whether it's necessary to vaccinate children, Fauci replies that, “yeah, we do want to be vaccinating the children because we want to vaccinate and protect everyone in society, including children.” Now, that is not the conclusion of a sound man of science, as Fauci again insisted he is in the interview, or even a man of common sense and humanity—that is the raving of a madman.Only a demon would propose injecting a child, including babies who cannot yet even walk or talk, with a rushed “vaccine” to allegedly minimize a virus that poses no serious health threat to them. Only a sociopath would dismiss parental fears about not just the medical necessity of the shot for the child but also unknown side effects that their children could suffer in both the near and long term. And only a sadist would continue to promote his own destructive policies that have inflicted incalculable human suffering but done nothing to halt the spread of a virus that is lethal to only a tiny percentage of the population. In a just world, Anthony Fauci would be giving lengthy television interviews clad in an orange jumpsuit from the confines of a federal penitentiary. Aside from his crimes against humanity, especially the tragic toll on senior citizens and young people, Fauci has clearly committed a number of crimes including lying to Congress and the American people in his official capacity and misappropriating federal funds on ghoulish scientific experiments. He violated the Hatch Act by using his government post for political purposes; for example, the weekend before the 2020 election, Fauci told the Washington Post that Joe Biden “is taking [the pandemic] seriously from a public health perspective,” but that Trump was only looking at it from an economic standpoint. Contradicting the president, Fauci warned the country was in for a “world of hurt” with rising COVID-19 cases and that “all the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season.” Fauci has repeatedly and treasonously defended the Chinese Communist Party, something he did yet again in his interview with Brennan. Still peddling the “wet market,” rather than Wuhan laboratory-produced, theory about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, Fauci disputed Brennan's claim that “Beijing acknowledges now that they don't think it originated in that market.” Fauci shot back: “I think you could say we don't know how and where it originated. There were wet markets in Wuhan that are ample opportunity for a virus to jump from an animal that gets brought in from all parts of China that are very closely related physically to bat enclaves in caves and come to the market. So I don't think anyone can say that it didn't come from here or it did come from here.” The vaccines for which Fauci takes credit have been a costly failure. He, along with Joe Biden, misled the American people into believing the vaccines are safe and effective. But caseloads continue to spike despite high vaccination rates; Fauci himself recently admitted the prophylactic effect of the vaccines has waned and boosters are now required to extend what little short-term benefit the first round of injections provided. COVID fatalities this year are slightly ahead of 2020, a metric no one, including Dr. Anthony Fauci himself, publicly predicted. Rather than own up to his disastrous policy and medical advice, Fauci instead is accelerating his messianic impulses. He's unsure, Fauci told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning, whether new lockdowns are needed to prevent the spread of the omicron mutation. “Prepare for the worst,” Fauci warned. Music, undoubtedly, to the ears of Xi Jinping. Ironically, Fauci, who laughed off his own criminal culpability related to the pandemic in Brennan's interview, wants others investigated both for the handling of COVID-19 and the four-hour protest at the Capitol earlier this year. In one sinister exchange with Brennan, Fauci nervously giggled and rhetorically asked Senator Ted Cruz, “What about January 6, senator?” He also wants a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Trump Administration's response to the crisis. The top focus, Madman Fauci noted, should zone in on why “Trump left things up to the states.” Chalk up the U.S. Constitution as another thing Anthony Fauci has no clue about. But perhaps Fauci is on to something. When Republicans take over the House next year, they should immediately form several 9/11-style commissions to investigate numerous scandals stemming from the Trump era; at the top of the list should be a public accounting of Fauci's leading role in the COVID-19 crisis; his misstatements to the public and Congress on the “science”; his relationship with the Chinese Communist Party; his political machinations before the 2020 election; and his ties to pharmaceutical companies and other parties with a financial interest in pushing vaccines. Further, Fauci should testify under oath on what scientific basis he recommended using American children, including babies, as pharmaceutical lab rats. If indeed he is “America's doctor,” as Margaret Brennan so obsequiously claimed, and to which Fauci agreed, then he should be properly investigated for medical malpractice at the very least. A wide-ranging federal probe into what happened during the pandemic? Maybe for once, the madman is right. (NEXT) With Low Vaccination Rates, Africa's Covid Deaths Remain Far below Europe and the US MISES INSTITUTE, 11/23/2021 NOTE: TOTAL POPULATION OF AFRICA 1.3 BILLION, LARGEST NATIONS NIGERIA (206 MILLION), ETHIOPIA (115 MILLION), EGYPT (103 MILLION) Since the very beginning of the covid panic, the narrative has been this: implement severe lockdowns or your population will experience a bloodbath. Morgues will be overwhelmed, the death total toll will be astounding. On the other hand, we were assured those jurisdictions that do lock down would see only a fraction of the death toll. Then, once vaccines became available, the narrative was modified to "Get shots in arms and then covid will stop spreading. Those countries without vaccines, on the other hand, will continue to face mass casualties." The lockdown narrative, of course, has already been thoroughly overturned. Jurisdictions that did not lock down or adopted only weak and short lockdowns ended up with covid death tolls that were either similar to—or even better than—death tolls in countries that adopted draconian lockdowns. Lockdown advocates said locked-down countries would be overwhelmingly better off. These people were clearly wrong. Undaunted by the increasing implausibility of the lockdown narrative, the global health bureaucrats are nonetheless doubling down on forced vaccines—as we now see in Austria—and we continue to be assured that only countries with high vaccination rates can hope to avoid disastrous covid outcomes. Yet, the experience in sub-Saharan Africa calls both these narratives into question: Africa's numbers have been far, far lower than the experts warned would be the case. For example, the AP reported this week that in spite of low vaccination rates, Africa has fared better than most of the world: [T]here is something “mysterious” going on in Africa that is puzzling scientists, said Wafaa El-Sadr, chair of global health at Columbia University. “Africa doesn't have the vaccines and the resources to fight COVID-19 that they have in Europe and the U.S., but somehow they seem to be doing better,” she said…. Fewer than 6% of people in Africa are vaccinated. For months, the WHO has described Africa as “one of the least affected regions in the world” in its weekly pandemic reports. But that "conventional wisdom" flies in the face of the reality of covid in Africa, which is that there have beenfewer deaths. In any case, the World Health Organization reports that covid deaths in Africa make up only 2.9 percent of covid deaths, while Africa's population is 16 percent of the global total. Africa's covid total could double or triple, and Africa would still be faring far better than Europe and the Americas. (NEXT) Excess Deaths Caused by Vaccines (an email letter) As you know, since the summer there has been a 10% excess of deaths in England, largely due to cardiovascular problems and mainly in younger adults and men. Some argue this is due to vaccines directly killing people, as the spike protein (produced in our bodies from the gene added to our cells by the vaccines) is known to damage heart cells, blood vessels, and the normal clotting mechanisms. Others claim it is the spike protein, but blame the spike protein produced by virus infection. I have now looked at the relevant data quite carefully, and the only explanation that fits all the data is as follows: The vaccines have reduced levels and/or duration of virus in individuals (hence also reduce severe covid symptoms) but unfortunately the spike protein produced by the vaccines added on top of the spike protein produced by the virus is having a lethal effect in many people. The net result is that vaccines have merely displaced deaths from being (and being recorded as) frank covid deaths to now being cardiovascular deaths, coincident with an increase in virus prevalence This phenomenon will fade away as the virus fades away after December, as the winter peak of respiratory diseases passes. But everything will be made worse if we roll out mass booster vaccinations. Regards Professor Anthony J Brookes Department of Genetics & Genome Biology University of Leicester (NEXT) Despite Pledge, Biden Leaves Tap Open, Approving Billions in Arms Deals to Saudi Arabia A new MintPress News study based on Dept. of Defense documents can reveal that U.S. weapons manufacturers have sold well in excess of $28.3 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the Yemen War began, including 20 separate deals inked during Biden's presidency. Alan Macleod MINT PRESS NEWS. November 19th, 2021 “The war in Yemen must end,” declared President Joe Biden in his first major foreign policy speech; “and to underscore our commitment, we are ending all American support for offensive [Saudi] operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” Yet studying sales records from the Department of Defense (DoD), MintPress can reveal that less than one year into his presidency, the Biden administration has already approved 20 separate weapons contracts, worth just shy of $1.2 billion, to Saudi Arabia alone. This includes a $100 million shipment of Black Hawk helicopters, support for Apache gunships, and a $78 milliondeal to buy 36 cruise missiles. A new and controversial $650 million deal announced earlier this month has yet to be finalized but will likely soon follow, boosting sales up to levels equal with the earlier years of the Trump presidency. Sorting through thousands of approved contracts, the Department of Defense has approved in excess of $28.4 billion worth of sales from American companies to the armed forces of Saudi Arabia since they began their military intervention in the Yemeni Civil War in March 2015. This includes billions of dollars worth of arms, supplies, logistical support and training services. While this is a gargantuan number (already larger than Yemen's gross domestic product), it is certainly a serious underestimate of just how much the military industrial complex is benefiting from what the United Nations has called the “world's worst humanitarian crisis.” In addition to the $28 billion figure, Saudi Arabia is also a named customer (often along with other nations) in weapons deals worth more than $34 billion over the same period. However, the amounts the Saudis actually paid in these were not disclosed, though in some of these orders Saudi Arabia was clearly the primary buyer. For example, a $3.4 billion DoD-approved radar deal with Raytheon lists only two buyers: Saudi Arabia and the tiny nation of Kuwait (population 4.2 million). Added together, this means that the DoD has greenlighted the sale of somewhere between $28 billion and $63 billion worth of arms from American companies to Saudi Arabia since the latter began its attack on the largely civilian population of Yemen. The biggest profiteer from Yemen's destruction has been aviation giant Boeing, which brought in $13.9 billion in sales over the period. Next comes Lockheed Martin, which has signed 62 separate contracts with the Kingdom since March 2015, worth in excess of $7.4 billion. Third on the list is missile expert Raytheon, which has cashed in on the violence to the tune of $3.3 billion. In total, 86 U.S. companies have profited from sales to Saudi Arabia since its intervention in Yemen, including household names like General Electric, Booz Allen Hamilton and Honeywell. The full list is also available in the accompanying spreadsheet.

HEALTH NEWS    May be worth adopting plant based diet to ease chronic migraine severity, say doctors Stony Brook University and University of Pennsylvania, November 22, 2021   Prescribed meds, elimination diet, yoga and meditation provided no or little symptom relief Boosting dark green leafy veg intake may be key It may be worth adopting a plant based diet, rich in dark green leafy vegetables, to ease the symptoms of chronic migraine, suggest doctors in the online journal BMJ Case Reports. The recommendation comes after they treated a man who had endured severe migraine headaches without aura for more than 12 years.  He had tried prescribed meds (Zolmitriptan and Topiramate); cutting out potential ‘trigger' foods, including chocolate, cheese, nuts, caffeine, and dried fruit; and yoga and meditation in a bid to blunt the severity and frequency of his headaches. Nothing had worked. His headaches were accompanied by sensitivity to light and sound, and nausea and vomiting. On a scale of 0–10, he scored the pain severity as 10–12 out of 10.  The report authors advised the man to adopt the Low Inflammatory Foods Everyday (LIFE) diet, a nutrient dense, whole food, plant-based diet. The LIFE diet includes eating at least five ounces by weight of raw or cooked dark green leafy vegetables every day, drinking one 32-ounce daily green LIFE smoothie, and limiting intake of whole grains, starchy vegetables, oils, and animal protein, particularly dairy and red meat. After 3 months his migraines stopped completely, and they haven't returned in 7.5 years.      Exercising at the start of fast can help people reach ketosis 3.5 hours faster: study Brigham Young University, November 24, 2021       Now a new Brigham Young University study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise finds that exercising intensely at the start of a fast may help maximize health benefits of temporarily foregoing food. Ketosis occurs when the body runs out of glucose—its first, preferred fuel—and begins breaking down stored fat for energy, producing chemicals called ketones as a byproduct. In addition to being a healthy energy source for the brain and heart, ketones combat diseases like diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. For the study, the researchers asked 20 healthy adults to complete two 36-hour fasts while staying hydrated. Each fast began after a standardized meal, the first fast starting without exercise and the other with a challenging treadmill workout.  Exercise made a big difference: when participants exercised, they reached ketosis on average three and a half hours earlier in the fast and produced 43% more BHB. The theory is that the initial exercise burns through a substantial amount of the body's glucose, prompting a quicker transition to ketosis. Without exercise, the participants hit ketosis about 20 to 24 hours into the fast. To calm your emotions, get 15 minutes alone University of Rochester, November 24, 2021 Being by yourself—even for just 15 minutes—may decrease your strong positive and negative emotions, and instead reduce stress and induce calm, a new study suggests. Lead researcher Thuy-vy Nguyen, a doctoral candidate in clinical and social sciences in psychology at the University of Rochester, together with the cofounders of self-determination theory, psychology professors Richard Ryan and Edward Deci, conclude that solitude can lead to relaxation and stress reduction—as long as people actively chose to be alone. In general, solitude, the research finds, has a lessening effect not only on arousing positive emotions but also strong negative emotions, ultimately leaving people calmer, more relaxed, less angry, and less anxious. The researchers define solitude as “a psychological experience of being alone without communications, stimuli, activities, or devices that might facilitate virtual communications such as text messaging or social media.”   Fermented tea could help protect the liver from high-fat diet damage   Tianjin University (China), November 30, 2021   Water extracts of a fermented tea, known as Pu-erh tea, could help to reduce oxidative stress and protect the liver against damage caused by a high fat diet, research in rats has found.   The study, published in Food Science and Human Wellness, investigated the potential of the polyphenol and theabrownin-rich fermented tea to protect the liver after previous studies linked the tea to a raft of health benefits.    “Pu-erh tea can be used as a potential healthy drink for prevention and/or treatment of fatty liver disease and many diseases associated with oxidative stress,” suggested Jing and colleagues.   After the trial, they found that the Pu-erh extract led to decreases in body weight, fat index, MDA and NOS levels. They suggested that these were linked to increases in hepatic T-SOD, CAT and GSH-Px activities. Furthermore, it was found that the extracts increased production of hepatic glycogen and the activity of PK, and reduced glucose levels, thus potentially protecting the liver from the diseases associated with type II diabetes.     Excessive media exposure to traumatic events could harm kids Florida International University, November 20, 2021 FIU scientists investigating the effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters on children's brain development previously found that increased exposure to media coverage of disasters led kids to have post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms regardless of physical proximity. A new follow-up study led by FIU psychologists Anthony Dick and Jonathan Comer confirmed those findings and also showed that individual differences in the response in a key brain region involved in detecting threats—the amygdala—predicted the degree to which viewing storm-related media coverage led children to develop PTS symptoms. "Children are among the most vulnerable individuals during disasters, because they are still developing a sense of security, and have little personal control over their environments," said Anthony Dick, psychology professor and researcher at the Center for Children and Families. "PTS can adversely affect long term health in children, but these findings will help us inform communities and families on how they can better prepare for and respond to disasters in ways that mitigate potential negative long-term mental health effects."   Adults with ADHD four times more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder         University of Toronto, November 20, 2021   A new nationally representative study published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that one in four adults aged 20-39 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Those with ADHD were four times more likely to have GAD at some point in their life, when compared to those without ADHD. Even after controlling for other relevant factors, including sociodemographics, adverse childhood experiences, and a lifetime history of substance use disorders and major depressive disorders, those with ADHD still had more than double the odds of GAD. "These findings underline how vulnerable adults with ADHD are to generalized anxiety disorders," says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, professor at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging. "There are many studies linking adult ADHD to depression and suicidality, but less attention has been paid to generalized activity disorders and other adverse outcomes across the life course."

Yoga improves quality of life in men with new diagnosis of prostate cancer University of Texas at San Antonio, November 23, 2021 An estimated 1.4 million men were diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide in 2020, according to the American Cancer Society and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. With a new diagnosis of prostate cancer, these men have approximately a 30% incidence of depression and anxiety, a fourfold higher risk of heart attack and a twofold higher risk of committing suicide. Yoga, a set of specific body postures combined with breathing techniques and mindfulness, may be an easy-to-implement answer in this stressful situation, according to a study published Nov. 23 in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases. A pilot randomized clinical trial by urology researchers at the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, enrolled 29 men who were awaiting prostatectomy. Fourteen were randomized to participate in yoga and 15 were assigned to the standard of care, which was just waiting for surgery. “We gave the active intervention group six weeks of yoga, at least twice a week, for 60 to 75 minutes,” said lead author Dharam Kaushik, MD, associate professor of urology in UT Health San Antonio's Joe R. and Teresa Lozano School of Medicine and cancer surgeon with the Mays Cancer Center. Via questionnaires, the team documented the men's perceived quality of life at the start of yoga, at the time of surgery and after surgery. Men who did not do yoga completed the same questionnaires at study enrollment and at the other two junctures. The team drew blood samples before the men began yoga and after all sessions were completed. Samples were also taken from men who did not do yoga. Sense of well-being  “What we found was very interesting,” Dr. Kaushik said. “Yoga improved quality of life in men compared to the standard of care, specifically on the fatigue scale, meaning they were less tired; on sexual function; and on their functional, physical and social well-being.” A more robust immune response and lower levels of inflammation were observed in the yoga group, he added. “This is positive data and further large-scale studies are needed, for which this pilot study can be a model,” Dr. Kaushik said. Biomarkers and yoga The primary study outcome was self-reported quality of life assessed by the questionnaires. Changes in immune cell status and inflammatory markers with yoga were secondary outcomes. The yoga group showed increased numbers of circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, which are important contributors to immune health. Among other markers, the yoga group also exhibited a reduction in inflammatory markers called cytokines. The median age of participants was 56 years in the yoga group and 60 years in the standard of care group. Yoga has been studied in breast cancer, but not at the level of detail of this study, matching self-reported quality of life data with markers of immune response and inflammation, Dr. Kaushik said. “If we are able to encourage patients to do a small, inexpensive and easy-to-implement intervention that can have a big impact, then why not?” he said.     Researchers Discover How Antibiotic Power of Garlic Fights Chronic Infections Washington State University, November 28, 2021   Garlic is probably nature's most potent food. It is one of the reasons people who eat the Mediterranean diet live such long healthy lives. An active sulphurous compound found in garlic can be used to fight robust bacteria in patients with chronic infections, a new study from the University of Copenhagen indicates.   A previous finding from Washington State University showed that garlic is 100 times more effective than two popular antibiotics at fighting disease causing bacteria commonly responsible for foodborne illness.  Here the researchers show that the garlic compound is able to destroy important components in the bacteria's communication systems, which involve regulatory RNA molecules. 'We really believe this method can lead to treatment of patients, who otherwise have poor prospects. Because chronic infections like cystic fibrosis can be very robust. But now we, together with a private company, have enough knowledge to further develop the garlic drug and test it on patients', says Assistant Professor Tim Holm Jakobsen from the Costerton Biofilm Center at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology. The study is the latest addition from a research group headed by Professor Michael Givskov, which since 2005 has focussed on garlic's effect on bacteria. At the time they learned that garlic extract is able to inhibit bacteria, and in 2012 they showed that the sulphurous compound ajoene found in garlic is responsible for the effect. The new study, which has been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, takes an even closer look and documents ajoene's ability to inhibit small regulatory RNA molecules in two types of bacteria. 'The two types of bacteria we have studied are very important. They are called Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. They actually belong to two very different bacteria families and are normally fought using different methods. But the garlic compound is able to fight both at once and therefore may prove an effective drug when used together with antibiotics', says Tim Holm Jakobsen. Previous studies have shown that garlic appears to offer the most powerful, naturally occurring resistance to bacteria. In addition to inhibiting the bacteria's RNA molecules, the active garlic compound also damages the protective slimy matrix surrounding the bacteria, the so-called biofilm. When the biofilm is destroyed or weakened, both antibiotics and the body's own immune system are able to attack the bacteria more directly and thus remove the infection. In 2012 the researchers took out a patent on the use of ajoene to fight bacterial infections. Similar patents have been taken out for compounds in allicin -- which gives garlic its aroma and flavour -- and is known as one of the world's most powerful antioxidants.     Calorie restriction cycles could help cancer patients Fondazione Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (Italy), November 22 2021.  Findings from a trial reported on November 17, 2021 in Cancer Discovery revealed that five days of a diet that mimics fasting is safe for people with cancer and could improve factors that affect prognosis. The trial included 101 patients with different cancers treated with standard therapies. Participants were assigned to a five-day low protein, low carbohydrate, plant-based diet that provided up to 600 calories on the first day and up to 300 calories per day during the remaining days. The regimen was repeated every three or four weeks for up to eight cycles. Each period of calorie restriction was followed by a period in which patients were instructed to adhere to healthy diet and lifestyle guidelines. Blood samples were collected before and at the end of each calorie restricted period. Severe adverse events related to the diet were reported by 12.9% of the participants, which was significantly lower than the 20% figure hypothesized by the researchers prior to the study. Median plasma glucose, serum insulin and serum IGF-1 were decreased by 18.6%, 50.7% and 30.3% after each cycle. In an evaluation conducted among a subgroup of participants after the first calorie restricted cycle, a reduction in peripheral blood immunosuppressive cells and an increase of immune cells known as activated CD8+ T cells was observed. To explore the effects of the diet on immunity within cancer patients' tumors, the researchers performed an analysis of findings from an ongoing trial that administered the fasting-mimicking diet prior to tumor removal in breast cancer patients. Tumor microenvironments revealed enhanced tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells and additional favorable immune factors when compared to biopsy samples obtained before the diet was initiated.  “Cyclic fasting-mimicking diet is a safe, feasible and inexpensive dietary intervention that modulates systemic metabolism and boosts antitumor immunity in cancer patients,” the authors concluded.     Morning exposure to deep red light improves declining eyesight University College London, November 24, 2021       Just three minutes of exposure to deep red light once a week, when delivered in the morning, can significantly improve declining eyesight, finds a pioneering new study by UCL researchers. Published in Scientific Reports, the study builds on the team's previous work*, which showed daily three-minute exposure to longwave deep red light ‘switched on' energy producing mitochondria cells in the human retina, helping boost naturally declining vision.   For this latest study, scientists wanted to establish what effect a single three-minute exposure would have, while also using much lower energy levels than their previous studies. Furthermore, building on separate UCL research in flies** that found mitochondria display ‘shifting workloads' depending on the time of day, the team compared morning exposure to afternoon exposure. In summary, researchers found there was, on average, a 17% improvement in participants' colour contrast vision when exposed to three minutes of 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light in the morning and the effects of this single exposure lasted for at least a week. However, when the same test was conducted in the afternoon, no improvement was seen. Scientists say the benefits of deep red light, highlighted by the findings, mark a breakthrough for eye health and should lead to affordable home-based eye therapies, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision. Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology), said: “We demonstrate that one single exposure to long wave deep red light in the morning can significantly improve declining vision, which is a major health and wellbeing issue, affecting millions of people globally. “This simple intervention applied at the population level would significantly impact on quality of life as people age and would likely result in reduced social costs that arise from problems associated with reduced vision.” Naturally declining vision and mitochondria In humans around 40 years old, cells in the eye's retina begin to age, and the pace of this ageing is caused, in part, when the cell's mitochondria, whose role is to produce energy (known as ATP) and boost cell function, also start to decline. Mitochondrial density is greatest in the retina's photoreceptor cells, which have high energy demands. As a result, the retina ages faster than other organs, with a 70% ATP reduction over life, causing a significant decline in photoreceptor function as they lack the energy to perform their normal role. In studying the effects of deep red light in humans, researchers built on their previous findings in mice, bumblebees and fruit flies, which all found significant improvements in the function of the retina's photoreceptors when their eyes were exposed to 670 nanometre (long wavelength) deep red light. “Mitochondria have specific sensitivities to long wavelength light influencing their performance: longer wavelengths spanning 650 to 900nm improve mitochondrial performance to increase energy production,” said Professor Jeffery. Morning and afternoon studies The retina's photoreceptor population is formed of cones, which mediate colour vision, and rods, which adapt vision in low/dim light. This study focused on cones*** and observed colour contrast sensitivity, along the protan axis (measuring red-green contrast) and the tritan axis (blue-yellow). All the participants were aged between 34 and 70, had no ocular disease, completed a questionnaire regarding eye health prior to testing, and had normal colour vision (cone function). This was assessed using a ‘Chroma Test': identifying coloured letters that had very low contrast and appeared increasingly blurred, a process called colour contrast.    Using a provided LED device all 20 participants (13 female and 7 male) were exposed to three minutes of 670nm deep red light in the morning between 8am and 9am. Their colour vision was then tested again three hours post exposure and 10 of the participants were also tested one week post exposure.  On average there was a ‘significant' 17% improvement in colour vision, which lasted a week in tested participants; in some older participants there was a 20% improvement, also lasting a week. A few months on from the first test (ensuring any positive effects of the deep red light had been ‘washed out') six (three female, three male) of the 20 participants, carried out the same test in the afternoon, between 12pm to 1pm.  When participants then had their colour vision tested again, it showed zero improvement. Professor Jeffery said: “Using a simple LED device once a week, recharges the energy system that has declined in the retina cells, rather like re-charging a battery. “And morning exposure is absolutely key to achieving improvements in declining vision: as we have previously seen in flies, mitochondria have shifting work patterns and do not respond in the same way to light in the afternoon – this study confirms this.” For this study the light energy emitted by the LED torch was just 8mW/cm2, rather than 40mW/cm2, which they had previously used. This has the effect of dimming the light but does not affect the wavelength. While both energy levels are perfectly safe for the human eye, reducing the energy further is an additional benefit. Home-based affordable eye therapies With a paucity of affordable deep red-light eye-therapies available, Professor Jeffery has been working for no commercial gain with Planet Lighting UK, a small company in Wales and others, with the aim of producing 670nm infra-red eye ware at an affordable cost, in contrast to some other LED devices designed to improve vision available in the US for over $20,000. “The technology is simple and very safe; the energy delivered by 670nm long wave light is not that much greater than that found in natural environmental light,” Professor Jeffery said. “Given its simplicity, I am confident an easy-to-use device can be made available at an affordable cost to the general public. “In the near future, a once a week three-minute exposure to deep red light could be done while making a coffee, or on the commute listening to a podcast, and such a simple addition could transform eye care and vision around the world.” Study limitations Despite the clarity of the results, researchers say some of the data are “noisy”. While positive effects are clear for individuals following 670nm exposure, the magnitude of improvements can vary markedly between those of similar ages. Therefore, some caution is needed in interpretating the data. It is possible that there are other variables between individuals that influence the degree of improvement that the researchers have not identified so far and would require a larger sample size. This research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and Sight Research UK.   Global rise in red/processed meat trade linked to sharp increase in diet-related illness Michigan State University & University of California at Merced, November 22, 2021   The global rise in the red and processed meat trade over the past 30 years is linked to a sharp increase in diet related ill health, with the impact greatest in Northern and Eastern Europe and the island nations of the Caribbean and Oceania, finds an analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health. Health policies should be integrated with agricultural and trade policies among importing and exporting nations as a matter of urgency, to stave off further personal and societal costs, say the researchers. Among continuous urbanisation and income growth, the global red and processed meat trade has risen exponentially to meet demand. This trend has implications for the environment because of the impact it has on land use and biodiversity loss.  And high red and processed meat consumption is linked to a heightened risk of non-communicable diseases, particularly bowel cancer, diabetes, and coronary artery heart disease. The researchers wanted to find out what impact the red and processed meat trade might be having on diet-related non-communicable disease trends and which countries might be particularly vulnerable.  They drew on data on meat production and trade from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 1993 to 2018 for 154 countries, focusing on 14 red meat items derived from beef, pork, lamb and goat, and six processed primarily beef and pork items, preserved by smoking, salting, curing, or chemicals. They then calculated the proportions of deaths and years of life lived with disability (DALYs) attributable to diet as a result of bowel cancer, type 2 diabetes, and coronary artery heart disease among those aged 25 and over in each country. The global red and processed meat trade increased by more than 148% from 10 metric tonnes in 1993–5 to nearly 25 metric tonnes in 2016–18. While the number of net exporting countries fell from 33 in 1993–5 to 26 in 2016–18, net importing countries rose from 121 to 128.  Developed countries in Europe accounted for half of total red and processed meat exports in 1993–95 and 2016–18.  But developing countries in South America, such as Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay made up nearly 10% in 2016–18, up from around 5% in 1993–5.  Developing countries also increased their meat imports by 342.5% from 2 metric tonnes in 1993–5 to nearly 9 metric tonnes in 2016–18; developed countries doubled theirs from 8 metric tonnes to 16. Diet related attributable death and DALY rates associated with the global meat trade rose in three quarters of the 154 countries between 1993-5 and 2016-18. Worldwide, the researchers calculated that increases in red and processed meat consumption, aligned to increases in trade, accounted for 10,898 attributable deaths in 2016–18, an increase of nearly 75% on the figures for 1993-5.  The global meat trade contributed to increases of 55% and 71%, respectively, in attributable deaths and DALYs in developed countries between 1993-5 and 2016-18.  The equivalent figures in developing countries were significantly higher: 137% and 140%, respectively, largely as a result of increased demand for meat, prompted by rapid urbanisation and income growth, suggest the researchers. Between 1993– 2018, island nations in the Caribbean and Oceania and  countries in Northern and Eastern Europe became particularly vulnerable to diet-related disease and deaths associated with large meat imports.  The island nations have limited land for meat production, so depend heavily on meat imports, while many of the European countries, such as Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia, benefited from regional trade agreements and tariff exemptions after joining the European Union in 2003-4, which accelerated meat imports, explain the researchers. In 1993–5, the top 10 countries with the highest proportion of deaths attributable to red meat consumption included Tonga, United Arab Emirates, Barbados, Fiji, Gabon, Bahamas, Greece, Malta, Brunei and Saint Lucia.  In 2016–2018, the top 10 included The Netherlands, Bahamas, Tonga, Denmark, Antigua and Barbuda, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Croatia and Greece. The meat trade in these countries accounted for more than 7% of all deaths attributable to diets high in both red and processed meat in 2016-18. The trends in attributable DALYs more or less mirrored those for attributable deaths. Attributable death and DALY rates associated with global meat trade fell in 34 countries between 1993–5 and 2016–18. But this was partly due to population growth exceeding increases in meat imports in 24 countries, while domestic meat production increased in 19.  In more than a half of these countries (20) the absolute number of diet-related deaths and DALYs rose in tandem with increased meat consumption between 1993-5 and 2016-18. And some countries, including Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Germany increasingly acted as net meat exporters, changing their land use, with consequent biodiversity loss. This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish cause. And the researchers acknowledge that many countries import and process red meat items for export, which may have skewed their findings. Nevertheless, they conclude: “This study shows that global increases in red and processed meat trade contribute to the abrupt increase of diet-related [non-communicable diseases]... Future interventions need to urgently integrate health policies with agricultural and trade policies by cooperating between responsible exporting and importing countries.”     Glyphosate levels sharply increase by 1,208% within the human body University of California San Diego The environmental dangers of glyphosate in Roundup and other weed killer products have been well documented. Now new research, from a team led by Paul Mills of the University of California San Diego, has found it could be negatively affecting human health – especially in lower-income communities, as illustrated by the 1,208 percent increase in human glyphosate levels. The study tracked people in southern California over age 50 from the years 1993 to 1996 as well as from 2014 to 2016. Urine samples were collected from these persons (periodically) during that time. Number of persons testing positive for glyphosate in their urine went up by 500 percent within 20 years The researchers determined the percentage of persons testing positive for glyphosate went up an alarming 500 percent during that time period.  And, for some, glyphosate levels surged by a frightening 1,208 percent. A past UK trial of rats fed low doses of glyphosate – over their lifetimes – were found to have a higher risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Research out of King's College in London found this toxic herbicide ingredient can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats at just 4 nanograms/kg. By the way, this amount is 437,000 times below levels that are allowed in the United States. In more recent research, the levels of glyphosate in the humans studied were proportionately 100-fold higher. Further research regarding the connection between glyphosate and liver disease are being planned.  But, what we already know has been published in JAMA. Important to note: people who live in rural areas near farms that use Roundup are at the highest risk for exposure.  Yet, traces of this herbicide ingredient – left on fruits and vegetables – can easily make its way into the bloodstream of anyone who consumes these foods. Glyphosate weed killer in Roundup considered “probable carcinogen” by World Health Organization While Roundup was developed to kill weeds, many weed types have actually become resistant to the herbicide. This is causing some farmers to use even more Roundup. Glyphosate has been listed as a “probable human carcinogen” by WHO (the World Health Organization). It has also been linked with birth defects, ADHD and autism. Studies on humans have shown Roundup causes liver damage even when found in “permissible amounts” in tap water. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease currently affects 90 million Americans and is on the verge of becoming a global epidemic. Associated disorders such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome are also soaring. Glyphosate in Roundup weed killer INCREASES the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease While the known causes of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease include overeating, sugary foods and a sedentary lifestyle, some health professionals are beginning to wonder if glyphosate exposure is exacerbating this trend. NAFLD symptoms include chronic fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain and/or swelling, weight loss, jaundice, itching, confusion and swelling of the legs. Untreated, NAFLD can lead to liver cancer and liver failure. Unfortunately, glyphosate residue has been showing up in increasing amounts in our food supply. It has even been detected in wine, table salt and vaccines. So, it really isn't a wonder how glyphosate levels in the human bloodstream have increased by 1,208 percent. If you're outraged by this, take the time to voice your opinion to your state representatives. And, at the very least, eat organic fruits and vegetables – as often as possible to avoid this cancer-causing substance.   Study finds psychedelic microdosing improves mental health University of British Columbia, November 23, 2021 An international study led by UBC Okanagan researchers suggests repeated use of small doses of psychedelics such as psilocybin or LSD can be a valuable tool for those struggling with anxiety and depression. The study, recently published in Nature: Scientific Reports, demonstrated fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and greater feelings of wellbeing among individuals who reported consuming psychedelics in small quantities, or microdosing, compared to those who did not. Microdosing involves regular self-administration of psychedelic substances in amounts small enough to not impair normal cognitive functioning. Considering this is the largest psychedelic microdosing study published to date, the results are encouraging, says UBCO doctoral student and lead author Joseph Rootman. "In total, we followed more than 8,500 people from 75 countries using an anonymous self-reporting system—about half were following a microdosing regimen and half were not," Rootman explains. "In comparing microdosers and non-microdosers, there was a clear association between microdosing and fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress—which is important given the high prevalence of these conditions and the substantial suffering they cause." The study is also the first to systematically examine the practice of stacking, or combining microdoses of psychedelics with other substances like niacin, lions mane mushrooms and cacao, which some believe work in conjunction to maximize benefit. Rootman works with Dr. Zach Walsh, a psychology professor in UBCO's Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dr. Walsh says it's an exciting time for research in this area. "These findings highlight adults who are microdosing to treat their mental health conditions and enhance their wellbeing—rather than simply to get high," says Dr. Walsh. "We have an epidemic of mental health problems, with existing treatments that don't work for everyone. We need to follow the lead of patients who are taking these initiatives to improve their wellbeing and reduce suffering." Study co-author Kalin Harvey is the chief technology officer of Quantified Citizen, a mobile health research platform. He says this study highlights the potential of citizen science. "The use of citizen science allows us to examine the effects of behaviors that are difficult to study in the lab due to regulatory challenges and stigma associated with the now discredited 'war on drugs.'" According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, one in five Canadians personally experience a mental health problem or illness each year. This is one of the many reasons Dr. Walsh says conducting innovative psychological research is imperative. "These cross-sectional findings are promising and highlight the need for further investigation to better determine the impacts of factors like dosage and stacking," explains Dr. Walsh. "While the data is growing to support the use of psychedelics like psilocybin in large doses to treat depression and addiction—our data also helps to expand our understanding of how psychedelics may also help in smaller doses."

Gary's links to articles talked about on show    https://thepulse.one/2021/11/23/130-research-studies-affirming-the-power-of-natural-immunity-to-covid/   https://new.awakeningchannel.com/the-world-is-awakening-global-tyranny-exposed/   https://scivisionpub.com/pdfs/covid19-rna-based-vaccines-and-the-risk-of-prion-disease-1503.pdf   http://www.opensourcetruth.com/disturbing-phrase-died-suddenly-sharply-trends-upward-following-vaccine-rollout/   https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/29/55   https://www.globalresearch.ca/vaccinated-english-adults-under-60-dying-twice-rate-unvaccinated-people-same-age/5762415   https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=244273   https://new.awakeningchannel.com/who-covid-vax-adverse-events-skyrocket/   https://www.americaoutloud.com/covid-19-vaccine-induce-disease-emerges-as-leading-public-health-threat/   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/most-vaxxed-country-in-the-world-cancels-christmas-due-to-huge-covid-spike.html   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/cdc-natural-immunity-superior-to-vaccine-immunity.html   https://www.studyfinds.org/vaccines-salad-growing-plants/   https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11-pfizer-biontech-moderna-profit-analysis.html   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-doctor-touted-ivermectin-covid-treatment-suspended-rcna5588   https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/breaking-exclusive-emory-university-training-ground-chinese-military-scientists-linked-biowarfare-research-funding-dr-fauci/   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/unusual-heart-disease-statistics-and-censorship.html   https://rumble.com/vowvth-the-best-explanation-of-what-we-are-watching-right-now.html   https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635   https://www.worldviewweekend.com/tv/video/pfizer-whistleblower-melissa-mcatee-vaccine-glowing-and-what-happened-when-she-confronted   https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/12/the-washington-post-now-begins-scrubbing-and-deleting-prior-articles-using-the-steele-dossier-to-promote-trump-russia-narrative/#more-220074   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSpEgFkW94   https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-legal-action-happening-have-hope-because-we-going-win/5761298   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/aussie-health-chief-says-people-who-dont-get-vaccinated-will-be-miserable-and-lonely-life   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/florida-no-lockdowns-lowest-covid-case-numbers.html   https://odysee.com/@TimTruth:b/Dr-erik-enby-pfizer-vaccine:0   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/fauci-withheld-successful-treatments-from-aids-patients-killing-thousands.html   https://rumble.com/vp0t0k-dr.-harvey-rischs-presentation-at-the-c19-minisymposium-session-november-7-.html   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/fauci-withheld-successful-treatments-from-aids-patients-killing-thousands.html   https://humansarefree.com/2021/11/huge-italys-suspected-covid-death-tally-corrected-from-132161-to-3783.html   https://www.theblaze.com/news/gain-of-function-fauci-2016?utm_medium=push&utm_source=pushnami  

The Infrastructure and Mission of Facebook's and Big Tech's Bias and Censorship    Ryan Hartwig is one of the early whistleblowers to come forward to reveal Facebook operations to censor voices contrary to centrist, liberal Democrat narratives and the company's culture of systemic bias. His revelations were first made public by Project Veritas last year. Since then he is the founder of The Harwig Foundation for Free Speech and has recently published a book, co-authored with Kent Heckenlively, "Behind the Mask of Facebook:  A Whistleblower's Shocking Story of Big Tech Bias and Censorship," which recounts his time with the international digital solutions firm Cognizant, where he worked as a content moderator on behalf of Facebook to moderate and censor content on its social media.  His efforts have led to a criminal referral to the Department of Justice for Mark Zuckerberg and aided an FEC complaint against Facebook in the John James vs Gary Peters US senate race in Michigan. Ryan holds a degree in Spanish Linguistics from Arizona State University and continues his activism to keep the internet free of censorship.  His website is RyanHartwig.org  

Popular antioxidant linked to pain relief University of Naples (Italy), November 22, 2021 People with pain of unknown causes who took alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) experienced less pain than a placebo group, a double-blind study in  Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy revealed.1 This most recent trial enrolled 210 nondiabetic men and women with mild or moderate joint pain, neuropathic pain or muscle pain of unknown cause. Participants received 800 mg or 400 mg ALA per day or a daily placebo.  The results? People who received ALA had a significant improvement in their pain after two months of intake, while the placebo group didn't report a difference. ALA was similarly effective for all sources of pain considered. It was also shown to be safe and well-tolerated. (NEXT) Mental Qigong can be just as rewarding as its physical cousin In recent decades modern scientific techniques have fully documented the health benefits of the ancient meditation technique of Qigong. One example of physical Qigong is the technique Wu Qin Xi (five animals play), in which participants sequentially move through poses that represent the form of different animals, holding each pose for several minutes. During each phase individuals seek to regulate their breathing and still their minds. Although this is a challenging endeavor the benefits are significant. Effective Qigong practice can reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, decrease blood pressure and increase feelings of relaxation and attention. This raises the question: do the effects of these two types of Qigong manifest themselves the same in the brain, or differently? This is what the University of Mainz, wanted to find out.  (NEXT) Study links stress to Crohn's disease flare-ups McMaster University (Ontario), November 20, 2021 A possible link between psychological stress and Crohn's disease flare-ups has been identified by a McMaster University-led study. Researchers using mouse models found that stress hormones suppressed the innate immune system that normally protects the gut from invasive Enterobacteriaceae, a group of bacteria including E. coli which has been linked to Crohn's disease. (NEXT) Meta-analysis finds benefits for dietary supplements among breast cancer patients Hallym University (South Korea), November 19 2021 A meta-analysis published in Cancers found associations between improved breast cancer prognosis and the intake of multivitamins and other nutrients. The meta-analysis included 63 studies that evaluated the association between dietary factors and breast cancer recurrence, breast cancer mortality and/or mortality from any cause during the studies' follow- up periods among a total of 120,167 breast cancer patients.  (NEXT) Physical activity may improve Alzheimer's disease outcomes by lowering brain inflammation University of California at San Francisco, November 22, 2021 No one will disagree that an active lifestyle is good for you, but it remains unclear how physical activity improves brain health, particularly in Alzheimer's disease. The benefits may come about through decreased immune cell activation, according to new research published in JNeurosci. (NEXT) Aspirin is linked with increased risk of heart failure University of Freiburg (Germany), November 23, 2021 Aspirin use is associated with a 26% raised risk of heart failure in people with at least one predisposing factor for the condition. That's the finding of a study published today in a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). This is the first study to report that among individuals with at least one risk factor for heart failure, those taking aspirin were more likely to subsequently develop the condition than those not using the medication. (OTHER NEWS NEXT) Plant-derived antiviral drug is effective in blocking highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, say scientists University of Nottingham, November 22, 2021 A plant-based antiviral treatment for Covid-19, recently discovered by scientists at the University of Nottingham, has been found to be just as effective at treating all variants of the virus SARS-CoV-2, even the highly infectious Delta variant. The study showed that a novel natural antiviral drug called thapsigargin (TG), recently discovered by the same group of scientists to block other viruses, including the original SARS-CoV-2, was just as effective at treating all of the newer SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the Delta variant. In their previous studies* the team showed that the plant-derived antiviral, at small doses, triggers a highly effective broad-spectrum host-centred antiviral innate immune response against three major types of human respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. “Together, these results point to the antiviral potential of TG as a post-exposure prophylactic and an active therapeutic agent.” (NEXT) In Memory of JFK: The First U.S. President to be Declared a Terrorist and Threat to National Security (entire article is here) By Cynthia Chung, The Saker Blog, November 22, 2021 In April 1954, Kennedy stood up on the Senate floor to challenge the Eisenhower Administration's support for the doomed French imperial war in Vietnam, foreseeing that this would not be a short-lived war.[1] In July 1957, Kennedy once more took a strong stand against French colonialism, this time France's bloody war against Algeria's independence movement, which again found the Eisenhower Administration on the wrong side of history. Rising on the Senate floor, two days before America's own Independence Day, Kennedy declared: “The most powerful single force in the world today is neither communism nor capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided missile – it is man's eternal desire to be free and independent. The great enemy of that tremendous force of freedom is called, for want of a more precise term, imperialism – and today that means Soviet imperialism and, whether we like it or not, and though they are not to be equated, Western imperialism. Thus, the single most important test of American foreign policy today is how we meet the challenge of imperialism, what we do to further man's desire to be free. On this test more than any other, this nation shall be critically judged by the uncommitted millions in Asia and Africa, and anxiously watched by the still hopeful lovers of freedom behind the Iron Curtain. If we fail to meet the challenge of either Soviet or Western imperialism, then no amount of foreign aid, no aggrandizement of armaments, no new pacts or doctrines or high-level conferences can prevent further setbacks to our course and to our security.”[2] In September 1960, the annual United Nations General Assembly was held in New York. Fidel Castro and a fifty-member delegation were among the attendees and had made a splash in the headlines when he decided to stay at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem after the midtown Shelburne Hotel demanded a $20,000 security deposit. He made an even bigger splash in the headlines when he made a speech at this hotel, discussing the issue of equality in the United States while in Harlem, one of the poorest boroughs in the country. Kennedy would visit this very same hotel a short while later, and also made a speech: “Behind the fact of Castro coming to this hotel, [and] Khrushchev…there is another great traveler in the world, and that is the travel of a world revolution, a world in turmoil…We should be glad [that Castro and Khrushchev] came to the United States. We should not fear the twentieth century, for the worldwide revolution which we see all around us is part of the original American Revolution.”[3] What did Kennedy mean by this? The American Revolution was fought for freedom, freedom from the rule of monarchy and imperialism in favour of national sovereignty. What Kennedy was stating, was that this was the very oppression that the rest of the world wished to shake the yoke off, and that the United States had an opportunity to be a leader in the cause for the independence of all nations. On June 30th, 1960, marking the independence of the Republic of Congo from the colonial rule of Belgium, Patrice Lumumba, the first Congolese Prime Minister gave a speech that has become famous for its outspoken criticism of colonialism. Lumumba spoke of his people's struggle against “the humiliating bondage that was forced upon us… [years that were] filled with tears, fire and blood,” and concluded vowing “We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.” Shortly after, Lumumba also made clear, “We want no part of the Cold War… We want Africa to remain African with a policy of neutralism.”[4] As a result, Lumumba was labeled a communist for his refusal to be a Cold War satellite for the western sphere. Rather, Lumumba was part of the Pan-African movement that was led by Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah(who later Kennedy would also work with), which sought national sovereignty and an end to colonialism in Africa. Lumumba “would remain a grave danger,” Dulles said at an NSC meeting on September 21, 1960, “as long as he was not yet disposed of.”[5] Three days later, Dulles made it clear that he wanted Lumumba permanently removed, cabling the CIA's Leopoldville station, “We wish give [sic] every possible support in eliminating Lumumba from any possibility resuming governmental position.”[6] Lumumba was assassinated on Jan. 17th, 1961, just three days before Kennedy's inauguration, during the fog of the transition period between presidents, when the CIA is most free to tie its loose ends, confident that they will not be reprimanded by a new administration that wants to avoid scandal on its first days in office. Kennedy, who clearly meant to put a stop to the Murder Inc. that Dulles had created and was running, would declare to the world in his inaugural address on Jan. 20th, 1961, “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” La Resistance Along with inheriting the responsibility of the welfare of the country and its people, Kennedy was to also inherit a secret war with communist Cuba run by the CIA. The Bay of Pigs set-up would occur three months later. Prouty compares the Bay of Pigs incident to that of the Crusade for Peace; the Bay of Pigs being orchestrated by the CIA, and the Crusade for Peace sabotaged by the CIA, in both cases to ruin the U.S. president's (Eisenhower and Kennedy) ability to form a peaceful dialogue with Khrushchev and decrease Cold War tensions. Both presidents' took onus for the events respectively, despite the responsibility resting with the CIA. However, Eisenhower and Kennedy understood, if they did not take onus, it would be a public declaration that they did not have any control over their government agencies and military. Further, the Bay of Pigs operation was in fact meant to fail. It was meant to stir up a public outcry for a direct military invasion of Cuba. On public record is a meeting (or more aptly described as an intervention) with CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell, Joint Chiefs Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, and Navy Chief Admiral Burke basically trying to strong-arm President Kennedy into approving a direct military attack on Cuba. Admiral Burke had already taken the liberty of positioning two battalions of Marines on Navy destroyers off the coast of Cuba “anticipating that U.S. forces might be ordered into Cuba to salvage a botched invasion.”[7] (This incident is what inspired the Frankenheimer movie “Seven Days in May.”) Kennedy stood his ground. “They were sure I'd give in to them,” Kennedy later told Special Assistant to the President Dave Powers. “They couldn't believe that a new president like me wouldn't panic and try to save his own face. Well they had me figured all wrong.”[8] Incredibly, not only did the young president stand his ground against the Washington war hawks just three months into his presidential term, but he also launched the Cuba Study Group which found the CIA to be responsible for the fiasco, leading to the humiliating forced resignation of Allen Dulles, Richard Bissell and Charles Cabell. (For more on this refer to my report.) Unfortunately, it would not be that easy to dethrone Dulles, who continued to act as head of the CIA, and key members of the intelligence community such as Helms and Angleton regularly bypassed McCone (the new CIA Director) and briefed Dulles directly.[9] But Kennedy was also serious about seeing it through all the way, and vowed to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” * * * There is another rather significant incident that had occurred just days after the Bay of Pigs, and which has largely been overshadowed by the Cuban fiasco in the United States. From April 21-26th, 1961, the Algiers putsch or Generals' putsch, was a failed coup d'état intended to force President de Gaulle (1959-1969) not to abandon the colonial French Algeria. The organisers of the putsch were opposed to the secret negotiations that French Prime Minister Michel Debré had started with the anti-colonial National Liberation Front (FLN). On January 26th, 1961, just three months before the attempted coup d'état, Dulles sent a report to Kennedy on the French situation that seemed to be hinting that de Gaulle would no longer be around, “A pre-revolutionary atmosphere reigns in France… The Army and the Air Force are staunchly opposed to de Gaulle…At least 80 percent of the officers are violently against him. They haven't forgotten that in 1958, he had given his word of honor that he would never abandon Algeria. He is now reneging on his promise, and they hate him for that. de Gaulle surely won't last if he tries to let go of Algeria. Everything will probably be over for him by the end of the year—he will be either deposed or assassinated.”[10] The attempted coup was led by Maurice Challe, whom de Gaulle had reason to conclude was working with the support of U.S. intelligence, and Élysée officials began spreading this word to the press, which reported the CIA as a “reactionary state-within-a-state” that operated outside of Kennedy's control.[11] Shortly before Challe's resignation from the French military, he had served as NATO commander in chief and had developed close relations with a number of high-ranking U.S. officers stationed in the military alliance's Fontainebleau headquarters.[12] In August 1962 the OAS (Secret Army Organization) made an assassination attempt against de Gaulle, believing he had betrayed France by giving up Algeria to Algerian nationalists. This would be the most notorious assassination attempt on de Gaulle (who would remarkably survive over thirty assassination attempts while President of France) when a dozen OAS snipers opened fire on the president's car, which managed to escape the ambush despite all four tires being shot out. After the failed coup d'état, de Gaulle launched a purge of his security forces and ousted General Paul Grossin, the chief of SDECE (the French secret service). Grossin was closely aligned with the CIA, and had told Frank Wisner over lunch that the return of de Gaulle to power was equivalent to the Communists taking over in Paris.[13] In 1967, after a five-year enquête by the French Intelligence Bureau, it released its findings concerning the 1962 assassination attempt on de Gaulle. The report found that the 1962 assassination plot could be traced back to the NATO Brussels headquarters, and the remnants of the old Nazi intelligence apparatus. The report also found that Permindex had transferred $200,000 into an OAS bank account to finance the project. As a result of the de Gaulle exposé, Permindex was forced to shut down its public operations in Western Europe and relocated its headquarters from Bern, Switzerland to Johannesburg, South Africa, it also had/has a base in Montreal, Canada where its founder Maj. Gen. Louis M. Bloomfield (former OSS) proudly had his name amongst its board members until the damning de Gaulle report. The relevance of this to Kennedy will be discussed shortly. As a result of the SDECE's ongoing investigation, de Gaulle made a vehement denunciation of the Anglo-American violation of the Atlantic Charter, followed by France's withdrawal from the NATO military command in 1966. France would not return to NATO until April 2009 at the Strasbourg-Kehl Summit. In addition to all of this, on Jan. 14th, 1963, de Gaulle declared at a press conference that he had vetoed British entry into the Common Market. This would be the first move towards France and West Germany's formation of the European Monetary System, which excluded Great Britain, likely due to its imperialist tendencies and its infamous sin City of London. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson telegrammed West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer directly, appealing to him to try to persuade de Gaulle to back track on the veto, stating “if anyone can affect Gen. de Gaulle's decision, you are surely that person.” Little did Acheson know that Adenauer was just days away from signing the Franco-German Treaty of Jan 22nd, 1963 (also known as the ÉlyséeTreaty), which had enormous implications. Franco-German relations, which had long been dominated by centuries of rivalry, had now agreed that their fates were aligned. (This close relationship was continued to a climactic point in the late 1970s, with the formation of the European Monetary System, and France and West Germany's willingness in 1977 to work with OPEC countries trading oil for nuclear technology, which was sabotaged by the U.S.-Britain alliance. The Élysée Treaty was a clear denunciation of the Anglo-American forceful overseeing that had overtaken Western Europe since the end of WWII. On June 28th, 1961, Kennedy wrote NSAM #55. This document changed the responsibility of defense during the Cold War from the CIA to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and would have (if seen through) drastically changed the course of the war in Vietnam. It would also have effectively removed the CIA from Cold War military operations and limited the CIA to its sole lawful responsibility, the collecting and coordination of intelligence. By Oct 11th, 1963, NSAM #263, closely overseen by Kennedy[14], was released and outlined a policy decision “to withdraw 1,000 military personnel [from Vietnam] by the end of 1963” and further stated that “It should be possible to withdraw the bulk of U.S. personnel by 1965.” The Armed Forces newspaper Stars and Stripes had the headline U.S. TROOPS SEEN OUT OF VIET BY '65. It would be the final nail in the coffin. Treason in America “Treason doth never prosper; what is the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” – Sir John Harrington By Germany supporting de Gaulle's exposure of the international assassination ring, his adamant opposition to western imperialism and the role of NATO, and with a young Kennedy building his own resistance against the imperialist war of Vietnam, it was clear that the power elite were in big trouble. On November 22nd, 1963 President Kennedy was brutally murdered in the streets of Dallas, Texas in broad daylight. With the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, likely ordained by the CIA, on Nov. 2nd, 1963 and Kennedy just a few weeks later, de facto President Johnson signed NSAM #273 on Nov. 26th, 1963 to begin the reversal of Kennedy's policy under #263. And on March 17th, 1964, Johnson signed NSAM #288 that marked the full escalation of the Vietnam War and involved 2,709,918 Americans directly serving in Vietnam, with 9,087,000 serving with the U.S. Armed Forces during this period. The Vietnam War would continue for another 12 years after Kennedy's death, lasting a total of 20 years for Americans, and 30 years if you count American covert action in Vietnam. Two days before Kennedy's assassination, a hate-Kennedy handbill was circulated in Dallas accusing the president of treasonous activities including being a communist sympathizer. On November 29th, 1963 the Warren Commission was set up to investigate the murder of President Kennedy. The old Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana was a member of that Warren Commission. Boggs became increasingly disturbed by the lack of transparency and rigour exhibited by the Commission and became convinced that many of the documents used to incriminate Oswald were in fact forgeries. In 1965 Rep. Boggs told New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison that Oswald could not have been the one who killed Kennedy.[15] It was Boggs who encouraged Garrison to begin the only law enforcement prosecution of the President's murder to this day. Nixon was inaugurated as President of the United States on Jan 20th, 1969. Hale Boggs soon after called on Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell to have the courage to fire J. Edgar Hoover.[16] It wasn't long thereafter that the private airplane carrying Hale Boggs disappeared without a trace. Jim Garrison was the District Attorney of New Orleans from 1962 to 1973 and was the only one to bring forth a trial concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. In Jim Garrison's book “On the Trail of the Assassins”, J. Edgar Hoover comes up several times impeding or shutting down investigations into JFK's murder, in particular concerning the evidence collected by the Dallas Police Department, such as the nitrate test Oswald was given and which exonerated him, proving that he never shot a rifle the day of Nov 22nd, 1963. However, for reasons only known to the government and its investigators this fact was kept secret for 10 months.[17]It was finally revealed in the Warren Commission report, which inexplicably didn't change their opinion that Oswald had shot Kennedy. Another particularly damning incident was concerning the Zapruder film that was in the possession of the FBI and which they had sent a “copy” to the Warren Commission for their investigation. This film was one of the leading pieces of evidence used to support the “magic bullet theory” and showcase the direction of the headshot coming from behind, thus verifying that Oswald's location was adequate for such a shot. During Garrison's trial on the Kennedy assassination (1967-1969) he subpoenaed the Zapruder film that for some peculiar reason had been locked up in some vault owned by Life magazine (the reader should note that Henry Luce the owner of Life magazine was in a very close relationship with the CIA). This was the first time in more than five years that the Zapruder film was made public. It turns out the FBI's copy that was sent to the Warren Commission had two critical frames reversed to create a false impression that the rifle shot was from behind. When Garrison got a hold of the original film it was discovered that the head shot had actually come from the front. In fact, what the whole film showed was that the President had been shot from multiple angles meaning there was more than one gunman. When the FBI was questioned about how these two critical frames could have been reversed, they answered self-satisfactorily that it must have been a technical glitch… There is also the matter of the original autopsy papers being destroyed by the chief autopsy physician, James Humes, to which he even testified to during the Warren Commission, apparently nobody bothered to ask why… This would explain why the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), reported in a July 1998 staff report their concern for the number of shortcomings in the original autopsy, that “One of the many tragedies of the assassination of President Kennedy has been the incompleteness of the autopsy record and the suspicion caused by the shroud of secrecy that has surrounded the records that do exist.” [emphasis added] The staff report for the Assassinations Records Review Board contended that brain photographs in the Kennedy records are not of Kennedy's brain and show much less damage than Kennedy sustained. There is a lot of spurious effort to try to ridicule anyone who challenges the Warren Commission's official report as nothing but fringe conspiracy theory. And that we should not find it highly suspect that Allen Dulles, of all people, was a member and pretty much leader of said commission. The reader should keep in mind that much of this frothing opposition stems from the very agency that perpetrated crime after crime on the American people, as well as abroad. When has the CIA ever admitted guilt, unless caught red-handed? Even after the Church committee hearings, when the CIA was found guilty of planning out foreign assassinations, they claimed that they had failed in every single plot or that someone had beaten them to the punch, including in the case of Lumumba. The American people need to realise that the CIA is not a respectable agency; we are not dealing with honorable men. It is a rogue force that believes that the ends justify the means, that they are the hands of the king so to speak, above government and above law. Those at the top such as Allen Dulles were just as adamant as Churchill about protecting the interests of the power elite, or as Churchill termed it, the “High Cabal.” Interestingly, on Dec. 22nd, 1963, just one month after Kennedy's assassination, Harry Truman published a scathing critique of the CIA in The Washington Post, even going so far as to state “There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position [as a] free and open society, and I feel that we need to correct it.”[18] The timing of such a scathing quote cannot be stressed enough. Dulles, of course, told the public not to be distressed, that Truman was just in entering his twilight years. In addition, Jim Garrison, New Orleans District Attorney at the time, who was charging Clay Shaw as a member of the conspiracy to kill Kennedy, besides uncovering his ties to David Ferrie who was found dead in his apartment days before he was scheduled to testify, also made a case that the New Orleans International Trade Mart (to which Clay Shaw was director), the U.S. subsidiary of Permindex, was linked to Kennedy's murder. Col. Clay Shaw was an OSS officer during WWII, which provides a direct link to his knowing Allen Dulles. Garrison did a remarkable job with the odds he was up against, and for the number of witnesses that turned up dead before the trial… This Permindex link would not look so damning if we did not have the French intelligence SDECE report, but we do. And recall, in that report Permindex was caught transferring $200,000 directly to the bankroll of the OAS which attempted the 1962 assassination on de Gaulle. Thus, Permindex's implication in an international assassination ring is not up for debate. In addition, the CIA was found heavily involved in these assassination attempts against de Gaulle, thus we should not simply dismiss the possibility that Permindex was indeed a CIA front for an international hit crew. In fact, among the strange and murderous characters who converged on Dallas in Nov. 1963 was a notorious French OAS commando named Jean Souetre, who was connected to the plots against President de Gaulle. Souetre was arrested in Dallas after the Kennedy assassination and expelled to Mexico, not even kept for questioning.[19] What Does the Future Hold? After returning from Kennedy's Nov. 24th funeral in Washington, de Gaulle and his information minister Alain Peyrefitte had a candid discussion that was recorded in Peyrefitte's memoire “C'était de Gaulle,” the great General was quoted saying: “What happened to Kennedy is what nearly happened to me… His story is the same as mine. … It looks like a cowboy story, but it's only an OAS [Secret Army Organization] story. The security forces were in cahoots with the extremists. …Security forces are all the same when they do this kind of dirty work. As soon as they succeed in wiping out the false assassin, they declare the justice system no longer need be concerned, that no further public action was needed now that the guilty perpetrator was dead. Better to assassinate an innocent man than to let a civil war break out. Better an injustice than disorder. America is in danger of upheavals. But you'll see. All of them together will observe the law of silence. They will close ranks. They'll do everything to stifle any scandal. They will throw Noah's cloak over these shameful deeds. In order to not lose face in front of the whole world. In order to not risk unleashing riots in the United States. In order to preserve the union and to avoid a new civil war. In order to not ask themselves questions. They don't want to know. They don't want to find out. They won't allow themselves to find out.” The American people would do well to remember that it was first John F. Kennedy, acting as the President to the United States, who was to be declared a terrorist and threat to his country's national security. Thus is it not natural that those who continue to defend the legacy of Kennedy should be regarded today as threat, not truly to the nation's security, but a threat to the very same grouping responsible for Kennedy's death and whom today have now declared open war on the American people. This will be the greatest test the American people have ever been confronted with, and it will only be through an understanding of how the country came to where it is today that there can be sufficient clarity as to what the solutions are, which are not to be found in another civil war. To not fall for the trapping of further chaos and division, the American people will only be able to rise above this if they choose to ask those questions, if they choose to want to know, to want to find out the truth of things they dared not look at in the past for fear of what it would reveal. “Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and the trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, the wrong the right. In a country where opinion has sway, to seize upon it, is to seize upon power. As it is a rule of humanity that the upright and well-intentioned are comparatively passive, while the designing, dishonest, and selfish are the most untiring in their efforts, the danger of public opinion's getting a false direction is four-fold, since few men think for themselves.” -James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851( We must dare to be among the few who think for ourselves. (NEXT) VAERS Data Reveals 50 X More Ectopic Pregnancies Following COVID Shots than Following ALL Vaccines for Past 30 Year Health Impact News, November 22, 2021 While the latest data dump into the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) showed 2,620 fetal deaths, which are more fetal deaths than are reported following ALL vaccines for the past 30 years in VAERS, one “symptom” that is tracked in VAERS that it did not account for is an ectopic pregnancy which also results in a fetal death. Ectopic pregnancy, also called extrauterine pregnancy, is when a fertilized egg grows outside a woman's uterus, somewhere else in their belly. It can cause life-threatening bleeding and needs medical care right away. I performed a search in VAERS for ectopic pregnancies following COVID-19 shots for the past 11 months, and there have been 52 cases where a woman received a COVID-19 shot and then was found to have an ectopic pregnancy. Next, I performed the exact same search but excluded COVID-19 “vaccines” and it returned a result of 30 cases where a woman received an FDA-approved vaccine and then reported an ectopic pregnancy following ALL vaccines for the past 30+ years, which is about 1 per year. That means that following COVID-19 injections into child-bearing women for the past 11 months has seen a 50 X increase in ectopic pregnancies compared to child-bearing women receiving vaccines for the past 30+ years. (NEXT) Massive study reveals editorial bias and nepotism in biomedical journals University of Rennes, November 23, 2021 Scientific journals are expected to consider research manuscripts dispassionately and without favor. But a study published in the journal PLOS Biology reveals that a subset of journals may be exercising considerable bias and favoritism. To identify journals that are suspected of favoritism, the authors explored nearly 5 million articles published between 2015 and 2019 in a sample of 5,468 of biomedical journals indexed in the National Library of Medicine. Their results reveal that in most journals, publications are distributed across a large number of authors, as one might hope. However, the authors identify a subset of biomedical journals where a few authors, often members of that journal's editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications. In addition, the articles authored by these “hyper-prolific” individuals were more likely to be accepted for publication within 3 weeks of their submission, suggesting favoritism in journals' editorial procedures. Why would this matter? Such “nepotistic journals,” suspected of biased editorial decision-making, could be deployed to game productivity-based metrics, which could have a serious knock-on effect on decisions about promotion, tenure and research funding. (NEXT) Hurricanes expected to linger over Northeast cities, causing greater damage More storms like Hurricane Sandy could be in the East Coast's future, potentially costing billions of dollars in damage and economic losses. Rowan University, November 22, 2021 By the late 21st century, northeastern U.S. cities will see worsening hurricane outcomes, with storms arriving more quickly but slowing down once they've made landfall. As storms linger longer over the East Coast, they will cause greater damage along the heavily populated corridor, according to a new study. The new study analyzed more than 35,000 computer-simulated storms. To assess likely storm outcomes in the future The researchers found that future East Coast hurricanes will likely cause greater damage than storms of the past. The research predicted that a greater number of future hurricanes will form near the East Coast, and those storms will reach the Northeast corridor more quickly. The simulated storms slow to a crawl as they approach the East Coast, allowing them to produce more wind, rain, floods, and related damage in the Northeast region. The longest-lived tropical storms are predicted to be twice as long as storms today.